Familiar play: age-coded heteronormativity in Swedish early childhood education

The study investigates how norms and metaphors related to sexuality, gender and age are (re)produced and (re)negotiated in children’s group play. The researchers focus on how heteronormativity is (re)produced in idealised, often femininely coded, mother-father-child play. The purpose is to gain a better understanding of how children deal with gender and sexuality in everyday kindergarten life.

The results show that the children’s mother-father-child play is structured around specific topics, such as family and home, and specific gender and/or age coded positions, such as mother, father or child. Age difference (child/adult) is the most important heteronormative family metaphor in the play, where the child position is key. The researchers believe the findings show that the heteronormative discourse dominates the children’s role play. This is evident in the children’s negotiations during play, where having two mothers or two fathers is not an option. In conversations with the researchers, the children show that they have knowledge about alternative family constellations and same-sex parenting, and the staff admit that they should encourage the children to play in less heteronormative ways. The researchers emphasise that knowledge is therefore not enough to change the repetition of the normative play. They encourage the kindergarten staff to be observant of the children’s positioning in play and present other and varied ways to play families.

Through participatory observation, the researcher followed children at a department for 3 to 6-years-olds in a Swedish kindergarten for a whole year. The sample consisted of 24 children from the department (12 girls and 12 boys) and four employees. The empirical data consists of field notes taken during or immediately after the observations, informal conversations with children and staff, and semi-structured interviews with three of the kindergarten teachers from the department.

Sotevik, L., Hammarén, N. & Hellman, A. (2019). “Familiar play: age-coded heteronormativity in Swedish early childhood education”. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 27(4):520-533.