„Junk as treasure“. Preschool use of open play materials and childrens’ choice of play from agender perspective

Abstract

Iceland has a specific clause on gender equality education in the 2011 National Curriculum issued for all school levels, and the legislation about gender equality also stipulates gender equality education at all school levels. Yet a number of studies of the Icelandic schools suggest that the schools, overall, do not deliver successful gender equality education (e.g., Þorgerður Einarsdóttir & Ingólfur Ásgeir Jóhannesson, 2011; Þórdís Þórðardóttir, 2016). The preschool level, called leikskólar (direct translation: playschools), is the first school level in Iceland. This study focuses on the learning environment and play materials in six randomly selected Icelandic preschools, and on the ideas of the teachers of the oldest children in the schools (typically five-year-old children). The article asks two questions: Can open play materials be the basis for gender equality education in the preschools? What kind of impact do ideas about children’s free choice of play and play materials have on gender equality education? We observed the play in one classroom for one to three hours in each school and after that the preschool teacher in charge was interviewed. The findings suggest that there is an emphasis on open play materials, also called undefined play materials, and also on recycled play materials. These two are not synonyms, although the recycled materials are most often open. Open play materials could be purchased materials without predetermined purposes, such as blocks, clay, paint, or wooden toys. Examples of recycled materials included yogurt containers, cardboard boxes, textiles, old toys, and jigsaw puzzles which are often gifts from various households. Our findings are organized under two headings: Open play materials and recycled play materials; and the question is whether the preschools are organized as genderneutral or strategically from a gender equality education perspective. In all participating schools, open play materials played a large role, whether purchased or recycled. The preschool teachers emphasized that this is important to foster imagination. In all of the schools it was considered important that the children selected their own play and play materials. One of the teachers said: „Our role is to be here, oversee what takes place, not control the play“. However, the preschool teachers thought it important to intervene to teach good manners and good communication between the children. The teachers were asked about gender differences which they often noted, but they did not intervene much because of those. We asked specifically whether the learning environment and the play materials had been investigated with a gender perspective in mind – and the result was that this had often not been done. The most common example of this practice was to review older books. The teachers did not see the need to study the play or the materials from a gender perspective because of the emphasis on the open play materials and the fact that the children choose the material freely and mainly based on their own interests. The open play materials were thought to contribute to a gender-neutral environment at the schools. The emphasis on open play materials and recycled play materials appears to come at the cost of focusing on gender equality, because in all schools except one, the learning environment and the children’s play materials had not been strategically organized through the lens of gender. Similarly, the emphasis on having the children select their own play and play materials seems to hide the fact that the children bring their own views about the roles of the genders from home. This is similar to the conclusions of our Australian colleague Chapman (2016). It is important to foster the sprouts of critical reflection that we also detected to organize the use of gender perspectives for reviewing the preschool practices.