Abstract
In early childhood education, children’s daily practice revolves to a great extent around order and discipline. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork from a Swedish preschool class, the present study further explores how the task of being a teacher’s assistant can be critically understood in terms of how gender, discipline and order are expressed in different duties in daily practice. The children in the investigated preschool class are encouraged to conform to rules of order and discipline by assisting the teachers with different tasks; in the present study, children who play this role are called teacher’s assistants. The results show that both boys and girls conform in the role as a teacher’s assistant. Another way of establishing order and discipline is to place girls next to noisy boys. This duty, which is defined here as serving as a damper, is reserved for the girls’ only, in contrast to the teacher’s assistant task.
Résumé
En éducation de la petite enfance, la pratique quotidienne des enfants tourne en grande partie autour de l’ordre et de la discipline. S’appuyant sur une enquête ethnographique d’une classe de maternelle suédoise, la présente étude examine plus en profondeur comment la tâche d’assistant enseignant peut être comprise de façon critique quant à la manière dont le genre, la discipline et l’ordre sont exprimés dans différentes tâches de la pratique quotidienne. Les enfants du groupe préscolaire observé sont encouragés à se conformer aux règles d’ordre et de discipline en aidant les enseignants dans différentes tâches; dans la présente étude, les enfants qui jouent ce rôle sont appelés assistants enseignants. Les résultats montrent que tant les garçons que les filles se conforment au rôle d’assistant enseignant. Une autre façon d’établir l’ordre et la discipline est de placer les filles à côté de garçons bruyants. Ce devoir, défini ici comme servant d’amortisseur, est réservé aux filles seulement, contrairement à la tâche d’assistant de l’enseignant.
Resumen
En la educación infantil, la práctica diaria de los niños gira en gran medida alrededor de orden y disciplina. Basándose en el trabajo de campo etnográfico de una clase preescolar de Suecia, el presente estudio analiza más a fondo cómo la tarea de ser asistente del profesor puede entenderse de manera crítica en términos de cómo el género, la disciplina y el orden son expresados en diferentes funciones en la práctica diaria. Se alienta a los niños en la clase de preescolar investigado conformes a las normas de orden y disciplina, ayudando a los profesores con diferentes tareas; en el presente estudio, los niños que juegan este papel son llamados asistentes del profesor. Los resultados muestran que tanto los niños como las niñas se adaptan y asumen el papel de ayudante de un profesor. Otra forma de establecer el orden y la disciplina es colocar niñas junto a niños ruidosos. Este deber, que se define aquí como servir como un amortiguador, está reservado para las niñas solamente, en contraste con la tarea del asistente del profesor.
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Notes
In Sweden and other Western European cities, inner-city areas are middle-class neighbourhoods.
In Sweden, preschool education is provided for all children aged 1–5 years.
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Acknowledgments
I sincerely thank the reviewers for their helpful and constructive comments. I also thank professors Dennis Beach at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and Julie Allan at the University of Birmingham, UK, for their valuable comments on earlier drafts of the article.
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Odenbring, Y. Gender, Order and Discipline in Early Childhood Education. IJEC 46, 345–356 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13158-014-0121-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13158-014-0121-x