Making Space for Queer Joy in Early Childhood Education: Exploring the Ways Early Childhood Educators Take Up Gender and Sexuality in New Brunswick, Canada

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Four
  In Roundtable Session: Queering K–12 Curricula and Spaces (Table 5)

Abstract

Sexuality education has been under explored in early childhood education settings in New Brunswick, Canada. Sexuality education is seen to be appropriate for older children rather than younger children: an absent curriculum theorized as maintaining a construction of childhood innocence. Through an analysis of qualitative semi-structured interviews with three early childhood educators, we examine ways that early childhood educators take up notions of gender, bodies, families, and autonomy. Our respondents described gender and sexuality through a lens of inclusion and fear of a reaction to queerness or gender play in the classroom. We wonder: what about queer joy? As we continue with interviews with educators, we seek to make queer joy, play, and activism central to our inquiry.

Authors

• Pam A. Whitty, University of New Brunswick
  Presenting Author

• Casey Megan Burkholder, University of New Brunswick
  Presenting Author

• Pamela M. Malins, University of New Brunswick
  Presenting Author