The Arts as a Pathway to Inclusive Kindergarten Sexuality Education
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18357/jcs513202621781Keywords:
sexuality education, early childhood education, the arts, queer pedagogy, queer theoryAbstract
This inquiry examines how comprehensive sexuality education in kindergarten can be enriched through arts-based pedagogy and queer theory. Guided by autoethnography, it explores how music, movement, and material provocations can embrace gender diversity, support inclusion, and challenge developmentalist delays that marginalize queer identities and experiences. Analysis examines the tension between responding to teachable moments and taking a proactive, scaffolded approach that weaves inclusive values through learning. Findings highlight the arts as dynamic means for expressing identity, advancing relational belonging, and cultivating inclusive, imaginative environments that affirm the right to self-expression.
Downloads
References
Balter, A., van Rhijn, T. M., & Davies, A. W. J. (2016). The development of sexuality in childhood in early learning settings: An exploration of early childhood educators’ perceptions. The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 25(1), 30–40. https://doi.org/10.3138/cjhs.251-A3
Balter, A., van Rhijn, T., & Davies, A. W. J. (2018). Equipping early childhood educators to support the development of sexuality in childhood: Identification of pre- and post-service training needs. The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 27(1), 33–42. https://doi.org/10.3138/cjhs.2017-0036
Balter, A., van Rhijn, T., Gores, D., Davies, A. W. J., & Akers, T. (2021). Supporting the development of sexuality in early childhood: The rationales and barriers to sexuality education in early learning settings. The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 30(3), 287–295. https://doi.org/10.3138/cjhs.2021-0034
Bergonzi, L. (2015). Gender and sexual diversity challenges (for socially just) music education. In P. Woodford, P. Schmidt, C. Benedict, & G. Spruce (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of social justice in music education (pp. 221–249). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199356157.013.55
Blaise, M. (2009). “What a girl wants, what a girl needs”: Responding to sex, gender, and sexuality in the early childhood classroom. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 23(4), 450–460. https://doi.org/10.1080/02568540909594673
Blaise, M. (2013). Charting new territories: Re-assembling childhood sexuality in the early years classroom. Gender and Education, 25(7), 801–817. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2013.797070
Blaise, M. (2014). Interfering with gendered development: A timely intervention. International Journal of Early Childhood, 46(3), 317–326. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13158-014-0122-9B
Blaise, M., & Taylor, A. (2012). Using queer theory to rethink gender equity in early childhood education. Young Children, 67(1), 88–98. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290316392_Using_queer_theory_to_rethink_gender_equity_in_early_childhood_education
Bochner, A., & Ellis, C. (2016). Evocative autoethnography: Writing lives and telling stories. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315545417
British Columbia Ministry of Education. (2022). Physical and health education. https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/physical-health-education
Davies, A. W. J., Balter, A., & van Rhijn, T. (2023). Sexuality education and early childhood educators in Ontario, Canada: A Foucauldian exploration of constraints and possibilities. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 24(4), 394–410. https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491211060787
Davies, A. W. J., Balter, A., van Rhijn, T., Spracklin, J., Maich, K., & Soud, R. (2022). Sexuality education for children and youth with autism spectrum disorder in Canada. Intervention in School and Clinic, 58(2), 129–134. https://doi.org/10.1177/10534512211051068
Deans, J., & Wright, S. (2018). Dance-play and drawing-telling as semiotic tools for young children’s learning. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315560069
Denzin, N. K. (2014). Interpretive autoethnography. SAGE.
Drazenovich, G. (2015). Queer pedagogy in sex education. Canadian Journal of Education, 38(2), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.2307/canajeducrevucan.38.2.07
Ederoclite, M. (2025). Everyday queering: Gender, presence, and pedagogical disruption in Italian early childhood education. International Journal of LGBTQ+ Youth Studies, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/29968992.2025.2584979
Eisner, E. W. (2002). The arts and the creation of mind. Yale University Press.
Ellis, C. (2004). The ethnographic I: A methodological novel about autoethnography. AltaMira Press.
Gouzouasis, P., & Yanko, M. (2018). Reggio’s arpeggio: Becoming pedagogical through autoethnography. In J. M. Iorio & W. Parnell (Eds.), Meaning making in early childhood research (pp. 56–70). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315297378-4
Greene, M. (2007). Democratic vistas: Renewing a responsibility. http://www.maxinegreene.org/articles.php
Greteman, A. J. (2017). Helping kids turn out queer: Queer theory in art education. Studies in Art Education, 58(3), 195–205. https://doi.org/10.1080/00393541.2017.1331089
Halberstam, J. (2011). The queer art of failure. Duke University Press.
Holman Jones, S., & Adams, T. E. (2010). Autoethnography is a queer method. In K. Browne, & C. J. Nash (Eds.), Queer methods and methodologies (pp. 195–214). Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315603223-13
Janmohamed, Z. (2010). Queering early childhood studies: Challenging the discourse of developmentally appropriate practice. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 56(3), 304–318. https://doi.org/10.55016/ojs/ajer.v56i3.55413
Kane, E. W. (2013). Rethinking gender and sexuality in childhood. Bloomsbury.
