Doing gender in Pre Schools

Abstract: Gender categorization is something we are confronted with in our daily lives. The main purpose of this study is to see how children and pre school teachers "do gender" in interaction with each other. We did an observation in a Pre School in Southern Sweden. Our requirement was that there must be at least one male pre school teacher working there. We decided to study "doing gender" from three different perspectives; our perspective, the children's perspective, and the staff's perspective to get different views upon "doing gender". The method that is used is observation, by filming and tape recording the children's and staff's interaction in this particular Pre School. "Doing gender" for children is done in society and the first confrontation with outer society in the child's life is pre school it is therefore, we chose to research it. Results show that gender is done by both children and pre school teachers in pre schools, and this is where children start to attain male and female qualities.