SELF GENDER IN EDUCATION OF CHILDREN CHILD

Abstract

This Psychopedagogy undergraduate monograph aimed to analyze the development of the self-concept of gender in children in free interactions with their peers, at a university based preschool in Northeastern Brazil. A qualitative approach was conducted during the second semester of 2013, using participant and non-participant observation of groups of girls, groups of boys and mixed groups. Content analysis was the analytical procedure used, including speech, physical and spatial movements, in order to address the following guiding questions: Do children express the self-concept of gender in free interactions? Do children show a construction of gender inequity and gender typification? It was found that children in early education already reproduce inequalities between the sexes, and that the major contributors to the construction of their self-concept of gender are the closest adults: teachers and caregivers in the school, father and mother at home. The data collected demonstrates that this construction is fed by machismo, sexism, heterosexism and homophobia, transmitted mainly through language, attitudes and behaviors. It was observed that children typify gender daily, classifying and discriminating locations, colors, toys, games, play, behaviors, spaces and tasks according to each sex, reinforcing thoughts and values imposed by the hegemonic cultural models of femininity and masculinity, internalizing and reproducing gender inequity. Therefore, in order to deconstruct these relations, language, identities and self-concepts, the school needs to focus on gender equity and become a pluralistic space through a non-sexist education.