Preschool children's portrayals of their male teacher : a poststructural analysis

Abstract

This chapter draws on poststructuralist understandings to analyse children's portrayals of their male preschool teacher and to examine the discourses underpinning their portrayals. The study reported in the chapter had aimed to generate data that could contribute to informing policy decisions about whether efforts should be made to recruit more men into the children's services workforce. As the data revealed, however, gender-related discourses were overshadowed by regulatory discourses. The prominence of regulatory discourses raises unsettling questions about how children might perceive their teachers and construct their experiences of their early childhood settings