What a Girl Wants Responding to Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in the Early Childhood Classroom - Coursework Example

Running head: Sex, Gender and Sexuality Article Critique: What a Girl wants, What a Girl Needs, Responding to Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in the Early Childhood Classroom Introduction Childhood education is the most important phase of education in the life of a person. Whatever the things learned during the childhood will follow the person till the death. In the case of girls the above fact is more prominent because of biological reasons. According to Hessler (2009), raising children and the health of children was viewed as a "womans" job rather than a mans responsibility (Hessler 2009). In other words, our society has some preconception about the roles of a girl and boy in our society. The gender difference is evident in most part of our social life like sex, sexuality etc. “Sex refers to physical attributes and is anatomically and physiologically determined whereas gender is the psychological transformation of the self” (Sterling, 2000, p.3).The needs of a preschool girl and a boy with respect to sex and sexuality might be different because of biological differences. This paper written as a critique to the research paper What a Girl wants, What a Girl Needs, Responding to Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in the Early Childhood Classroom, Written by Blaise M and published in the Journal of Research in Childhood Education; Summer 2009; 23, 4. About the Author The author Mindy Blaise is a senior lecturer in Monash University, Australia, faculty of education. Even though her academic credentials are not mentioned in the paper, it can be assumed that being a senior lecturer, she might have ample academic credentials and experiences in teaching students. It is not evident from the article, whether she has enough experience in teaching preschool children or not. But she has mentioned at the beginning of the article that she have been exploring with the children and the teacher for over six months to learn more about gender and sexuality in classrooms. The author could have given more details about her achievements, experiences and credentials in order to give more strength to her arguments. About the abstract The abstract provided by the author was very concise. Even though she succeeded in giving the core of the article in few words, she could have included more things about the paper in the abstract. The Introduction The article mainly focuses the post developmental perspectives of sex, gender and sexuality and how it affect young children in constructing gender and heterosexual discourse in the early childhood classrooms. The author was successful in providing an interesting introduction which may encourage the readers to read the full article. She has mentioned one incident she had witnessed in a preschool class in which a small girl Mary moved her hip and shoulder back and forth to a tune and finally send a flying kiss to a small boy named Felipe. The whole article developed from this incident and she was successful in providing all the dimensions of Mary’s actions from different point of views. The literature review, Discussion and Analysis The author has mentioned the opinions and views of many prominent scholars and researchers in order to present different views about gender roles and child sexuality in preschool classrooms. She has mentioned different misconceptions about child sexuality by the public like; Children are sexualized by the media, sexuality happens only at the time of puberty or adolescence and childish acts cannot be taken as indications of their sexual desire. The author with the help of previously published studies and researches was trying to reject above misconceptions. In her opinion, we should never neglect the sexual behaviors of children. In her opinion, the argument that the children are first born with a sex, then learn their gender, and finally become sexual is not a logical one. She has argued that children have all these three elements even from birth onwards and we should take notice of that. Postdevelopmentalism rejects the idea that gender is simply an expression of sex or that gender and sex are biological and natural traits that are inside us. The author questions that if gender and sexuality are social, political and dynamic constructions, then how can the field of early childhood education not respond to this knowledge. Woolley & Gabriels,(1999) have argued that there is ample evidence that a childs cognitive and emotional level of development has a significant effect on his or her ability to integrate and utilize prevention concepts (Woolley & Gabriels,1999). In other words, it is better to educate a child about gender, sex and sexuality even at the preschools in order to get clear ideas about these elements of social life and to be better prepared to tackle problems related to it. The Research Design Usually three types of research designs are used in conducting researches; qualitative, quantitative and mixed. The difference between the qualitative and quantitative research is framed in using words (qualitiative) rather than numbers (quantitative) (Creswell, 2008,p.3) The researcher/ author tried to use both qualitative and quantitative data in this research. She has spent more than 6 months with a preschool class in order to collect primary and qualitative data. She has observed the talking, gestures, verbal and nonverbal communication among the students in order to make conclusions. She has also conducted informal interviews with the students in order to get more comprehensive ideas about their thinking patterns. Secondary data collected from published sources. The researcher failed to collect primary data from diverse resources. Her researches were mainly based on a single class and it is not evident from her descriptions whether she has visited any other preschool classes. Instead of spending 6 months continuously in a class the researcher could have spend one month each in six different classes in order to give more validity to her findings. Moreover she could have interview few parents also to learn more about the behaviors of their preschool children. The Conclusions The author concludes that the