Drawing on new materialist thought (Barad, 2003, 2007, 2014) this study explores preschool children’s scientific explorations and gendered becomings together with different places in the preschool environment. Although preschool science has received a lot of attention in many countries (see for example Cremin et. al, 2015) and perspectives viewing science as social practices have been frequently used, there are still few studies focusing on gender. The study takes its point of departure in emergent science (Siraj-Blatchford, 2001) which refers to science as a social practice, already being explored by children daily during play. Data for the project was constructed during a field study in a Swedish preschool with 25 five-year old children for a period of five months. For the analysis, Barads (2007) diffractive methodology and diffractive readings were used. Scientific phenomena are in the study seen as creative playmates in children’s explorations (de Freitas & Palmer, 2016), as something the children learn and become together with. The early findings show how (outdoor) places and (natural) materials in the preschool, together with different scientific phenomena, co-created the children’s gendered becomings in some situations as well as took part in increasing their body-mind potential and way of becoming in other. For example, when a group of children were exploring friction and gravity together with a large boulder the girls’ doings got created as “less important” in relation with some of the boys’. In another situation a girl increased both her body’s capacity and way of becoming together with a swing, gravity and kinetic energy. Together with these she could jump higher and longer than from the ground. The findings go against the common thought of children’s play outdoors as “free and equal”, a notion that is not often questioned. The results of the study are of relevance for Nordic Educational research since preschool children in the Nordic countries daily spend time outside in the preschool yard or in nature and since learning (science) through play is an important point of departure in the Nordic countries.

References:Barad, K. (2003). Posthumanist Performativity: Toward an Understanding of How Matter Comes to Matter. Signs, 28(3), 801-831.

Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway. Quantum physics of the entanglement of matter and meaning. London: Duke Universal Press.

Barad, K. (2014). Diffracting Diffraction: Cutting Together-Apart. Parallax, 20(3), 168-187. doi:10.1080/13534645.2014.927623

Cremin, T., Glauert, E., Craft, A., Compton, A., & Stylianidou, F. (2015). Creative Little Scientists: exploring pedagogical synergies between inquiry-based and creative approaches in Early Years science. Education 3-13, 43(4), 404-419. doi:10.1080/03004279.2015.1020655

de Freitas, E., & Palmer, A. (2016). How scientific concepts come to matter in early childhood curriculum: rethinking the concept of force. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 1-22. doi:10.1007/s11422-014-9652-6

Siraj-Blatchford, J. (2001). Emergent science and technology in the early years. Paper presented at the XXIII World Congress of OMEP. Retrieved from www.327matters.org/Docs/omepabs.pdf, Santiago, Chile.