ABSTRACT

This paper describes research exploring discursive constructions of gender and discursive/material intra-actions in two PreK classrooms in the United States, specifically through documentation of children’s play. Using a feminist poststructuralist lens, the research illustrates ways in which children are subjected through performative iterations of heterosexual gender norms. Extending these insights, we consider the effect of non-human agentic matter, such as spaces and objects in intra-action with children in constituting gender and identity. The research shows how children’s performances of gender, and especially their enactments of the heterosexual matrix, were often in relation to the material play items and the adult-deemed acceptable discursive topics for four-year-olds. The heterosexual matrix was both (re)inscribed and resisted in relationality to open and subversive spaces as children brought ‘difficult knowledge’ into their play. It is proposed that gender fluidity be supported in open and subversive spaces and that gender binaries can be challenged and renarrativized to incite more gender fluid knowings and becomings in early childhood education and care.

摘要

本文描述了在美国的两个学前班教室中探索性别和话语/材料内部行动的话语结构的研究，特别是通过儿童游戏的记录。使用女权主义后结构主义的视角，该研究说明了儿童通过异性恋性别规范的表演迭代而受到影响的方式。扩展这些见解，我们考虑非人类主体的影响，例如与儿童互动的空间和物体对构成性别和身份的影响。研究表明，儿童的性别表现，尤其是他们对异性恋母体的表现，往往与物质游戏项目和成人认为可以接受的四岁儿童的话语主题有关。当孩子们将“困难的知识”带入他们的游戏时，异性恋矩阵既被（重新）铭刻，又被抵制在开放和颠覆性空间的关系中。建议在开放和颠覆性的空间中支持性别流动性，并且可以挑战和重新叙述性别二元性，以在幼儿教育和护理中激发更多的性别流动性知识和生成。