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How does Gendering Matter in Preschool Science: Emergent Science, ‘Neutral’ Environments and Gendering Processes in Preschool
Department of Education, Uppsala University.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-5417-7432
Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för pedagogik, didaktik och utbildningsstudier.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-3407-9007
Uppsala universitet, Centrum för genusvetenskap.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-1333-0004
2020 (English)In: Gender and Education, ISSN 0954-0253, E-ISSN 1360-0516, Vol. 32, no 5, p. 608-625Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

his article explores gendered processes in preschool science through Barad’s agential realism [2007. Meeting the Universe Halfway. Quantum Physics of the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. London: Duke Universal Press], and as such, the study makes both theoretical and empirical contributions in how it combines perspectives from emergent science [Siraj-Blatchford, J. 2001. Emergent Science and Technology in the Early Years.” Paper presented at the XXIII World Congress of OMEP. Santiago, Chile, August 3], new materialism, and gender theory. Empirically, the study makes use of data constructed during a field study in a Swedish preschool with five-year-old children. The focus of the field study was the children’s play and explorations together with the preschool environment, during activities not specifically guided by teachers. The analysis highlights how the children’s identities and scientific explorations are made possible as well as constrained together with the preschool’s material-discursive environment. As such, the study demonstrates how teachers cannot rely on any environment, activity, choice or subject content to be (gender) neutral.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2020. Vol. 32, no 5, p. 608-625
Keywords [en]
emergent science and technology; gender; preschool environment; material-discursive; knowing-in-being
National Category
Didactics
Research subject
Curriculum Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-44630DOI: 10.1080/09540253.2019.1632809ISI: 000474119100001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85068234535OAI: oai:DiVA.org:sh-44630DiVA, id: diva2:1539741
Available from: 2021-03-25 Created: 2021-03-25 Last updated: 2021-11-05Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Barn, naturvetenskap och könande processer i förskolan
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Barn, naturvetenskap och könande processer i förskolan
2020 (Swedish)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Alternative title[en]
Emergent science and gendering processes in preschool
Abstract [en]

The aim of this thesis is to explore how scientific phenomena, together with other agents (human and nonhuman) in preschool, participate in and co-create gendering processes as well as children’s emergent scientific explorations. These are seen as mutual processes emerging in the daily doings and routines in preschool. As a theoretical and methodological foundation, a new materialist perspective drawing on Karen Barad’s (2007) theory of agential realism and diffractive methodology were used, as well as de Freitas and Palmer’s (2016) notion concerning how scientific concepts can work as creative playmates in children’s explorations. The thesis includes four papers that build on data conducted during a field study in a Swedish preschool, together with 25 five year-old children and three teachers. Participant observations, including video recordings and field notes were made over a period of 5 months. The results show that, if and how children get to engage with emergent science is linked to if and how they manage to occupy space and co-act with different materials. As the children were co-acting with different materials, scientific phenomena could make themselves known and intelligible to the children. This means that becoming scientific is something that is enabled in entanglements. One important result connected to this is that these entanglements can include ways and agents not commonly thought of as “scientific”, such as a drawing table, hearts, and feminine discourses. Another result is that even though girls and boys explore together within the same activity, this does not automatically lead to a situation that is more equal. From these results I discuss how children’s emergent scientific explorations are always part of larger, gendered processes. I also discuss the importance to highlight how science in preschool can be “done” in various ways. Otherwise there is a risk that the false picture could be created that some children, already at preschool age, are more “suitable” for science, while others are created as “less suitable”, just as can occur in school and higher education. Furthermore, during the discussion I show how scientific phenomena can work as tools for teachers to approach gendering processes together with.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 2020. p. 173
Keywords
children’s explorations, emergent science, gendering, new materialism, preschool education, scientific phenomena as playmates, begynnande naturvetenskap, förskola, könande processer, naturvetenskapliga fenomen som lekkamrater, nymaterialism
National Category
Didactics
Research subject
Curriculum Studies
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-44623 (URN)978-91-513-0977-4 (ISBN)
Public defence
2020-09-11, Gunnar Johansson (14:K120), Blåsenhus, von Kraemers Allé 1, 13:15 (Swedish)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2021-03-26 Created: 2021-03-25 Last updated: 2021-06-08Bibliographically approved

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Günther-Hanssen, AnnaDanielsson, AnnaAnderssson, Kristina

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