Playing It Straight: Uncovering Gender Discourse in the Early Childhood Classroom

Playing It Straightis based on a unique qualitative study which explores how gender is created, taken up, and performed in an urban kindergarten classroom. Both feminist poststructuralism and queer theory are used to encourage new understandings of children's talk and actions within the social context of an early childhood classroom. Gender discourses are discussed, providing students and teachers with examples of how the heterosexual matrix works in a classroom setting and with young children. Three engaging case studies of an Anglo American, middle-class boy, an Anglo American working-class girl, and an Asian American, working-class girl are presented showing how children use their understanding of gender discourses in various ways to regulate the gender social order of the classroom.Playing It Straightshows how post developmental perspectives can challenge teachers and students to reconceptualize gender as a social, historical, cultural, and political construction, and to recognize thatyoung children take an active part of constructing and reconstructing their gender identities. Playing ItStraight, >frames both local and global contexts for the study of childhood and gender >provides in-depth case studies in an accessible and engaging manner >defines important new ways of looking at classroom life, 'doing gender,' and the social construction of lives in classrooms >uses an interdisciplinary approach that provides students and teachers a unique glimpse into the complexities of classroom life and shows the multiple ways children become gendered

Mindy Blaise is Assistant Professor at RMIT University, Australia