Horses, Girls, and Agency: Gender in Play Pedagogy
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
The Outlines Association
2009-09-01
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| Series: | Outlines |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://ojs.statsbiblioteket.dk/index.php/outlines/article/view/2223 |
| _version_ | 1797966450588123136 |
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| author | Anna Pauliina Rainio |
| author_facet | Anna Pauliina Rainio |
| author_sort | Anna Pauliina Rainio |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: DA; mso-fareast-language: DA;">This is a study of the development of student agency from a gender perspective in a Finnish classroom. The</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: DA; mso-fareast-language: DA;">data originates from an ethnographic research project in an elementary school classroom engaging in a play</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: DA; mso-fareast-language: DA;">pedagogy project called a “playworld.” The article has two purposes. The first is to examine the potential of</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: DA; mso-fareast-language: DA;">imagination and improvised fantasy play in the development of agency. The second is to investigate the role of gender as a social category in shaping the students’ possibilities for agency in the play pedagogical setting. The creative use of imagination is at the center of the playworld pedagogy. However, it has rarely been studied in relation to the potentially uneven or stereotypic consequences of cultural tools, symbols, and categories.<br /><span style="color: black;">The analytical focus is on the gender-related categorization of a ‘horse girl’ and the role it played in the development of the agency of two seven-year-old girls as they participated in the playworld. I have used a multidisciplinary analytical framework to sensitize myself to the data. In the article I combine Vygotsky’s ideas of double stimulation, Sacks’ categorization analysis and, Holzkamp’s concept of action potence</span><span style="color: red;">. </span><span style="color: black;">The results show that the playworld pedagogy that explicitly aimed at developing children’s agency and collaboration was strongly gender categorized and thus was constraining for the girls in this study. On the other hand, the girls’ unplanned fantasy play, which took place on the sidelines of the classroom activity, contained important agentive elements. It gave the</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: DA; mso-fareast-language: DA;">girls a <em>sense </em>of agency crucial to their <em>enactment </em>of agency in the wider playworld setting. It is argued that the girls were able to become agentive players in the activity through questioning the gendered categories openly in the classroom.</span></p></span></span> |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T02:15:45Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-13941f28cb4b49628020e503b9b27c8f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1399-5510 1904-0210 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T02:15:45Z |
| publishDate | 2009-09-01 |
| publisher | The Outlines Association |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Outlines |
| spelling | doaj.art-13941f28cb4b49628020e503b9b27c8f2023-01-03T01:09:07ZengThe Outlines AssociationOutlines1399-55101904-02102009-09-0111127442018Horses, Girls, and Agency: Gender in Play PedagogyAnna Pauliina Rainio0Center for Activity, Development, and Learning (CRADLE), University of Helsinki<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: DA; mso-fareast-language: DA;">This is a study of the development of student agency from a gender perspective in a Finnish classroom. The</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: DA; mso-fareast-language: DA;">data originates from an ethnographic research project in an elementary school classroom engaging in a play</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: DA; mso-fareast-language: DA;">pedagogy project called a “playworld.” The article has two purposes. The first is to examine the potential of</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: DA; mso-fareast-language: DA;">imagination and improvised fantasy play in the development of agency. The second is to investigate the role of gender as a social category in shaping the students’ possibilities for agency in the play pedagogical setting. The creative use of imagination is at the center of the playworld pedagogy. However, it has rarely been studied in relation to the potentially uneven or stereotypic consequences of cultural tools, symbols, and categories.<br /><span style="color: black;">The analytical focus is on the gender-related categorization of a ‘horse girl’ and the role it played in the development of the agency of two seven-year-old girls as they participated in the playworld. I have used a multidisciplinary analytical framework to sensitize myself to the data. In the article I combine Vygotsky’s ideas of double stimulation, Sacks’ categorization analysis and, Holzkamp’s concept of action potence</span><span style="color: red;">. </span><span style="color: black;">The results show that the playworld pedagogy that explicitly aimed at developing children’s agency and collaboration was strongly gender categorized and thus was constraining for the girls in this study. On the other hand, the girls’ unplanned fantasy play, which took place on the sidelines of the classroom activity, contained important agentive elements. It gave the</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: DA; mso-fareast-language: DA;">girls a <em>sense </em>of agency crucial to their <em>enactment </em>of agency in the wider playworld setting. It is argued that the girls were able to become agentive players in the activity through questioning the gendered categories openly in the classroom.</span></p></span></span>http://ojs.statsbiblioteket.dk/index.php/outlines/article/view/2223gender, play, ethnography, development, categorization, Agency, playworld, gender categorization, classroom interaction, action potence |
| spellingShingle | Anna Pauliina Rainio Horses, Girls, and Agency: Gender in Play Pedagogy Outlines gender, play, ethnography, development, categorization, Agency, playworld, gender categorization, classroom interaction, action potence |
| title | Horses, Girls, and Agency: Gender in Play Pedagogy |
| title_full | Horses, Girls, and Agency: Gender in Play Pedagogy |
| title_fullStr | Horses, Girls, and Agency: Gender in Play Pedagogy |
| title_full_unstemmed | Horses, Girls, and Agency: Gender in Play Pedagogy |
| title_short | Horses, Girls, and Agency: Gender in Play Pedagogy |
| title_sort | horses girls and agency gender in play pedagogy |
| topic | gender, play, ethnography, development, categorization, Agency, playworld, gender categorization, classroom interaction, action potence |
| url | http://ojs.statsbiblioteket.dk/index.php/outlines/article/view/2223 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT annapauliinarainio horsesgirlsandagencygenderinplaypedagogy |