Sheralyn Campbell

Spaces for gender equity in Australian early childhood education in/between discourses of human capital and feminism

IN THIS ARTICLE WE use feminist post-structuralist concepts of discourse and relations of power to question how a neoliberal regime of truth in Australian early childhood education impacts educators currently working for gender equity with children, prior to their entry to schooling. We show how this regime of truth is endorsed and transferred in and by key documents of the Australian National Quality Framework (NQF) including the National Quality Standard (NQS) and the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) in which discourses of universal rights, individual freedom and choice, and human capital dominate approaches to inclusion and diversity that govern gender equity work (ACECQA, 2011, 2017a, 2017b; DEEWR, 2009; NSW Education, 2016). Our article addresses how some educators use their understandings of feminism to negotiate spaces for gender equity work within the theoretical, political and ethical tensions arising in/between discourses that constitute this neoliberal regime of truth.

Are We There Yet? Gender Equity Journeys in Early Childhood Practice

The importance of gender in the early childhood field has long been researched and written about by early childhood scholars (e.g., MacNaughton 1997, 2000; Blaise 2005). In 2015, we conducted a small-scale pilot research project with early childhood scholars and educators entitled Gender Identity in Early Childhood the findings of which will be discussed in this chapter. We asked how these two groups drew on feminist theories to support their work, how they understood gender-identity and gendering and how gender equity was part of their pedagogy in early childhood classrooms. This chapter will focus on the personal and lived experiences of 18 early childhood educators as they talked about their daily teaching focusing in particular on the place of feminism(s) in their work, how they think about gender-identity in their classrooms and how their pedagogical practices responded to issues of gendering.

BEYOND QUALITY, ADVANCING SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EQUITY: INTERDISCIPLINARY EXPLORATIONS OF WORKING FOR EQUITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

In this chapter, we used a research-based case study titled “The Desirable Prince Meeting” to explore how interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives on the child can be used to prompt critical reflection on socially just equity praxis in early childhood education. We argue that using multiple theoretical perspectives to analyze teaching and learning can generate and drive critical reflection on equity praxis more effectively than using a single perspective that presents a single truth about teaching and learning moments.