Syftet med denna uppsats var att utifrån ett feministiskt poststrukturalistiskt perspektiv, studera hur några medverkande i ett likabehandlingsnätverk i en Reggio Emilia-inspirerad förskoleenhet, talade om kön/genus och normer. Arbetet med nätverket har beskrivits som en ”minipolitisk” arena; för vardagsnära demokratiska förhandlingar – ett möte mellan rådande ”storpolitik”, i form av läroplan och lagar, och lokalt förverkligande. Därmed ville vi bidra med kunskap om hur ett sådant nätverk kan möjliggöra ett praktiskt arbete med genusfrågor, samt om vilka eventuella svårigheter som finns. Vi samlade in material via intervjuer med sex pedagoger, där några precis påbörjat sitt deltagande i nätverket medan andra hade deltagit i ett år. Vi identifierade ett antal diskurser som var verksamma under intervjuerna och organiserade dem i tre övergripande teman. Det första temat kallade vi ”Talet om yttre förutsättningar och krav”, där särskilt förskolans politiska uppdrag dominerade som anledning till att alls, eller till syvende och sist, arbeta med likabehandling och jämställdhet. Ur intervjuerna kunde vi urskilja att genus inte gärna kopplades till ett vidare likabehandlingsarbete, och fick en sämre status än andra likabehandlingsfrågor. Vi kopplade detta tema till relationen mellan stor- och minipolitik, där förskolans uppdrag på den storpolitiska arenan kunde diskuteras på nätverkets mer vardagsnära minipolitiska arena. Vi förstod det inte som att uppdraget kritiskt granskades, men såg nätverket som ett möjligt forum för minipolitiska förhandlingar. Nästa tema kallade vi för ”Talet om barns möjligheter”. Inom detta identifierade vi en dominerande utvecklingspsykologisk diskurs som försvårade att tala om barnen som delaktiga i genusarbetet, då de var för små och omogna. Det handlade istället främst om de vuxna, som jämställdhetsförändrare. Samtidigt riktades uppmärksamhet mot den pedagogiska miljön, något som vi kopplade till Reggiopedagogikens utforskande karaktär, där nätverket sades bidra med könsliga aspekter och dilemman. Detta förde oss till vårt sista tema; ”Talet om att upptäcka”. I detta tema sades nätverket fungera som en väckarklocka, med tillgång till nya sätt att tänka kring normer och genus, och lite som en ”brännblåsa i rumpan”. Därtill identifierade vi även mindre diskurser, som bland annat antydde problem med lokala förutsättningar, och reflekterade kring vår egen roll som aktiva agenter i de teman som vi skrivit fram.

From an anti-oppressive and a gender perspective, the aim of this paper is to examine whether three English teachers at a comprehensive school in Stockholm make gender conscious selections when selecting novels for their English literature lessons. Through quantitative research, semi-structured interviews and e-mail interviews with these teachers I have attempted to find out if they include both male and female writers when selecting English novels for their students and also what factors affect their selections. I have analyzed the interviews and the quantitative research by using a qualitative and a quantitative content analysis. The theories that I have established my analysis upon are gender theories about the male norm in society, the feminist Simone de Beauvoir’s ideas about the woman as a second gender and the sociologist Raewyn Connell’s gender regimes. Furthermore, the Professor Kevin K. Kumashiro’s theories on anti-oppressive education have been very useful when interpreting my research. My results show that these teachers do not make gender conscious selections for their English literature lessons since they almost only choose novels written by men. They explain their choices to depend upon factors such as them wanting to individualize their literature lessons by selecting novels that their students will enjoy. They also elucidate the issue that the school only has a limited selection of novels to choose from, which narrows their choices. But I argue that since the teachers are able to purchase new novels to the school and also borrow class sets from the Public Library, they have the possibility to select novels by female writers as well. I interpret the fact that they almost only use novels written by men as a result of the male norm in society, which influences the teachers on a subconscious level. That the teachers select male writers prior to female writers results in the students achieving an inadequate education, given that they mostly learn about the male perspective upon the world, since the female angle is invisible. If these teachers would begin working from an anti-oppressive perspective and make gender conscious selections of novels for their English literature lessons, they must first be aware of how the male norm influences them.

