ABSTRACT

This volume examines gendered and heteronormative norms embedded within early childhood education (ECE) in the Global South, including Brazil, China, Pakistan, South Africa, and Vietnam.

In this book, the contributors explore how gender, culture, religion, masculinity, sport, and conservative politics intersect to perpetuate and resist gendered and sexual norms. The book presents a range of possibilities for disrupting and challenging these norms within early childhood educational contexts. Grounded in colonial and postcolonial discourses, the book emphasises the entanglement of gender and sexuality in ECE with legacies of colonisation and surrounding social and cultural dynamics, highlighting our responsibility to address gender inequalities and injustices.

The book will appeal to researchers, faculty, and teacher educators with interests in gender and sexuality in education, international and comparative education, and early childhood education.

chapter 1|18 pages

“He calls me babe, he says I'm sexy”

Girls, boys, and sexualities in the early years

chapter 2|17 pages

“No! We definitely don't teach that sort of thing”

Teachers and the childhood-sexuality assemblage in South Africa

chapter 3|16 pages

Beauty in Kainat (the universe)

Discourses of heterosexuality in Pakistan's early childhood classrooms

chapter 5|17 pages

“The pole is sacred”

Disciplining sexuality in teaching pole dance to Brazilian children

chapter 6|24 pages

“Macho males and puppy crushes”

Teachers and the interplay of masculinity in the early years of primary schooling

chapter 7|19 pages

When nature calls

How male teachers negotiate gender and care work in early childhood education

chapter 8|21 pages

“Females are still the king”

Men can't handle teaching young children

chapter 10|23 pages

Heteronormativity in a Chinese sexuality education textbook series

The case of Cherish Lives