Differential Teacher-Child Interactions with Girls and Boys in Early Childhood Centers in Colombia

• In Event: Poster Session 02
  In Poster Session: PS 02 Topic - Sex, Gender

Abstract

Studies show differences in the way early childhood (EC) teachers interact with girls and boys in the classroom (e.g., Cahill & Adams, 1997; Chick, Heilman-Houser & Hunter, 2002; Dobbs, Arnold, & Doctoroff, 2004; Serbin, O’Leary, Kent, & Tonick, 1973). Differential treatment based on gender stereotypes may widen gender-related developmental gaps. Observing how EC teachers perpetuate or challenge gender stereotypes in educational settings is an important question that remains understudied in contexts outside the US and Europe (Pardhan, 2011). This is especially relevant in Latino/a contexts, where culture has historically valued certain gender stereotypes that favor men over women (Piña-Watson, Castillo, Jung, Ojeda, & Castillo-Reyes, 2014). This study is aimed at exploring differences in teachers’ interactions with boys and girls. Data comes from the National Study of Quality of Early Childhood Education in Colombia (Maldonado-Carreño et al., 2018). Eight classrooms were initially selected for this study. Five videos were selected for presenting extreme scores (3 at the low end and 2 at the high end) in an item of the IMCEIC instrument (Maldonado-Carreño et al., 2018) assessing whether teachers promoted equitable relationships with boys and girls. The other 3 videos were randomly selected from the videos that obtained a score in the medium range. On average 9 boys and 7 girls attended these classrooms. A total of 4,458 teacher-child interactions were transcribed and classified according to 8 categories that emerged through an inductive data analysis process: (1) corrects misbehavior; (2) explicitly demonstrates affection; (3) assigns of toys or materials; (4) provides feedback or encourages children to work on a task; (5) provides instructions; (6) promotes verbal expression; (7) responsiveness; and (8) undetermined (i.e., video sound was unclear so it was not possible to determine the type of interaction). Preliminary descriptive analyses were performed according to the gender of children involved in each interaction (see Figure 1). Consistently with previous studies (Chick, Heilman-Houser & Hunter, 2002; Dobbs, Arnold, & Doctoroff, 2004), results show that 45.7% of teacher-child interactions involved only boys and 25.1% involved only girls, which suggests that boys received more attention from teachers than girls. The frequency of interactions with only boys was higher for all the categories when compared to the frequency of interactions with only girls, especially for behavior management and feedback. Further analyses are being developed using an open coding procedure. By the time of the SRCD meeting, an in-depth qualitative analysis, differentiated by gender, will be available for each category (e.g., the types of questions teachers ask to girls and boys when they promote verbal expression, the content of the feedback teachers provide to girls and boys, the types of roles teachers assign to girls and boys, etc.). The results of this study provide a unique opportunity to reflect on gender equity issues and consider professional development strategies to promote gender equity in EC education.

Authors

• Andrea Bustamante, Universidad de los Andes (Uniandes)
  Presenting Author

• Jimena Rozo Parrado, Universidad de los Andes (Uniandes)
  Non-Presenting Author

• Elena Arenas Martin, Universidad de los Andes (Uniandes)
  Non-Presenting Author

• Carolina Maldonado-Carreño, Universidad de los Andes (Uniandes)
  Non-Presenting Author