Beyond the Binary- Evaluating early childhood educators' beliefs on gendered play

Paul McCabe's new research, "Early childhood educators' beliefs about child behavior and adult outcomes related to gender and play," (2021) sought to explore the beliefs that early childhood educators' hold in regards to young children expressing gender conforming and gender nonconforming behaviors. As we know, educators' beliefs can and do impact practice- both consciously and unconsciously- and so exploring attitudes can give us implications for practice to support eliminating gender biases. "It is important to examine the beliefs held by early childhood educators toward gender‐expansive children to help create inclusive classrooms and equity for all young children (Ahmad & Bhugra, 2010; NAEYC, 2019)," (McCabe, 2021).

The current study involved 451 early childhood educators from across the United States. Four versions of a vignette were developed describing a preschool aged child's play preferences, one gender conforming and one gender nonconforming for both a male and female child. The educators were provided with one of the vignettes and were then asked to complete a survey predicting the child's adult behaviors and attitudes. "The masculine and feminine vignettes were identically written with the exception of the child's name and he/she pronouns, any differences in ratings between early childhood educators would be due to their interpretation of play while considering the child's gender, whether consciously or subconsciously," (McCabe, 2021).

The findings of McCabe's research "indicated that early childhood educators predict different behaviors and long‐term adjustment of children based on gendered aspects of their play. Educators differentiated children less so by gender role conforming play and more by whether the play was strongly masculine or feminine in nature," (2021). Overall, early childhood educators expected that children's gender expression would continue into adulthood, whether it was gender conforming or not. I found this finding important because if we expect that young children will retain their gender characteristics into adulthood then our unconscious biases about adult gender roles and stereotypes could be impacting our behavior towards young children.

The research also found that masculine behavior was associated with predictions of adult aggression and lower professional success whether exhibited by male or female children, however, "the masculine boy was rated lowest in prosocial behaviors. This is an interesting finding because although the masculine play vignette is identical between the male and female versions, educators considered the boy's gender and masculine interests more detrimental to his prosocial development than his female counterpart," (McCabe, 2021). Potentially, early childhood educators could unconsciously seek to limit healthy and developmentally appropriate rough and tumble male-masculine behavior in male children if they feel it raises concerns for their futures.

What does this mean for us in the classroom?

McCabe's (2021) work shows that our attitudes- conscious and unconscious- shape our actions. McCabe states that, "Teacher training and continued professional development that focuses on the construct of gender, including societal contexts, dominant gender discourse, and the role of the early childhood educator in examining these assumptions with children and advocating for gender‐expansive classrooms are recommended," (2021). In other words, we need to commit ourselves to understanding more deeply the constructs of gender and support all children to feel safe and accepted regardless of how they present themselves.

Gender stereotypes are a part of our society and therefore they are inherently present in our classrooms too- we cannot let them go unaddressed. To create classrooms where all children feel safe and secure we must work to advocate for gender-expansive classrooms and create curriculum that explicitly expands the narrative on gender beyond the binary.

Have you had any gender training in your professional learning and development?

References

McCabe, P. C. (2021). Early childhood educators' beliefs about child behavior and adult outcomes related to gender and play. Psychology in the Schools, 59(1), 51–75. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.22502