Exploring children’s experiences of gender and heteronormative disruptive texts in early years classrooms
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Date
2022-12-17
Authors
Trottier, Nicole
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Abstract
Early years classrooms are sites where children (re)create normative gender and
heteronormative discourses. Research demonstrates that teachers can disrupt and broaden
children’s understanding of normative discourses through read-aloud sessions with particular
kinds of children’s literature. As a teacher-researcher, I conducted a four-week case study in my
grade two classroom using poststructural feminism and queer theory as theoretical lenses to
explore the ways in which the children experienced and understood literature that challenged the
dominant discourses of gender and/or heteronormativity. The findings illustrate the ways in
which the children misunderstood the text’s disruptive messaging, rejected the text’s disruptive
messaging, and accepted the text’s disruptive messaging. In addition, the findings reveal the
importance of explicit teaching to support the children in attending to and interpreting the
discursive disruptions. The research demonstrates that teachers need to enlist a critical analysis
of potential texts to use with young children, and to this end, I have compiled a list of 13
indicators to support teachers’ in selecting disruptive texts.
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Keywords
gender, heteronormativity, early years children, disruptive literature, schema, identity, queer theory, poststructural feminism, Butler, disruptive teaching, illustrations, gender norms, transgender