Sexuality Education and Early Childhood Educators in Ontario, Canada: A Foucauldian Exploration of Constraints and Possibilities

Autor/inn/en	Davies, Adam W. J.; Simone-Balter, Alice; van Rhijn, Tricia
Titel	Sexuality Education and Early Childhood Educators in Ontario, Canada: A Foucauldian Exploration of Constraints and Possibilities
Quelle	In: Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 24 (2023) 4, S.394-410 (17 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Davies, Adam W. J.)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
DOI	10.1177/14639491211060787
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; Sexuality; Sex Education; Early Childhood Teachers; Early Childhood Education; Gender Issues; Sexual Identity; Sexual Orientation; Controversial Issues (Course Content); Barriers; Social Bias; Canada + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Sexualität; Sex instruction; Sexualaufklärung; Sexualerziehung; Sexualkunde; Early childhood; Early childhood education; Teacher; Teachers; Frühe Kindheit; Frühkindliche Bildung; Frühpädagogik; Lehrer; Lehrerin; Lehrende; Education; Geschlechterfrage; Geschlechtsidentität; Sexuelle Identität; Sexuelle Orientierung; Controversial issues; Kontroverse; Kanada
Abstract	Open conversations regarding sexuality education and gender and sexual diversity with young children in early childhood education settings are still highly constrained. Educators report lacking professional training and fearing parental and community pushback when explicitly addressing these topics in their professional practices. As such, gender and sexual diversity and conversations of bodily development are left silenced and, when addressed, filtered through heteronormative and cisnormative frameworks. Through a Foucauldian post-structural lens, this article analyses data from open-ended qualitative questions in a previous research study regarding early childhood educators' perceptions on discussing the development of sexuality in early learning settings in an Ontario, Canada context. Through this Foucauldian post-structural analysis, the authors discuss forms of surveillance and regulation that early childhood educators experience in early learning settings regarding the open discussion of gender and sexuality. The authors explore how both the lack of explicit curricula addressing gender and sexuality in the early years in Ontario and taken-for-granted notions of developmentally appropriate practice, childhood innocence, and the gender binary -- employed in discourses of sexuality education in the early years -- regulate early childhood educators' professional practices. The authors provide recommendations which critique the developmentalist logics -- specifically, normative development -- that are used to silence non-heterosexual and non-cisgender identities in the early years, while articulating the need for explicit curricula for educators in the early years regarding gender and sexuality in young children. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: https://sagepub.com
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01