This book is for early childhood educators committed to learning about gender [in]justice as a foundation for creating gender affirming early learning environments for all children including those who are transgender and gender expansive (TGE). The authors engage in progressive and contemporary thinking about gender acknowledging its complexity, intersectionality, diversity and dynamism. They draw on Miranda Fricker's (2007) concepts of testimonial injustice to discuss how young TGE children are considered "too young" to have gender identities or to truly know themselves and hermeneutical injustice to represent the challenges TGE children face in educational environments that do not provide them with linguistic or interpretive tools to help them fully understand and communicate about their gender. Woven throughout the book are the lived experiences and counter-stories of TGE children and adults that privilege their voices and highlight their right to contribute equally to societal understandings of gender and to access all the tools a given society has available at the time to help them name and understand their own experiences.The authors provide discourse, conceptual frameworks and concrete strategies educators can use to inspire resistant social imaginations (Medina, 2013) and actions that improve gender justice for our youngest children.
Katie Steele is a gender equity researcher and writer for Gender Justice in Early Childhood. Julie Nicholson is professor of practice in the school of education at Mills College.
Chapter 1 - To be Twice Invisible: Professional Ethics in Early Childhood and the Epistemic Cliff Faced by Young Gender Expansive Children Chapter 2 - Theorizing from the Edge: Dismantling Boy/Girl Boxes and Looking to the Starry Sky to Construct Gender Constellations Chapter 3 - Testimonial (In)justice: Establishing Credibility in an Early Childhood Context of Identity Prejudice Chapter 4 - Hermeneutical (In)justice: Rendering Lived Experience as Visible Truth for Young Children Chapter 5 - Resistant Social Imaginations: Striating Paths for Gender Liberation in Early Childhood Classrooms
With TGE children being frequently harassed and/or made to feel invisible (and often with very serious consequences) - this book tackles a timely and important issue. The authors present a holistic and expansive view of gender - which accurately describes the diverse genders and experiences of children (and adults). The book offers both theoretical insights and practical solutions, and also includes the voices of TGE people. -- Dylan Vade, Co-Founder of Transgender Law Center
