“I felt the line was crossed” : Preschool teachers’ experiences of gender teaching in Swedish preschools

Abstract: The main aim of this paper is to explore preschol teachers' perspectives on the implementation of gender goals as set by the Swedish national curriculum for preschools. This qualitative research endeavours to investigate the way preschool teachers implement the curriculum and what their feelings are when implementing it. Finally, the research also seeks to explore the teachers' views based on their experience on ways to improve the curriculum. Six preschool teachers, who teach in international preschools in Sweden were interviewed;three female pedagogues and three male ones. A thematic analysis was conducted on the transcribed material of the interviews and three primary themes emerged: I) Implementation of the curriculum through everyday engagement with the students, II) mixed feelings when implementing gender-equality pedagogy and III) satisfaction about the gender goals set by the curriculum but beliefs that it can be improved. In conclusion, this paper by closely examining the preschool teachers' perspectives and opinions, seeks to aid the discussion on gender teaching to young children in preschools.