Young Children’s Perspectives on Teacher Gender: Contextualizing Gender Stereotypes and Inclusive Practices in Early Childhood Education and Care

This book draws on ethnographic studies in nine countries across six continents to examine young children’s perspectives on their male and female teachers.

Contributors from China, Brazil, Australia, South Africa, Israel, Turkey, Norway, the UK, and the USA present case studies based on early childhood education sites where both men and women work. Using the Mosaic approach, the book uses data collected through various methodologies, along with extensive observations and interviews with setting directors, teachers, and parents. The chapters highlight the children’s perspectives on their caregivers and teachers within their sociocultural contexts. The authors also consider macro-level cultural contexts to enhance the micropicture from the children’s evidence and demonstrate how children’s perspectives are influenced by various ecologies and cultural contexts, with intersectionality such as tradition, race, and religion playing important roles. The book ends with a cross-country analysis and recommendations for gender-sensitive pedagogies that consider local cultural gender sensibilities.

This groundbreaking book will appeal to scholars and researchers in early childhood education, gender and sexuality in education, and diversity and equity in education.

David Brody is Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education at Oranim College of Education, Israel.

Yuwei Xu is Associate Professor in Early Childhood Education at the University of Nottingham, UK.

Kari Emilsen is Professor of Early Childhood Education at Queen Maud University College (QMUC), Norway.

Laetitia Coles is Post-doctoral Research Fellow in the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) at The University of Queensland, Australia.