Playing equally: Gender role analysis of traditional games in early childhood education: A case study in a school in the Region of Murcia

Abstract

This study seeks to analyse the gender roles that emerge in traditional games in early childhood education. Numerous research studies have been found that confirm that traditional games have gender roles. On the other hand, the educational curriculum in infant and primary education indicates that traditional games are a good content and pedagogical resource in physical education, a motor scenario where social relations of interest for the child's education take place and which allows us to analyse the gender perspective in their development. Very little research of this kind has been found in the infant stage. For this reason, the main objective of this research was to analyse whether 5 year old pupils denoted gender roles in traditional games. Two pre-school classes, 28 girls and 17 boys, were observed during the performance of traditional games and subsequently subjected to interviews supported by drawings. The results indicated that the participants have begun to denote gender roles in traditional games. These results suggest that there is a need for teachers to take a gender perspective into account when implementing activities such as traditional games.