Good morning Avonne,
I hope I have some useful answers for your questions.
1. How do teachers insure that classrooms are gender balanced besides toys?
The first step is recognizing that gender bias exists. Many people are unaware of how bias permeates our language and therefore our expectations.
For example many starting teachers automatically begin addressing children as "boys and girls," always putting the boys verbally first, or "you guys," which also preferences males since its two meanings are a grown human male and a member of the human race. Similar to our use of "man" to refer to all beings instead of "human."
Being sensitive of how you are using language to address children is very important. Even switching "boys and girls" to "girls and boys" every other time gives females and males equal billing. I also would recommend referring to the children as "children" or "explorers" or "scientists" or "firefighters" depending on what they are playing.
Note: I said "firefighters" instead of "firemen." Expand this to include any job title that has "men" in it ex. policemen to police officers.
Aside from being hyper aware of your language I would also recommend having as many non-stereotypical visitors to the classroom as possible, for example female firefighter or male nurse. If you can find some community members who represent a variety of ethnic compositions representing the classroom and city they should also be invited to share something interesting about what they do and how it is valuable. An authentic example of this is inviting a family member of each child to share something they are good at doing. This could be about their job or about how awesome they are at cooking, making origami, jumping rope, etc. You don't want to put your own expectations and stereotypes on what a certain ethnic group member "should" be able to do (ex. the Japanese family should be able to demonstrate origami. Perhaps the uncle of that family comes in to show how he sews for a living.)
You should also have documentation from these classroom experiences available for families to look at with their children. Write it up in a story-like fashion using the more gender neutral terms.
2. How does bath room routines for young children create a gender balanced experience?
In my experience children are very interested in toileting, especially when they get better control of their muscles and can execute a good bowel movement flawlessly. This usually occurs in the 3-year-old classroom. I have seen children examine each others "poops" and provide feedback on size, color and consistency. They also start to experiment with anatomical humor at this age. I recommend an adult always be close at hand when multiple children are using a bathroom to shape and respond to the inevitable talk about body parts.
At this age having an adult nearby will also stop any creative ideas of other things to flush down a toilet and the proper way to overflow a sink.
You will also have some families that do not want their child sharing a bathroom with others. In this instance I do my best to honor the family's preference.
3. Is there a such thing as gender neutral?
While American society is becoming more aware of gender equality we are not there yet. Children will be bombarded by stereotypes on a daily basis. Our goal is to disrupt these ideas enough that children can see alternate futures for themselves and also that they will move the society closer to equal as they grow and become the adult authorities.
I don't believe gender neutral is possible even in the most careful of classrooms because humans like to pick an exemplar of how they should be and then begin to mimic those behaviors. The exemplar can be the teacher but it can also be adults outside of school who I can guarantee will have their own beliefs about gender. Children will then rehearse their roles in school which are influenced by their exemplar.
4. Is this even a topic that we should concern ourselves with at this early stage of children's development?
I believe that providing many competent, kind examples of how humans should treat each other is a fundamental goal of socialization beginning in infancy.
Lillian McFarlin, PhD
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Lillian McFarlin
East Lansing MI
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-02-2017 09:08 AM
From: Avonne Abnathya-Muhammad
Subject: Gender equality in the preschool classroom
Hello,
I'm just curious as a preschool leader, in recent years the term, "Gender equality" has surfaced in the classroom.
I've gone to a workshop, where the presenter stressed that adults should not refer to children by their sex allocation, she cautioned the audience "Not to assign your ideas of a child based on sex."
She went on to say that people should cease dressing children in sex assigned colors, as in pink is for girls and blue is for boys.
I'm very curious to know what others think...
1. How do teachers insure that classrooms are gender balanced besides toys?
2. How does bath room routines for young children create a gender balanced experience?
3. Is there a such thing as gender neutral?
4. Is this even a topic that we should concern ourselves with at this early stage of children's development?
--
Avonne Abnathya-Muhammad, M.A. Educational Leadership
(862)763-8978 Cell
"We are what we repeatedly do....Excellence therefore is not an act but a habit."