Big and small, girls and boys: intersecting gendered touch practices in early childhood educators’ discourses

Abstract

In this study, we argue that touch is a way of producing gender in preschool and our aim is to explore different kinds of matters that intersect with gendered touch practices in this context. Our theoretical starting points draw on the performativity of gender and the discursively constructed touch practices of early childhood educators. We analyse these discourses by employing intersectional analysis. The data consist of three group discussions among 27 female early childhood educators. The findings suggest that gendered touch practices intersect across children’s age, materiality, time, place, and heteronormative assumptions. Furthermore, cultural conventions affect the ways in which children are touched and the kinds of touch that are considered appropriate in relation to gender.