Building-Blocks: Children’s Reflection on Gender
- DOI
- 10.2991/assehr.k.200808.033How to use a DOI?
- Keywords
- Blocks, children, reflection, gender
- Abstract
This article discusses how gender is constructed through building blocks toys. Using the perspective of post developmentalism, we examined the building blocks as learning media in early childhood education. We conducted a two-month focused ethnography in a kindergarten in the city of Bandung, Indonesia. We found that gender stereotypes in the society are implicated in children’s interaction with the building-blocks. Thus, the building-blocks toy becomes a medium of gender binary construction. Through playing with the building blocks, boys and girls constructed an understanding of what boys could do and girls could not do, which result in strict limitation of girls’ access to the building blocks, an effective medium to develop spatial and other cognitive abilities. Based on the findings, we recommend that teachers improve their gender awareness especially in the context of early childhood learning so that the teachers can create a more gender equal learning athmosphere.
- Copyright
- © 2020, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.
- Open Access
- This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
Cite this article
TY - CONF AU - Marina Trie Ramadhany Gunawan AU - Hani Yulindrasari PY - 2020 DA - 2020/08/10 TI - Building-Blocks: Children’s Reflection on Gender BT - Proceedings of the International Conference on Early Childhood Education and Parenting 2019 (ECEP 2019) PB - Atlantis Press SP - 170 EP - 173 SN - 2352-5398 UR - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.200808.033 DO - 10.2991/assehr.k.200808.033 ID - Gunawan2020 ER -