Search results for "Gender studies"
showing 10 items of 1023 documents
Asimmetrie di genere e di razza in The Grass is Singing di Doris Lessing
2011
Published in the early 1950s, The Grass is Singing (1950), the first work by Doris Lessing (who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007), through the deconstruction of certain normative characters traditionally attributed to Englishness, anticipates in its narrative plot some of those founding issues that, in the decades to come, would be explored both by the theoretical-critical writings of Second Wave Feminism and within that complex study field which became known over the Seventies, such as (post-) colonial studies. In the novel, the body of the white colonial woman living in the colonies is depicted as the site of opposite tensions and the traditional homogeneity of the group…
With children in their lived place: children's action as research data
2012
Abstract This article discusses theory and methods of researching the everyday experiences of children in the city environment combined with the question of giving a voice to children. The article is organised into three parts. Part one provides a conceptual background, theorising the relational as well as intergenerational character of the concept of environment. The cultural-geographical theory and the concept of Thirdspace are used. Part two illustrates the theoretical and methodological themes with reference to my study with children. I explored the encounter between children and the urban environment. I applied ethnographic tours around a city block with children and the children's spo…
Beginning Becoming: The First 1000 Days
2019
Thomas Balmes’ (Babies. Studio Canal documentaries, 2010) ‘Babies’ (Baby(ies) or Bebes) provides a glimpse into the earliest experiences of four infants from four different localities in the world. Although this movie offers no interpretation of what takes place, the discerning viewer is left in no doubt of the significance of these powerful images about infants and their ways of being, doing and knowing in the earliest phases of life. The provocations of ‘Babies’ offer a useful beginning orienting place for a book – almost 10 years later – that promises to focus on becoming in the first 1000 days across a different set of five countries – this time Australia, Finland, New Zealand, Norway a…
Finland: Becoming and the Youngest Children at Home and in ECEC
2019
This chapter will focus on the youngest children and the everyday contexts and practices of their lives in Finland. The chapter explores the concept of ‘becoming’ within childhood, particularly within early childhood education and care (ECEC) in our country. For the youngest children, their homes and nuclear families have been historically and culturally constructed as the first and most important social and emotional growth environments. For families, the discourses concerning the ‘best or right place’ for their young children to be cared for and learn in are fuelled by the extensive system of financial incentives for home care (e.g. maternity, paternity and home allowances). Only about 40…
Privilege or tragedy? : Educators’ accounts of flexibly scheduled early childhood education and care
2017
This article explores accounts given by Finnish educators ( n = 31) on the topic of flexibly scheduled early childhood education and care (i.e. childcare provided during non-standard as well as standard hours). Previous research has shown this to be a sensitive topic because of the contradiction between what is deemed in the interests of children and the fact of providing childcare during non-standard hours. The research follows the principles of discursive psychology. Educators’ accounts were labelled as excusing, compensating, normalising and justifying. Accounts categorised as excusing and compensating shared concern over the effects of childcare during non-standard hours on children’s w…
Clothes
2019
Niina Rutanen, Raija Raittila, Mari Vuorisalo write about Clothes and clothing practices in Finnish early childhood education and care. The adopted approach combines relational sociology and geography and addresses the different kinds of spaces clothing practices create in ECEC. Clothing and clothing practices play an important role in the everyday life of ECEC, but often have a different meaning to educators, to the children and to parents. Niina, Raija and Mari show how these different spaces collide with each other and create one possible story of Arctic childhood. In their understanding, space is a social construction and changes in action. They state how ‘the ‘ideal’ Nordic child is th…
‘Ordinary’ and ‘diverse’ families : A case study of family discourses by Finnish early childhood education and care administrators
2021
The increased family diversity is a major global trend. Although family configurations are also diverse in contemporary Finland, it has been argued that Finnish family policies and institutional understanding of family life continues to focus on the heteronormative two-parent family with a native Finnish background. To address this issue, we analysed Finnish family discourses through qualitative interviews with early childhood education and care administrators (n = 47), applying a discourse analytic framework. Our results suggest that families are discussed through two divergent but interwoven discourses, i.e. the discourse of ordinary families and that of diverse families. The former focus…
Language orientations in early childhood education policy in Finland and Norway
2021
© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/),which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This article investigates the language orientations in education policy documents for early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Finland and Norway. Finland, an officially bilingual country, and Norway, a predominantly monolingual country, share similar views on ECEC. However, the ECEC field in both c…
Education in a New Europe
1992
International audience
The successful education sector development in Tanzania – comment on gender balance and inclusive education
2010
In this paper we discuss to what extent the international and national equality goals regarding gender balance and inclusive education have been reached in the education sector development in Tanzania. According to recent reports, the development trend has been generally positive, and the country is close to achieving its primary education targets. More detailed reviews suggest, however, that current monitoring and evaluation mechanisms are too narrow to catch the critical factors regarding equality, particularly in secondary education. Our comment concerns the achievements and challenges, and emphasises the significance of a multidimensional set of information including in‐depth qualitativ…