Welche Rolle spielt Geschlecht im Kindergarten?

Abstract

Although socialization depends on a variety of living conditions, learning gender is an important developmental task for children. A dominant instance of socialization (besides the family), which is of crucial importance for the development of ideas about gender, is kindergartens and the (educational) staff working there. In the context of daily routine in kindergartens, gender can be dramatized or de-thematized in different ways. Based on a multi-method design consisting of observation, photographic analysis, and group discussion, the extent to which gender is relevant in everyday pedagogical practice was investigated in two rural kindergartens. The analysis shows that child behavior is characterized by doing gender in different spheres, while the postulate of gender equality is valid for the everyday actions of (educational) professionals.

Keywords: kindergarten, social gender, doing gender, undoing gender, socialization