‘Girls’ Toys and ‘Boys’ Toys: Learning Through Play

Gendered toys and their role in gender construction have, in recent years, been the subject of numerous media reports and research studies, mainly with pre-school children and predominantly from a developmental perspective. Raising concerns that gendered toys are reproducing and reinforcing gendered stereotypes and affecting children’s potential. Although this research has been valuable, it has neglected primary school-aged children’s lived experiences of toys and gender. This thesis addresses that gap by exploring how primary school children negotiate gender through toys and play. A child-centred, participatory approach, from a playwork perspective, was used to explore children’s lived experiences of toys and gender. Children were observed playing, and engaged directly through interviews, focus groups and two card-sorting activities, aiming to ascertain children’s toy preferences and the reasoning behind them. The study found that gendered toys activated gendered boundaries, causing children to negotiate gender and conduct borderwork. The research also highlighted other, multiple factors that influenced children’s gendered negotiations, including dominant gender discourses; children’s individual personalities and the influence of their peers; adults’ beliefs and gender assumptions; and the play environment and culture. To understand how these factors affected children’s gendered negotiations and performances during play, a unique intersectional and reflexive tool – staging – was developed. Staging is based on Goffman’s (1959) dramaturgical analysis and uses the analogy of the theatre to illuminate the multiple and often-complex influences on children’s gendered negotiations and performances during play. Implications for policy and practice are a better understanding of the influences that contribute towards children’s gendered negotiations during play, enabling reflection on practice and evaluation of the play environment. However, Staging can also be adapted to focus on other complex issues in play settings, such as disability, class, or ethnicity.