Memories about Gender and Emotions – Pre-service Teachers in Early Childhood Education Tell about their Childhoods

Authors

• Outi Ylitapio-Mäntylä Oulun yliopisto
• Minna Uitto Oulun yliopisto

Keywords:

Childhood, Emotions, Gender, Memories, Narrativity

Abstract

Childhood memories focusing on family, relatives and friends have rarely been studied from the perspectives of gender and emotions. Employing a narrative approach, this article focuses on how gender and emotions are told about in childhood memories. The research material consists of written memories by 31 students of early childhood teacher education, which are analysed by theme and ways of telling. The research results illustrate how gender and emotions are intertwined in the students’ memories. The students tell about their memories through a gendered lens by defining their family, relatives and friends as female or male. Gender and emotions are described according to cultural stories, but these stories are also varied. Furthermore, memories about gender and emotions are tightly connected to embodiment. Our research concludes that childhood memories can help to understand the significance of gender and emotions in the everyday life of education.