When Curriculum Intersects with Girls’ Gendered Knowledge: Rethinking Girls’ Gender Culture

• In Event: Roundtable Session 101
  In Roundtable Session: Gender and Gendered Knowledges and/in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

This study examined the differences between girls’ gendered cultures in Taiwanese kindergartens, focusing on gender education after the implementation of government policy in 2004. The research questions were (a) What is girls’ gendered culture, and how is it represented in teachers’ classroom policy? and (b) How does class gender culture shape girls’ gendered knowledge?
Applying feminist poststructural theory, the researcher investigated a two-fold paradox: Implementing kindergarten curricula prevents girls from establishing gender identities, and gendered knowledge gained in school fails to produce equal gender education.
This study analyzed how girls use gender to resist or submit to curricula implementation when critical incidents arose. Curricula regulate gender roles when girls construct their gender identities.

Author

• Yu-Hui Chou, Tajen University