Studiens huvudsakliga syfte är att ur ett normkritiskt perspektiv analysera grundlärares utsagor om sex- och samlevnadsundervisning inom religionskunskapsämnet. För att fylla detta syfte har studien sökt ta reda på hur de intervjuade lärarna genomför sin undervisning om sex och samlevnad inom religionskunskapsämnet, samt vilken roll de ger undervisningsområdet, beträffande vilket utrymme de ger sex och samlevnad i sin religionskunskapsundervisning och vad de anser vara sex- och samlevnadsundervisningens syfte. Studien baseras på enskilda intervjuer med fyra lärare som undervisar i religionskunskap grundskolans årskurser 4-6. Studien visar att samtliga av lärarna som deltar i hög grad är medvetna om risken att deras sex- och samlevnadsundervisning är heteronormativ. De har alla också en uttalad ambition att försöka motverka att deras sex- och samlevadsundervisning blir alltför heteronormativ, emellertid saknar de specifik utbildning i att hantera sex- och samlevnadsfrågor. Detta skulle kunna utgöra ett skäl till att samtliga lärare ger sex- och samlevnadsfrågor ett relativt litet utrymme i sin religionskunskapsundervisning. / The overall aim of this study is to analyse primary school teachers’ testimonies regarding sexuality education in religious education through a norm critical perspective. To fulfil this aim, the study seeks to find out how the teachers carries out their sexuality education when teaching religious education, and furthermore, what part the participating teachers give sexuality education, as to how big a part of the subject it represents and the teachers’ understanding of the purpose of the field. The study is based on individual interviews with four teachers who work in years 4-6 in primary school and teach religious education. What becomes apparent is the awareness the participating teachers show regarding the possibility of their sexuality education being heteronormative. There is also an outspoken ambition among the teachers to make their sexuality education less normative, however, they all lack specific education in the subject matter. This might be one of the reasons why sexuality education is given a very small part in each of the interviewees’ religious education teaching.

This research report follows a group of educators, project managers and scientists involved in a norm-critical project: Norm Creative Certification. The aim of this study is to examine the proposal for, and obstacles to, a norm-critical change that the group discusses in relation to the project and its educational context. The research report also examines whom are expected to make the norm-critical change. For gathering the empirical material the method participant observation is used. Further, the material has been analyzed inspired by Carol Bacchis policy analysis method What is the problem represented to be? Carol Bacchis method has worked indicative, since the material is more organic than a policy. The research report has been analyzed in the context of theories of intersectionality and Kevin Kumashiros theory about antioppressive pedagogy. The obstacles that the reference group refers to a norm-critical change is partly a threatening outside world and an internal feminist critic, the lack of action, a fake (internal) self-image and a fear of the discomfort and resistance that norm-critical change raises. The components that the group suggests for a positive development, is linked to the experience-based learning, an interested attitude of the practitioner, the relation to time and an understanding of conflict, power and domination. What also emerges is that the norm-critical change occurs in the individual, which is assumed not to have any experience of being outside the norm. A duality emerges overall as the group relates to two parallel ideas and pedagogical approaches. Partly the group relates to a "market" where assignments will be carried out and where it is stressed that action without understanding is a way to a norm-critical change. At the same time signed an opposite condition for a norm-critical change, where time, your own experience, understanding and self-reflexivity stands in the center. Here the focus is on longer processes, the individual and the learning processes.

