A qualitative study exploring how a child’s gender influences their play choices in an early year setting

Saunders, Donna (2023). A qualitative study exploring how a child’s gender influences their play choices in an early year setting. Student dissertation for The Open University module E822 Masters multi-disciplinary dissertation: education, childhood and youth.

This dissertation was produced by a student studying the Open University module E822 Masters multi-disciplinary dissertation: education, childhood and youth. The research showcased here achieved a Distinction.
Please note that this student dissertation is made available in the format that it was submitted for examination, thus the author has not been able to correct errors and/or departures from academic standards in areas such as referencing.
Copyright resides with the author.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.000175b9

Abstract

This qualitative study looks at the ways gender influences the play choices of preschool children in a private provision. Viewing a feminist post structuralist lens, it utilizes theories of power in society to explore how gender is developed and identified in children’s play and questions if gender is a constructed form based on social behaviour, language, theories of agency. With the Mosaic approach Fuling the notion that children are unique when viewing the world, their acquired knowledge reflects an epistemological standpoint supporting genders evolution through learning and the ways in which children interpret and develop it.