Becoming a girl and boy: preschool children’s construction of gender roles in the community and nursery

This paper examines Kurdish preschool children’s construction of gender roles. This research uses the concept of funds of knowledge to analyse how children draw on household and community knowledge in constructing gender roles in a nursery, Turkey. The data includes participant observations, audio and video recordings of interactions between the teacher and children in the nursery. This research shows that the children position their gender roles according to the values and expectations of their minority community. It is illustrated that gender constructions are performative (Butler, J. [1999]. Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. London: Reoutledge.), rather than biological constructs. The paper also suggests that we should not use the concept of funds of knowledge uncritically in favour of making the household knowledge of ethnic minorities apparent in the classroom.