Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/supporting-gender-expansive-children-and-families-in-the-preschool-classroom/5024644/
As a mental health consultant working in preschool settings in the Northwest, I have seen how gender plays a strong role in early childhood education and recognized pitfalls in the early childhood education community. We often use gendered language, “boys and girls” or “mommy and daddy” and refer to toys and characters more frequently as “he.” We group or categorize children based on gender, “boys line up please,” we often praise children differently or for different attributes based on stereotypes—What a pretty dress!—and we respond to children’s behaviors differently, for example labeling boys as “active” and girls as “dramatic.” Additionally, assumptions are routinely made about a child’s behaviors (both negative and positive) because of their gender, instead of seeing the child for the individual that they are.
Research has also shown gender discrepancies in early childhood education settings. A 2016 report from the Center for American Progress reported that boys accounted for 82 percent of preschool expulsions. We also know transgender and gender nonconforming youth are at greater risk for adverse mental and physical health outcomes.
Because of these alarming realities I began to challenge myself and my colleagues to think about gender from a new lens, one that departs from ...