‘Sexual Orientation’ in Swedish Preschool Policy—What Is the Problem?

The study investigates how sexual orientation is presented and produced in Swedish kindergartens’ policy documents on discrimination and equal treatment. The focus is on how sexual orientation is portrayed in these documents and how this presentation relates to discourses on childhood and sexuality.

The results show that the concept of sexual orientation is presented in relation to families, but to parents rather than children – the parents’ sexual orientation is thematised, but not the children’s. In the kindergartens’ plans for equal treatment, the promotion of different family constellations is used to prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation. This is done by reading books on the topic and through spontaneous conversations with the children. The researcher argues that the discrimination perspective presented in the documents, in interaction with the discourse on childhood innocence, establishes certain conditions for how sexual orientation is worked with in kindergarten.

The researcher analysed 30 different equal treatment plans that were drawn up locally in kindergartens in different parts of Sweden. The documents were retrieved from the kindergartens’ websites during November 2016. The plans included descriptions of the obligations the kindergartens had to prevent discrimination. The researcher was particularly interested in goals and measures formulated in connection with the concept of ‘sexual orientation’.

Sotevik, L. (2020). «‘Sexual Orientation’ in Swedish Preschool Policy—What Is the Problem?». Genealogy, 4(1).