Uncovering Gendered Teaching Practices in the Early Childhood Classroom Page: 21

                                
with pointing out an error, but with examining how a structure has been constructed,
what produces it, and what holds it together. According to St. Pierre (2000), it is not
negative, deconstructive, or rebellious, but agreeable and consenting. Deconstruction
attempts to identify the normalizing discourses that construct the dominant
understandings which define, limit, and regulate our representations of subjectivities
and identities (McCarthy, Holland, & Gillies, 2003). The primary purpose of
deconstruction is to disrupt and destabilize the dichotomous thinking that sustains many
of the understandings and knowledges we take up as truths (Robinson & Jones Diaz,
2006).
Feminist Poststructuralism and the Construction of Gender
Postdevelopmental perspectives, such as feminist poststructuralism and queer
theory, have been used to dispute the Western cultural belief that there is a direct,
causal, and necessary relationship between biological sex and the gender role one
assumes (Blaise, 2005; Connell, 1995; Nicholson, 1994; Paechter, 1998). By rethinking
the relationship between sex, gender, and sexuality, it becomes possible to challenge
the notion that children are born with a fixed gender or sexual identity. In recent years,
poststructuralist views have become more and more important to scholars who are
researching in the field of gender and education. Feminist poststructuralism sees
gender as a political, dynamic, and social construction, rather than an individual trait
that one is either born with or socialized into (Blaise, 2005, 2009; Robinson & Diaz,
2006; Weiner, 1994). Within this framework, young children construct their gender
through their language, actions, and interactions with each other and the world around
them (Blaise, 2009; Bohan, 1997; Davies, 2003; Thorne, 1995, 1997).

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