Mud in my ears and jam in my beard’: Challenging gendered ways of being in nature kindergarten practitioners

The study investigates how educators in nature kindergartens in three countries interact with children and nature, and how employees’ masculinities and femininities, shaped through socio-cultural discourses, play out in nature kindergartens. The aim is to gain a better understanding of the extent to which kindergarten practitioners’ gendered ways of being are different in nature kindergartens compared to kindergartens with more indoor activities.

The results show that the nature context contributed to the educators not clearly distinguishing between what were male and female roles and tasks in everyday kindergarten life. The love they expressed for nature, and the activities they conducted outside with the children, were not gendered. The employees expressed a multitude of masculinities and femininities without compromising their own self-image. The researchers believe that the natural environment creates specific behavioural norms that challenge the traditional male and female roles, and they say that the nature context in these kindergartens allows educators to take on different roles, such as using an axe, lighting fires or cooking. The gender regimes still exist but are less prominent, and are challenged more than in traditional kindergartens.

The researchers observed everyday life in three nature kindergartens in Denmark, Finland and Scotland over a period of 16 months. They visited each kindergarten once every semester and filmed a total of 53 different observations. Following the observations, the kindergarten staff (five men and two women) were interviewed.

Nugent, C., MacQuarrie, S. & Beames, S. (2019). “‘Mud in my ears and jam in my beard’: Challenging gendered ways of being in nature kindergarten practitioners”. International Journal of Early Years Education, 27(2):143-152.