Flere end to slags børn: En rapport om køn og ligestilling i børnehaven.

The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which stereotypical gender roles dominate
Danish kindergartens and how they are manifested in the interactions between children and kindergarten teachers. The study focuses on three analytical perspectives:
1) the kindergarten as an institutional frame for 'negotiation of gender’; 2) production and reproduction of culture for children, and children's culture as the framework for children's own narratives and self-constructions; 3) specific child-to-child and child-to-adult interactions.

The researchers demonstrate how specific definitions of gender facilitate or prevent the child's access to specific identities, activities and opportunities for learning. The institutional logic concerns being inclusive and collective as well as to avoid chaos and it simultaneously supports and restricts the children’s opportunity to be boys or girls in different ways. The children reproduce cultural stereotypes, but the study also describes how the children transgress these stereotypes with different consequences. The researchers challenge the cultural norm by using four metaphors for the staff’s approaches to gender in the kindergartens; namely the inclusion inspector, camouflage captain, mother-of-pearl and diversity detective. The dissertation recommends a reassessment of work on teaching framework for kindergarten children with a view to reflecting on opportunities to support activities, identities and communities for all types of ‘girlishness’ and ‘boyishness’.

The design of the study is ethnographic. It covers three kindergartens with 62, 44 and 66 children, respectively. Several methods are used for data collection: Field observations are recorded in notebooks, and one-to-one interviews with children and staff are carried out at the three kindergartens.

Kofoed, J.; Olesen, J.; Aggerholm, K. (2008). Flere end to slags børn: En rapport om køn og ligestilling i børnehaven. København: Learning Lab Denmark, Danmarks Pædagogiske Universitetsskole, Aarhus Universitet.