Previous research has shown children’s interactions in play and schooling to express gender in various ways. Sometimes interactions adhere to stereotyped images of gender, while at other times they seem to challenge them. Gender stereotypical actions may strengthen gender boundaries and are defined by Thorne (1993) as borderwork. On the other hand there are many situations where children cross gender boundaries (Thorne, 1993, also Evaldsson, 2003, Francis, 1998), and thus act in ways that are typically not in accordance with general norms about gender. Theoretically, Thorne’s work on children’s border crossing and borderwork will have a key part in the paper. Taking her work as a starting point we analyse children’s interactions in a preschool class and focus in particular on instances of what might be defined as gender crossing. Children’s opportunities to challenge gender boundaries in various situations and the re-actions they get from peers and teachers will be analysed in the paper and also discussed in relation to the proposed ‘new’ gender patterns in contemporary preschool and school (Öhrn, 2000). Previous research about such ‘new’ patterns has primarily focused on certain groups of girls in school - i.e. middle class girls who achieve well and act confidently – whereas in-stances of boys’ crossing are more seldom analysed in Scandinavian research (Öhrn, 2002). In the paper we will address both genders and also discuss whether, as suggested by recent re-search (Holm, 2008), border crossing might help to further both girls’ and boys’ positioning in peer groups. The paper has arisen from an ongoing PhD project on Gender and Identity, starting in 2005 and to be finished in the end of 2009. The Gender and Identity-project is part of a Swedish national research programme called Interaction, Learning and Teaching, which is a co-operation between University College of Borås, University of Gothenburg and University of Uppsala. The paper draws on data from the project’s second empirical study (out of two), which is based on observations carried out during the autumn semester 2007 in a preschool class situated in Western Sweden. In a preschool class the children are six years old and in the ‘twilight zone’ between preschool and school. Preschool classes are seldom researched and are of particular interest in terms of gender, as they draw on educational settings with some-what different gender traditions, one being traditionally more influenced by female practices (preschool) and the other more influenced by male practices (the school).

Taking Thornes (1993) work as a starting point we analyse children’s interactions in a preschool class and focus in particular on instances of what might be defined as gender crossing. Children’s opportunities to challenge gender boundaries in various situations and the reactions they get from peers and teachers will be analysed in the paper and also discussed in relation to the proposed ‘new’ gender patterns in contemporary preschool and school (Öhrn, 2000). Preschool classes are seldom researched and are of particular interest in terms of gender, as they draw on educational settings with some-what different gender traditions, one being traditionally more influenced by female practices (preschool) and the other more influenced by male practices (the school).