The purpose of this study is to examine a preschool's work to counteract traditional gender roles, which strategies are used and how norms about gender roles are produced and treated. The study also examines whether the preschool has an intersectional perspective in it's gender work, which analyzes how they relate to other categories such as ethnicity, race, class, age and sexuality in their work. I have been observing and conducting four interviews with teachers at a preschool with a gender profile. In my analysis I have used Foucault's theories about discourse and power. The results show that the informants had a high awareness of gender and that the main strategies used were: an individual perspective, seeing the individual and not the sex, and a gender-neutral strategy, removing everything that is gendered, for example, in language and environment. The preschool's work implementing the equal treatment plan (Likabehandlingsplan) allowed them to replace their gender profile, which included discrimination based on forms of ethnicity, religion or other belief, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression and age. The results showed some examples of an intersectional perspective, for example, how the preschool worked with sexuality/different family structures and age, but other categories were harder to include, such as ethnicity, race and class. The conclusions I have drawn are that there are risks with these gender strategies. They confirm and reinforce gender roles, and there is a risk that the work is based on a white middle-class heterosexual norm, which means it is based on privileged positions. The work with the equal treatment plan requires an intersectional perspective and a self-reflected approach from the teachers. / Syftet med studien är att undersöka en förskolas arbete med att motverka traditionella könsroller samt vilka genusstrategier som används och hur normer kring genusuttryck produceras och bemöts. Studien undersöker även om förskolan har ett intersektionellt perspektiv, det vill säga hur de arbetar med andra kategorier såsom etnicitet, ras, klass, ålder och sexualitet i deras genusarbete. Jag har gjort observationer och intervjuer med pedagoger på en förskola med uttalad genusprofil. I min analys har jag använt mig av Foucaults teorier om diskurs och makt. Studiens resultat visar att informanterna hade en hög medvetenhet kring genus och att de vanligaste strategierna de använde var ett individuellt perspektiv, att se individen och inte könet, samt en könsneutral strategi, att avlägsna det som anses könat i exempelvis språk eller miljö. Förskolans arbete med sin likabehandlingsplan hade börjat ersätta deras genusprofil, vilket innebar att de även inkluderar förebyggande arbete mot diskriminering relaterat till etnicitet, religion eller annan trosuppfattning, funktionsnedsättning, sexuell läggning, könsöverskridande identitet eller uttryck och ålder. Studiens resultat visar exempel på ett intersektionellt perspektiv, exempelvis hur förskolan arbetade med sexualitet och olika familjebildningar samt ålder. Resultatet visar dock hur det var svårare att arbeta med andra kategorier såsom etnicitet, ras och klass. Slutsatserna jag dragit är att det finns risker med de genusstrategier som jag upptäckte. De riskerar att befästa och förstärka könsroller samt baseras på en vit heterosexuell medelklassnorm, vilket innebär att de baseras på positioner som ständigt privilegieras. Arbetet med likabehandlingsplanen kräver därmed ett intersektionellt perspektiv samt ett självreflekterande förhållningssätt hos pedagogerna.

The aim of this study is, from a norm-critical approach, to find, investigate and analyse human representation in the visual culture of one preschool in order to understand if the children enrolled are represented or not. The research questions are: In what ways is there imagery of human representations in images and materials designed for play? What skin-colors and origins are dominant in the data collected? We carried out a qualitative study in the form of visual ethnography. This method allowed us to use a combination of different data collection tools such as photography and ethnographic field notes to collect our data. The photographs we took of images and material used for play, was then analysed through semiotic picture analysis. The focus was to see which skin-color and origin that was dominant in the photographs of human representations. The result of the study, show that human representation is found in many variations such as, books, board games, puzzles and materials for educational use. The study also show that the vast majority of representations, displayed people of white skin and Swedish origin. In discussing these results we argued that the selected preschool is imbued by the norm of whiteness that is also dominant in the Swedish society. From a postcolonial perspective, we find that this norm and its underlying assumption of racial differences forms part of a historically rooted structural system of values that has evolved in Sweden during hundreds of years. The impact these results have in a preschool context is that children don’t have the same opportunity to identification through the visual culture at the preschool. We conclude that this can, in the long run, create problems since representation or lack of representation is linked to marginalization of whole social groups due to not having the same requisites to take on for example positions of power. We have a strong believe that if the topic of human representation can be enlightened in preschools and schools, teachers can work towards offering all children the same potential for positive identification in preschool.

