Princesses who commit suicide: Primary children writing within and against gender stereotypes

Abstract

This article analyzes 13 "published" stories written by young writers during 1 month in a multicultural, mixed-age primary classroom. The first goal is to examine how primary children constructed gender in their own stories. The second goal is to explore how children, at times, wrote against the traditional gendered positions. The data were gathered as part of a 3-year longitudinal study on children's literacy experiences across home and school environments. Primary data sources utilized include (a) participant-observer fieldnotes; (b) interviews with the classroom teacher, parents, and children; and (c) children's writing. In analyzing students' writing and how they reified or redefined gender expectations, we relied heavily on Foucaitlt's notion of power and how it is related to positioning. Although stereotypical images of dominant males and passive females were numerous, there were also disruptions of gender stereotypes. Implications include the need to help preservice and in-service teachers increase their awareness of how our children take up positions as gendered beings and also ways in which they break out of those traditional frames.

Publication Title

Journal of Literacy Research

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