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Education Sciences
Special Issues
Gender and Early Childhood Education: Debates and Current Challenges
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Gender and Early Childhood Education: Debates and Current Challenges

A special issue of Education Sciences (ISSN 2227-7102).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 November 2025 | Viewed by 1665

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Anne Keary

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Education, Monash University, Clayton 3800, Australia
Interests: early childhood education; care, gender, digital technology, linguistic and cultural diversity
Prof. Dr. Susanne Garvis

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Griffith Institute for Educational Research, Griffith University, Mount Gravatt, QLD 4122, Australia
Interests: teacher education; early childhood; health and wellbeing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Haoran Zheng

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Education, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351 Australia
Interests: early childhood teacher education; STEM education; diversity

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue explores contemporary issues associated with gender and early childhood education and care (ECEC). We aim to extend knowledge about both theory and practice, to enrich the research field. The main focus of the issue is on gender and education in ECEC, and how it can be problematized and debated illuminating emerging challenges.

One example is the impact of digital technology on the ECEC field and workforce. Gender as a concept can be problematized in terms of diversity, context, access, inclusivity and visibility.

Another example is research impact and the importance of us as researchers and practitioners collecting evidence of engagement and impact. We welcome research articles that demonstrate a strong impact on relevant stakeholders, communities or beneficiaries.

This Special Issue, from a global context, aims to present and bring together a collection of papers and reviews offering a range of theoretical perspectives and contemporary research on gender and early childhood education and care. We welcome high-quality papers and original contributions on this topic from a range of contexts catering for children from birth to six years of age. This includes early childhood settings, teacher education programs and professional learning opportunities for ECEC professionals.

Dr. Anne Keary
Prof. Dr. Susanne Garvis
Dr. Haoran Zheng
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Education Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • gender
  • early childhood education and care, impact
  • digital technology

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 5313 KiB  
Article
Children’s Gender Worldviews: Exploring Gender, Diversity, and Participation Through Postmodern Picture Books
by Carolina Gonçalves, Catarina Tomás and Aline Almeida
Educ. Sci. 2025, 15(4), 476; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15040476 - 11 Apr 2025
Viewed by 407
Abstract
Postmodern picture books offer valuable opportunities for children to engage with multiple perspectives and develop critical thinking skills. When used in pedagogical practices that prioritize children’s rights, agency, and voices, these books can effectively challenge dominant social norms and promote justice and equity. [...] Read more.
Postmodern picture books offer valuable opportunities for children to engage with multiple perspectives and develop critical thinking skills. When used in pedagogical practices that prioritize children’s rights, agency, and voices, these books can effectively challenge dominant social norms and promote justice and equity. Within the framework of the SMOOTH project (Educational Common Spaces, Passing through Enclosures and Reversing Inequalities, Horizon 2020, EU), this qualitative study explores how children aged six to eight attending a public primary school in Lisbon, Portugal, make sense of gender through postmodern picture books. Grounded in the Educational Studies and Sociology of Childhood, the research analyses children’s understandings of gender and the meanings they construct concerning it. A six-month intervention program, consisting of read-aloud sessions, was conducted with children from diverse linguistic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Data were collected through focus groups and observation. Qualitative content analysis highlights how picture books can stimulate critical discussions on the social construction of gender, providing children with opportunities to reflect on differences, power relations, and social change. These findings indicate that embedding a care perspective further strengthens the recognition of children’s lived experiences and enriches educational practices by fostering inclusiveness and deeper understanding. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gender and Early Childhood Education: Debates and Current Challenges)
17 pages, 5855 KiB  
Article
A Story of the ‘Kitchen Furniture’ in ECEC—Challenging Norms and Ideas Around Gender and Play
by Mia Heikkilä
Educ. Sci. 2024, 14(12), 1351; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14121351 - 10 Dec 2024
Viewed by 792
Abstract
The Swedish National Curriculum for Preschools states that “the environment in the preschool should inspire and challenge children to broaden their abilities and interests without being constrained by gender stereotyped perceptions”. The aim of a three-year research and development (R&D) project was to [...] Read more.
The Swedish National Curriculum for Preschools states that “the environment in the preschool should inspire and challenge children to broaden their abilities and interests without being constrained by gender stereotyped perceptions”. The aim of a three-year research and development (R&D) project was to both analyse and recreate early childhood education and care (ECEC) units’ indoor spaces, aiming at creating an indoor educational environment that would be socially inclusive and norm-aware, and support preschools to fulfil their curricular assignment around gender equality. The aim of this article is to present a specific process for challenging the norms around certain indoor play places and spaces as well as pieces of furniture in ECEC settings that risk reproducing gender norms. This aim was achieved through a social semiotic multimodal gender analysis of so-called “kitchen furniture”, as a well-established, commonly occurring space in ECEC. The process of how this was challenged is presented in this article. A gender analysis of what affordances for play this kitchen-focused piece of furniture gives, and how it can be recreated, was conducted. The introduction of more inclusive furniture to the ECEC units, through creating and building a play trolley, could affect children’s play in a more inclusive way. The analysis addressed both this idea and teachers’ self-initiated move of the piece of furniture within the ECEC unit. The process was performed with a multidimensional perspective of understanding play as a combination of children’s meaning-making and the affordances of both relationships and the environment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gender and Early Childhood Education: Debates and Current Challenges)
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