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Begynnande naturvetenskap och könade kroppar i förskolans utelek: Emergent Science and gendered Bodies in Preschool Outdoor play
Uppsala universitet, Humanistisk-samhällsvetenskapliga vetenskapsområdet, Fakulteten för utbildningsvetenskaper, Institutionen för pedagogik, didaktik och utbildningsstudier.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-5417-7432
2018 (Swedish)In: Tidskrift för Genusvetenskap, ISSN 1654-5443, E-ISSN 2001-1377, Vol. 39, no 4, p. 8-30Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Drawing on new materialist thought (Barad 2003, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2014), this study explores preschool children’s gendered becomings as they play and explore together with two large boulders in a natural setting. The study takes its point of departure in emergent science (Siraj-Blatchford 2001) which refers to science as a social practice that is already explored by children’s daily play. Data for the project was constructed during a field study in a Swedish preschool with 25 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 findings show how also natural materials, as the boulders in this study, can take part in and shape, both the children’s scientific explorations and their gendered becomings. This means that the ways that a child managed to explore and become was dependent on if and how the child managed to co-act and play together with the boulders and friction. However, not only the boulders, but also gender norms functioned as co-creators in this process. This goes against the common thought of children’s play in nature as “free and equal”, a notion that is not often questioned. Studies exploring children’s play and learning outdoors often lack gender perspectives, especially when science is also in focus. One of the article’s conclusions is the need for preschool teachers to engage in how children explore emergent science together with the natural/ material-discursive surroundings. That is, how different natural materials co-act with gender norms in different ways, moment by moment, and thus enable or prevent children from engaging with science and scientific phenomena.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2018. Vol. 39, no 4, p. 8-30
Keywords [sv]
Begynnande naturvetenskap, kön, genus, förskola, Karen Barad, naturliga
National Category
Didactics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-44624OAI: oai:DiVA.org:sh-44624DiVA, id: diva2:1539744
Available from: 2021-03-25 Created: 2021-03-25 Last updated: 2022-11-03Bibliographically 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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