The purpose of this study is to examine discourses about norms and norm criticism regarding sex/gender and sexuality in preschool teachers’ and nursery nurses’ speech using a post-structuralist perspective. My two research questions are: How do the educators describe norms in general and norms about sex/gender and sexuality in relation to their work? How do the educators describe their work with norm criticism in relation to norms about sex/gender and sexuality? The theoretical base of this thesis is feminist post-structuralism and queer theory. Qualitative interviews were used as method to gather material and then a form of discourse analysis was made based on the transcribed interviews. Five preschool teachers and one nursery nurse participated in this study. Four of these educators work in two different open preschools, which are lgbtq-certified by RFSL, The Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights, and two educators work in a preschool that explicitly say that they work with a norm criticism perspective.   In this study I found that the main discourses about norms were that they can be both positive and negative, but controlling and often invisible. Norms concerning sex/gender and sexuality were mainly described as limiting and narrow. The main discourses found about norm criticism were that it is a work without specific methods but that there are still norms concerning it. That norm criticism is about broadening the meanings of different norms and also, that how teachers talk and respond to children and parents affects them and how they understand and create themselves and others. The conclusions are that many discourses contradict each other in ways that are necessary. That the discourses mainly focused on educator’s and adult’s impact on children, and that norms which are perceived by the educators as dominant in society affect the educators discourses.

Startpunkten för denna masteruppsats var mina egna erfarenheter av att ha försökt arbeta med normkritisk pedagogik i förskolan och de funderingar, möjligheter och hinder jag då mötte. Det tycks som att det är lättare att skriva om och tänka kring dessa frågor än att faktiskt själv genomföra dem i praktiskt pedagogiskt arbete. Jag beslöt mig därför att i denna uppsats undersöka vilka möjligheter och problem som finns när pedagoger försöker arbeta normkritiskt i förskolan. I uppsatsen har jag intervjuat och tagit emot dagböcker från tre pedagoger som har uppgivit att de försöker arbeta med dessa frågor. I min undersökning har jag anlagt ett diskursanalytiskt och queerteoretiskt perspektiv. Jag har frågat pedagogerna om vilka normer som görs centrala i arbetet, hur de försöker arbeta med normkritisk pedagogik samt vilka förutsättningar, möjligheter och hinder de möter i det normkritiska arbetet. I pedagogernas tal om sitt normkritiska pedagogiska arbete har jag identifierat vissa normer som speciellt viktiga och framträdande; normer kring kön, sexualitet, hudfärg och etnicitet samt ålder. Ett gemensamt mönster som jag har identifierat handlar om en övergripande normkritisk motståndsdiskurs mot att tala i termer av binära kategorier. Det innebär att de intervjuade ofta definierar sitt normkritiska arbete som att det handlar om att utmana dikotoma kategorier som skapats via uteslutningar och motsatsförhållanden, såsom flicka är inte pojke, heterosexuell är inte homosexuell etc. I detta blir alltså språket tydligt en nyckel och ett redskap, dvs det är genom att undvika sådana benämningar och kategorier samt att hitta nya benämningar som mycket av det normkritiska arbetet utförs. Detta bildar en diskurs om språket som nyckeln i det normkritiska pedagogiska arbetet. Ur ett queerteoretiskt perspektiv kan en förstå detta språkliga motstånd mot dikotoma kategorier som en kamp för att göra fler liv begripliga. Genom förflyttningar av gränser för inneslutning och uteslutning deltar pedagogerna i en omförhandling av erkännande och därmed också, med filosofen Judith Butlers ord, av levbara liv. Dessutom placerar de intervjuade stort ansvar för arbetet hos sig själva. Det är de som pedagoger som själva ska utmana normer i en diskurs om ansvar. Detta arbete sker, menar de, i en förskola med stora barngrupper och för lite personal där det normkritiska pedagogiska arbetet ofta ligger på enskilda engagerade pedagoger som kämpar med bristande resurser för något de tror på. De förutsättningar för arbetet som pedagogerna beskriver har jag formulerat som en diskurs om en ansträngd förskola. Pedagogernas tal om normer och strategier har i hög grad fokus på de vuxnas förhållningssätt gentemot barnen, de vuxnas utmanande av normer och vuxnas språk. En av de utmaningar som jag ser att normkritiskt pedagogiskt arbete i förskola står inför är att fortsätta utforska och formulera vad normkritisk pedagogik kan vara tillsammans med barnen.

