Researching (Un)Doing Gender and Enhancing Gender Equality Through Organizational Development in Early Childhood Education

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 29
  In Roundtable Session: Productive Partnerships in Supporting Diversity and Inclusion in Early Childhood Settings

Abstract

The project explores research and organizational development for gender equality. In an ethnographic study, twenty childcare centres were visited and their spatial arrangement and materials photographed. Four centres were selected for field observation and a video study. Based on the findings from the research project, a collaborative project of organizational development was launched to ensure gender equality in the work place. Providers of early childhood education and care were advised in a process of enhancing gender equality. Researchers and practitioners worked together in order to explore how gender is made relevant in the day-to-day practices, and how within free play, early childhood educators’ interaction with children, as well as the materials and spatial arrangements, facilitate doing and undoing gender.

Authors

• Franziska Christina Vogt, St.Gallen University of Teacher Education

• Julia C Nentwich