TY - JOUR
T1 - Preschool Teachers’ Facilitation of Gender-Typed and Gender- Neutral Activities during Free Play
AU - Granger, Kristen L.
AU - Hanish, Laura
AU - Kornienko, Olga
AU - Bradley, Robert
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016, Springer Science+Business Media New York.
PY - 2017/4/1
Y1 - 2017/4/1
N2 - Understanding how preschool teachers facilitate children’s engagement in gender-typed and gender-neutral activities is important given that engagement in gender-typed activities is differentially linked to the development of skills connected to later academic achievement. Thus, facilitation of children’s engagement in gender-typed activities may contribute to emergence of gender differences in later educational outcomes. The current study used a teacher-focal observational coding system to investigate research questions about the frequency with which teachers facilitated feminine, masculine, and gender-neutral activities with same- and mixed-gender groups during free-play. Participants were 37 female teachers of Head Start classrooms in the U.S. Southwest (M years teaching preschool = 10.57, SD = 6.85, range = 2–27; 75.6 % completed at least a bachelor’s degree). Results revealed that feminine activities were facilitated less often than were masculine and gender- neutral activities during free play. Results also revealed variability in teachers’ facilitation of feminine, masculine, and gender-neutral activities, depending on the gender composition of the students with whom teachers were interacting (i.e., boys-only, girls-only, and mixed-gender). Implications for educational, developmental, and gender research are discussed.
AB - Understanding how preschool teachers facilitate children’s engagement in gender-typed and gender-neutral activities is important given that engagement in gender-typed activities is differentially linked to the development of skills connected to later academic achievement. Thus, facilitation of children’s engagement in gender-typed activities may contribute to emergence of gender differences in later educational outcomes. The current study used a teacher-focal observational coding system to investigate research questions about the frequency with which teachers facilitated feminine, masculine, and gender-neutral activities with same- and mixed-gender groups during free-play. Participants were 37 female teachers of Head Start classrooms in the U.S. Southwest (M years teaching preschool = 10.57, SD = 6.85, range = 2–27; 75.6 % completed at least a bachelor’s degree). Results revealed that feminine activities were facilitated less often than were masculine and gender- neutral activities during free play. Results also revealed variability in teachers’ facilitation of feminine, masculine, and gender-neutral activities, depending on the gender composition of the students with whom teachers were interacting (i.e., boys-only, girls-only, and mixed-gender). Implications for educational, developmental, and gender research are discussed.
KW - Childhood play behavior
KW - Classroom behavior
KW - Educational toys
KW - Gender-typing
KW - Group composition
KW - Human sex differences
KW - Preschool teachers
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U2 - 10.1007/s11199-016-0675-1
DO - 10.1007/s11199-016-0675-1
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84983455321
VL - 76
SP - 498
EP - 510
JO - Sex Roles: A Journal of Research
JF - Sex Roles: A Journal of Research
SN - 0360-0025
IS - 7-8
ER -