Gender and childhood sexuality in primary school

Abstract

"I'm Not Scared of Girls Because the Girl Is Wearing a Pantie like Me." This book is an ethnography of teachers and children in grades 1 and 2, and presents arguments about why we should take gender and childhood sexuality seriously in the early years of South African primary schooling. Taking issue with dominant discourses which assumes children's lack of agency, the book questions the epistemological foundations of childhood discourses that produce innocence. It examines the paradox between teachers' dominant narratives of childhood innocence and children's own conceptualisation of gender and sexuality inside the classroom, with peers, in heterosexual games, in the playground and through boyfriend-girlfriend relationships. It examines the nuances and finely situated experiences which draw attention to hegemonic masculinity and femininity where boys and girls challenge and contest relations of power. The book focuses on the early makings of gender and sexual harassment and shows how violent gender relations are manifest even amongst very young boys and girls. Attention is given to the interconnections with race, class, structural inequalities, as well as the actions of boys and girls as navigate gender and sexuality at school. The book argues that the early years of primary schooling are a key site for the production and reproduction of gender and sexuality. Gender reform strategies are vital in this sector of schooling. Acknowledgments; Contents; 1 Making a Place for Gender and Sexuality in the Early Years of Primary Schooling; Theoretical Toolkit of Power: Feminist, Social/Structural Thinking; Rethinking Sex/Gender Models: Feminist Poststructuralism; Researching Gender and Sexuality in the Four School Multi-sited Ethnography; Contextualising the Schools; The Schools and Participants; Study Details; Observing in Schools; Interviews with Teachers; Conversations with Children; Structure of the Book; References; 2 Children Are Children: Gender Doesn't Matter? Fixing Boys and Girls as Opposites and Unequal: Categorical Thinking as a Regime of TruthChildren Are Children-Children Are Innocent; Gender, Boys, Girls and Nature; Sex-Role Socialisation; Boys Will Be Boys; Changing Gender: Race, Class and Culture; Westridge School; Looking Indian, Seeing Muslim; Umhlatuzana School; African Boys Don't Perform; KwaDabeka School; Black Girls and Culture: We Must not Look into the Eyes of a Male; Umbumbulu School; Conclusion; References; 3 Teachers Are Mothers: Can Men Teach Young Children? Men in the Early Years of South African Primary Schooling: Why It Is Important?Teachers Are Mothers; Corporal Punishment and the Contradiction of Care; Who Should Teach You? " & Which Ever One Isn't the Strictest, like a Girl"; Conclusion; References; 4 "Boys Will Be Boys": What Do Teachers Have to Do with It?; Understanding Masculinities; "Boys Will Be Boys" Contextualising Masculinities at Westridge School; Boys Will Be Boys; Rugger Buggers and Smoothies; Shaping up Nicely: Boys and Mathematical Power; Conclusion; References. 5 "Here in the Rural Areas They Don't Say that Men and Women Are Equal!" Culture, Materiality and GenderGender and Rural Education; Gender and Rurality in KwaZulu-Natal; Notes from the Field; Father: The Speaker in the House; Move Away, We Are Men Here; Beyond Culture: Contesting and Changing Gender Inequalities; Conclusion; References; 6 "These Kids Live a Hard Life": Inequalities, Violence and Gender in Everyday Teaching; Gender, Violence and Schooling; Survival of the Fittest: Violence, Gender, Culture, Poverty and the School; Girls Cleaning Schools: Contesting Gender Inequalities. Tsotsi BoysConclusion; References; 7 'Voetsek!' Boys, Violence, and the Gendered Negotiation of Masculinity; Being a Boy in Poor Contexts in South Africa: Violence and Masculinities; Boys, Girls and Misogyny; Boys and Boys; Sexual Violence: Boys Want to Do Things with the Girls but the Girls Don't Want to Do Those Things; Boys and Authority; Fragility and Stability; Yimvu Boys; Yimvus and Girls; Conclusion; Notes; References; 8 "Girls Hit!" Constructing and Negotiating Violent Femininities; Girls, Beyond Victims; South African Context of Gender and Political Resistance.