Search

This paper describes research exploring discursive constructions of gender and discursive/material intra-actions in two PreK classrooms in the United States, specifically through documentation of children's play. Using a feminist poststructuralist lens, the research illustrates ways in which children are subjected through performative iterations of heterosexual gender norms. Extending these insights, we consider the effect of non-human agentic matter, such as spaces and objects in intra-action with children in constituting gender and identity. The research shows how children's performances of gender, and especially their enactments of the heterosexual matrix, were often in relation to the material play items and the adult-deemed acceptable discursive topics for four-year-olds. The heterosexual matrix was both (re)inscribed and resisted in relationality to open and subversive spaces as children brought 'difficult knowledge' into their play. It is proposed that gender fluidity be supported in open and subversive spaces and that gender binaries can be challenged and renarrativized to incite more gender fluid knowings and becomings in early childhood education and care.

In children's early years, they frequently pretend, create and take on roles while engaging in the dramatic play area where symbols, language and culture are spontaneously developed and applied. Although abundant research has been conducted on sociodramatic play incorporating digital tools and using props, previous research has given less attention to children using non-functional communication devices as play props. This paper aims to explore children's language development using non-functional communication devices, such as cell phones, through sociodramatic play, and the study was conducted in two preschool classrooms with 4–5-year-old children. We find that children who incorporate non-functional communication devices into their sociodramatic play expand their language use, extend storylines, develop new characters and practice new words and ways of speaking. Additionally, the inclusion of these devices affords children opportunities to explore imaginary storylines and cultural language usages, rules and norms in different relational ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]