Session Information
19 SES 10, Network 19 Session 10
Paper Session
Time:
2008-09-12
14:45-16:15
Room:
A1 316
Chair:
Karen Borgnakke
Contribution
Abstract: Take another bite
so you’ll be a big and strong boy
ECER 2008
European Conference on
Educational Research
Take another bite so you’ll be a big and strong boy!
Normalisation and masculinity production in meal situations at a Swedish preschool
Taking starting point in how normality and hegemonic masculinity are produced in some preschool situations and sport activities among teachers and 3-6 years old children, this presentation analyses how norms of strength, achievement and control were made gendered and linked to boy’s bodies as well as to specific masculinity positions. In this process certain ways of performing masculinity were made “normal” while others were marginalized or made invisible.
This production of difference and hierarchies between genders and between masculinity positions could be made with different strength in different situations. While practices like sport are well documented for producing hegemonic masculinity among older boys in educational contexts, my study from two Swedish preschools shows that hegemonic masculinity among younger children mainly were produced in other practices, such as meal situations.
The analyse aims for an understanding of why norms such as control, strength and achievement were made extra relevant at the dinner table. Why did children have to achieve by eating certain food in certain orders? Why did it become extra important in these situations that young children learned to control their bodies? What consequences did these norms have for what masculinity positions that were made possible?
The analysis builds on ethnographic method and extended field periods to explore these processes in a specific context. The study was conducted in a larger Swedish city at two pre schools with children three until six years of age and one until six years of age.
Anette Hellman
PhD student
Department of Education
University of Gothenburg
anette.hellman@ped.gu.se
Method
Ethnography: Participant observation, group and individual intervjues, structured observations.
See abstract
Expected Outcomes
Hegemonic masculinity among young children are often produced in meal situations.
See abstract
References
Thurén, Britt- Marie. (1996) ”Om styrka, räckvidd och hierarki samt andra genusteoretiska begrepp.” I: Kvinnovetenskaplig tidskrift, nr. 3-4, s. 69-85. Connell, RW. (2000) The Men and The Boys. Cambridge: Polity
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