preschool teachers and parents should react more positively to the sexual behaviors of the children. In her opinion, it is suicidal to neglect t the sexual acts of children as childish innocent acts. Some people believe that it is unethical to assume complex meanings to the sexual behaviors of the preschool children. But it is a fact that children may develop sexuality even from birth onwards. Even though it is difficult for the preschool children to understand the complexities of sexuality, it is better to provide them some basic knowledge about sexuality even from preschool days in order to avoid future complexities. Relevance of the studies for New Zealand practice with respect to Kaupapa Māori research New Zealand is a country in which same sex marriages, sexual abuses etc are growing rapidly. Sex related crimes are growing day by day in New Zealand. On the day of the 2001 Prison Census 4% of the total sentenced prison population in New Zealand was female. Forty six percent of females and 62 percent of males were imprisoned for violent offences on 15 November 2001, "including 3 percent of females and 22 percent of males for sexual violence (A profile of violent and sexual female offenders, n. d) Most of the crimes are occurring because of the social and psychological reasons. Sexual displeasure is a major reason for anti social behaviors and it is necessary to address the sexual needs of a person even from childhood. Proper awareness about sex, gender and sexuality should be given at schools. One of the major difficulties in tackling social problems in New Zealand is the diversity population. Most of the population in New Zealand is comprised of people from different ethnicity and different beliefs. For example, Maoris one of the prominent ethnic groups in New Zealand, have their own perspectives with respect to social life, child education researches etc. Kaupapa Māori research “Kaupapa maori begins as a challenge to accepted norms and assumptions about knowledge and the way it is constructed and continues as a search for understanding within a Maori worldview. Kaupapa maori research involves a concept of the possibility and desirability of change” (Barnes, 2000). Research topics like preschool child sexuality will be accepted with both hands by the Maori community as it questions the traditional beliefs and views. Change in traditional views and concepts are accepted easily by the Maori community. Maoris give more importance to the importance of the topic researched to the overall wellbeing of the community. Moreover they give emphasize to the obligations of the researcher to the researched. Child sex and gender issues are general issues related to all the communities and hence Maoris will definitely take this research more seriously. But Maoris have certain beliefs and preconceptions about their social life and hence they will never accept an opinion going against their traditional beliefs. The major principles needed to be observed in a Maori research are; The Principle of Self-determination, The Principle of Cultural Aspiration, The Principle of Socio-Economic Mediation, The Principle of Extended Family Structure, The Principle of Collective Philosophy etc are some of them (Smith, 1990). Maoris give more emphasize to the ethical standards in research works. Institutional ethical standards, personal beliefs are a lot important in Maori research along with the principles mentioned earlier. Maori research conducted in a respectful manner, with more effort and energy from the participants. Reflections were accepted as the prerequisite of critical analysis in Maori research. “Maoris believe that the research methodology should be reconstructed to recall and review cultural ways of research” (Mind Mapping: Kaupapa Mäori Research eHui Discussion, n. d). Maoris are not much interested in conducting a research outside their community. So they will take only Maori subjects for their studies and researches. In other words, the methodology for conducting a research on child sexuality among Maori community, more specific questions and methods are required. We should not be limited to current and popular research practices like qualitative or quantitative methods while conducting a research among Maori community using the Kaupapa Māori research methods. References 1. A profile of violent and sexual female offenders, (n. d), Retrieved on 22 June 2010 from http://www.corrections.govt.nz/research/risk-assessment-of-recidivism-of-violent-sexual-female-offenders/a-profile-of-violent-and-sexual-female-offenders.html 2. Barnes HM (2000), Kaupapa maori: explaining the ordinary, Retrieved on 22 June 2010 from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11709875 3. Blaise M (2009), What a Girl wants, What a Girl Needs, Responding to Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in the Early Childhood Classroom, Journal of education in childhood research, 2009, Vol 23, No. 4 4. Creswell JW (2008), Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods ApproachesPublisher: Sage Publications, Inc; 3rd edition (July 15, 2008) 5. Hessler, K. (2009). Physical activity behaviours of rural preschoolers. Pediatric Nursing, 35(4), 246-253, Retrieved on 22 June 2010 from http://www.allbusiness.com/medicine-health/diseases-disorders-obesity/12902304-1.html 6. Mind Mapping: Kaupapa Mäori Research eHui Discussion (n. d), Retrieved on 22 June 2010 from http://www.kaupapamaori.com/assets//ehui/mind_mapping.pdf 7. Smith, G. H. (1990) Principles of Kaupapa Māori ‘Research Issues Related to Maori Education’, paper presented to NZARE Special Interest Conference, Massey University, , The Issue of Research and Maori, Research Unit for Maori Education, The University of Auckland Retrieved on 22 June 2010 from http://www.rangahau.co.nz/research-idea/27/ 8. Sterling AF (2000), Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality, Publisher: Basic Books (November 22, 2000) 9. Woolley C C M & Gabriels T C M (1999), Childrens Conceptualisation of some child sexual abuse prevention concepts as taught by Keeping Ourselves Safe, a New Zealand Prevention Programme, The Australasian Journal of Disaster and Trauma Studies, ISSN:  1174-4707 Volume : 1999-1, Retrieved on 22 June 2010 from http://www.massey.ac.nz/~trauma/issues/1999-1/woolley1.htm Read More