Equal treatment in school is an on-going debate in the Swedish society. At the same time teachers around the country struggles to make ends meet because of a heavy workload. Voices have been raised that teachers no longer have the time to actually be teachers since they get piled up with paper work and other administrative tasks. However, schools are bound by law to take action against harassments and discrimination of any kind. There is also an overall policy in the Swedish national curriculum that every school must embrace diversity and actively teach students about solidarity and respect. Because of that the Swedish school ministry forces schools to have a written plan for how they work with equal treatment. The study will, using one randomly selected Swedish compulsory school, investigate how students as well as personnel perceive this work and see how the plan translated from theory to practice. As a theoretical framework the study uses intersectionality and anti oppressive pedagogy as they give a functional perspective on how the work for equal treatment can be addressed. The study shows that the investigated school have both bright and dark sections in their work for equal treatment. Their plan is recently updated and therefore much of what is said there has not yet reached the daily activities. Even so, the interviewed students say that they feel safe at school and that they appreciate the work their teachers do to make everyone feel comfortable. Alongside with this all interviewed students acknowledges that issues about diversity and respect are not brought up in class accept for when something directly connected to the group has happened. This, together with the fact that the students have been completely left out of the process of making the equal treatment plan conflicts with both the national advices and the investigated schools own plan. The adults interviewed are aware of the problem and have suggestions for change. However, the fact that the students can, and have been left out shows a hierarchy of power used by the adults. The study also shows that the complex term anti oppressive pedagogy is used in the investigated plan but that what it is, and how it should be used in the school differs a lot among the adults interviewed. It is also problematic that the school claims to be using an anti oppressive approach and the students confirm that critical issues never gets highlighted unless a conflict occurs. The school has, however, high hopes for their equal treatment plan. They want to proceed and improve their work. To do so they need to include the students more in the work for equal treatment as well as clearing out and implementing the anti oppressive approach on a wider scale across its employees.

The purpose of this study is to examine how genders are made within the gender neutral discourse in the preschools equality treatment area. The study is based on critcal literature studies influed by discourse analysis and hermeneuitcs. It also relies on intervjues with two preschool teachers.  The study will examine and answer the following questions: How are genders made within the gender neutral discourse? How is the feminine and masculine problematized in preschool and how is the discourse within gender neutrality linked to norms, power and gender? The theoretical starting point of this study is gender. This starting point also includes norms, power and masculinity, to get a complete understanding of the problem area. The result of the study shows that the ambition to develope a gender natural policy in pre school is a problematic issue because the understanding of the concept neutrality excludes the feminine. Finally with critical eyes against the gender neutral concept my interpretation is that we need to concider the norms to be able to reach equal treatment and gender equality. These unwritten laws that norms produce creates  unbalance, power structure and exclusion between genders and individuals.     Keywords: Gender, Norm criticism, equal treatment, gender equality, gender neutrality. Nyckelord: Genus, normkritik, likabehandling, jämställdhetsarbete och könsneutralitet.