Welcome to IOU Digital Library

This volume examines gendered and heteronormative norms embedded within early childhood education (ECE) in the Global South, including Brazil, China, Pakistan, South Africa, and Vietnam.

In this book, the contributors explore how gender, culture, religion, masculinity, sport, and conservative politics intersect to perpetuate and resist gendered and sexual norms. The book presents a range of possibilities for disrupting and challenging these norms within early childhood educational contexts. Grounded in colonial and postcolonial discourses, the book emphasises the entanglement of gender and sexuality in ECE with legacies of colonisation and surrounding social and cultural dynamics, highlighting our responsibility to address gender inequalities and injustices.

The book will appeal to researchers, faculty, and teacher educators with interests in gender and sexuality in education, international and comparative education, and early childhood education.