| This dissertation work comes from a qualitative exploration into the construction of masculinities in two multicultural and multinational preschool classrooms in Japan and the U.S. There is virtually no cross-cultural research that has investigated preschool boys and their gendered identity construction. The data collection technique developed by the researcher, "photo-talks," invited students' interpretations of play episodes for a layered analysis. The mainstream boys in both preschools embodied "being a man," from superheroes to professional class men. They perpetuated masculinities hinged on qualities such as bravery, possession of goods and weapons, strength, size, and domination of the "other." Boys who did not fit the dominant construction were often quieter and played on the fringes of the room, or the "borderlands." These boys were often teased, left out and sometimes hurt physically. The analysis provides a classification of the normative spaces which demarcate and enforce acceptable behaviors such as "gender policing.".;A further pedagogical analysis of structure and agency revealed the way in which powerful boys used Cortes' (1981) societal curriculum and were able to dictate the social norms of classroom life. Conversations led by teachers about equality and diversity were largely absent in this student-centered pedagogy, creating a sort of null agency of the teachers. The default curriculum enacted brought to life socially by largely uninterrupted play and little teacher intervention is defined as the play curriculum. Building on Paley's (1991) idea of class deliberations, the researcher furthers this idea by explicitly drawing out the purposeful creation of a participatory democracy and suggests an additional component, early critical literacy. The author calls the ideal curricular approach, the critical play curriculum from which she suggests practical ways in which teachers of young students can lead students in democratic participation and critical thinking, specifically creating a carpettime democracy.. |
