DO YOU FEEL LIKE A PRINCESS? GENDER AND CHILDHOOD IDENTITY FORMATION IN PRESCHOOLS

Abstract

Early schooling plays an extremely important role in improving a child’s academic, social, and financial success. However, little research accounts for gender discrepancies in adult success and how these might be attributed to the teachings of gendered behavior and gender norms at the earliest stage of schooling. To better understand how preschools “teach” and understand gender, I conducted an ethnographic comparative case study of two preschools. One of these schools is a preschool that serves homeless and at-risk youth in the Mid- Atlantic region. The other school is an elite private preschool in New York City. Findings suggest there are practices and procedures that reinforce a codified system of “normal” and “deviant” behaviors. Teachers are constrained by interactional-level forces as they work to manage the children’s gender. In cases of early trauma, gender norms are established earlier in a child’s development. However, trauma-informed rhetoric and environments unknowingly work against certain forms of gender stereotyping.