Differentiated socialization for gender reasons in Early Childhood Education: an ethnographic study

Abstract

The article analyzes how children construct their gender identity in schools and specifically during the early childhood education. To this end, it has conducted twenty seven-participant observations during free play within a school. Once the comment period ended three focus groups were organized with students of different ages to narrate the story of “the princess dressed in a brown paper bag” as it is a story in which the protagonists have opposite roles to the folktales. The results of the research find that gender bias a series of strategies that allow them to remain within the dominant gender pattern is accentuated with increasing age of the students in developing some children, progressively over time. By contrast, children capable of breaking the gender category in most of the time, tend to conceal their true tastes and preferences in order to become accepted by their peers. Thus, a hierarchical system within the school which gives high status to those students that fit the preset canon, while it penalizes and punishes the behavior of students who feel more identified with the own behavior is established the opposite gender.