Now we no longer have princess dresses fine! : A case study of preschool teachers' attitudes regarding existing gender work within the preschool system in Sweden and Finland

Gender in early childhood education is currently a discussed topic in the news and the subject also draws a lot of attention in the media in general. Different approaches to gender in preschools have brought both criticism and praise among custodians preschool teachers and within the community. Several kindergartens in Sweden have an explicit focus on gender work and some of them are also LBTQ-certified. The aim of this study is to investigate teachers’ attitudes to current gender work in preschools and to empirically examine how different perspectives on gender work in Sweden and Finland interact in preschools. The aim is also to discover alternative ways to work with gender and equality within a preschool framework. The study is based on semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. I have compared the Swedish preschool curriculum with the Finnish equivalent to get the views of the political governing documents that differ regarding gender and gender equality work in these two countries. (”Varhaiskasvatuksen suunnitelman perusteet” translated as "The fundamental features/basics of the plan for early childhood education", Finlands national curriculum). The theoretical framework used in the study is a gender perspective approach. The study points out that preschool teachers’ tensions differ to some degree, depending on the preschool and depending on preschool teachers' education, own values ​​and enthusiasm for the subject. The study lifts the reflection about it as important. The study shows that preschool teachers in Sweden are aware of work with gender, but interprets the way to implement these goals through the curriculum objectives in a multifaceted way. Both the Finnish national curriculum and the Helsinki City applied version of the national curriculum ("Foundations of early childhood education") lift up many important learning objectives, but do not specifically raise transgender work or work against traditional gender patterns. The qualitative interviews conducted in Finland present highlights that a discussion debate about gender work is ongoing in the country where their curriculum is to be renewed by the year 2017. The majority of the preschool teachers in both my interviews and questionnaires, in Sweden and Finland, pointed out that gender work has changed through the past decade. The majority of the preschool teachers also pointed seeing the individual, rather than the gender, as the most important in their work. A special feature of my study gives indication that a general discourse shift from compensatory pedagogic to norm critical pedagogy has taken place. Technique in activities was raised as a non-gender-coded material for children and digital tools in preschool as an entrance for more men in the teacher profession. What also has been found in my study is that gender is defined mainly depending on the context and that perverted approaches take time to change. My conclusion is that preschool teachers’ intention in my study, is not to limit children based on their gender. Their main intention and challenge is to continue offer children a multi-faceted activity based on children's interests and according to curriculum.