They Say it's a Cultural Matter: Gender and Ethnicity at Preschool

Abstract

This article is part of an ethnographic study in two preschool classes, which aims to explore issues of nationality, ethnicity, gender, and citizenship. It explores firstly, the ways in which nationality, ethnicity and gender are discussed and negotiated by preschool girls at the age of six and how they become positioned in national space and secondly, how gendered citizenship is constructed in the educational practices of the preschool. The article draws on field notes and interviews with children, teachers, and parents. The theoretical starting points have been the sociological theorisations of childhood, poststructuralist feminist research and postcolonial theorisations. The article specifically looks at the interpretational resources, which girls have in their subject formation, and explores how preschool as an educational institution deals with ethnicity and gender.