Keenan, H., & Hot Mess, L. M. (2020). Drag pedagogy: The playful practice of queer imagination in early childhood. Curriculum Inquiry, 50(5), 440–461. https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2020.1864621
Kennedy, D. (2020). Becoming child: Wild being and the post-human. In B. Weber & W. Kohan (Eds.), Thinking, childhood, and time: Contemporary perspectives on the politics of education (pp. 119–131). Lexington Books.
Kron, L., Tesori, J., & Bechdel, A. (2015). Fun home [Musical]. Samuel French.
Leggo, C. (2008). Personal and professional experience. In M. Cahnmann & R. Siegesmund (Eds.), Arts-based educational research in education: Foundations for practice (pp. 89–97). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315796147
Leonardi, B., & Staley, S. (2021). Cultivating a queer mindset: How one elementary school teacher is rattling common sense. Teachers College Record, 123(7), 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146812112300703
Malaguzzi, L. (1994). Your image of the child: Where teaching begins. Child Care Information Exchange, 3, 1–5.
Malaguzzi, L. (2012). No way. The hundred is there. In C. Edwards, L. Gandini, & G. Forman (Eds.), The hundred languages of children: The Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education (pp. 2–3). Ablex.
Meyer, E. (2007). But I’m not gay: What straight teachers need to know about queer theory. In N. Rodriguez & W. Pinar (Eds.), Queering straight teachers: Discourse and identity in education (pp. 15–32). Peter Lang.
Morrison, S. J. (2001). The school ensemble: A culture of our own. Music Educators Journal, 88(2), 24–28. https://doi.org/10.2307/3399738
Nemi Neto, J. (2018). Queer pedagogy: Approaches to inclusive teaching. Policy Futures in Education, 16(5), 589–604. https://doi.org/10.1177/1478210317751273
Pereira-García, S., López-Cañada, E., & Elling-Machartzki, A. (2022). Dancing queer tango: An experience of queer pedagogy in PESTE. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 41(1), 99–109. https://doi.org/10.1123/jtpe.2020-0097
Prioletta, J. (2018). Unequal education in preschool: Gender at play. Girlhood Studies, 11(2), 79–94. https://doi.org/10.3167/ghs.2018.110207
Prioletta, J., & Davies, A. (2024). Because boys don’t do ballet: Boys, femmephobia, and the potentials of a femininity-affirmative pedagogy in kindergarten. Journal of Childhood Studies, 49(2), 57–71. https://doi.org/10.18357/jcs492202421062
Province of British Columbia. (2026). BC’s course curriculum. https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/
Rinaldi, C. (2006). In dialogue with Reggio Emilia. Listening, researching, and learning. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203317730
Risner, D. (2007). Rehearsing masculinity: Challenging the boy code in dance education. Research in Dance Education, 8(2), 139–153. https://doi.org/10.1080/14647890701706107
Robinson, K. H. (2013). Innocence, knowledge, and the construction of childhood: The contradictory nature of sexuality and censorship in children’s contemporary lives. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203117538
Robinson, K. H. (2016). Children’s sexual citizenship. In N. L. Fischer & S. Seidman (Eds.), Introducing the new sexuality studies (3rd ed.; pp. 485–493). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315697215
Robinson, K. H., & Davies, C. (2008). “She’s kickin’ ass, that’s what she’s doing!”: Deconstructing childhood “innocence” in media representations. Australian Feminist Studies, 23(57), 343–358. https://doi.org/10.1080/08164640802233358
Robinson, K. H., & Davies, C. (2016). Sexuality education in early childhood. In L. Allen & M. L. Rasmussen (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of sexuality education (pp. 217–242). Palgrave Macmillan UK. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-40033-8_11
Roy, D., & Ladwig, J. (2015). Identity and the arts: Using drama and masks as a pedagogical tool to support identity development in adolescence. Creative Education, 6(10), 907–913. https://doi.org/10.4236/ce.2015.610092
Ruffolo, D. V. (2009). Queering child/hood policies: Canadian examples and perspectives. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 10(3), 291–308. https://doi.org/10.2304/ciec.2009.10.3.291
Snowber, C. (2016). Embodied inquiry: Writing, living, and being through the body. Sense. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6300-755-9
Springgay, S., Irwin, R., Leggo, C., & Gouzouasis, P. (Eds). (2008). Being with a/r/tography. Sense. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789087903268
Spry, T. (2001). Performing autoethnography: An embodied methodological praxis. Qualitative Inquiry, 7(6), 706–732. https://doi.org/10.1177/107780040100700605
Taylor, A. (2010). Troubling childhood innocence: Reframing the debate over the media sexualisation of children. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 35(1), 48–57. https://doi.org/10.1177/183693911003500108
Timmons, K., & Airton, L. (2023). Welcoming gender diversity in the early years: Interpreting professional guiding documents for gender-expansive practice. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 24(1), 32–45. https://doi.org/10.1177/1463949120978526
UNESCO. (2018). International technical guidance on sexuality education: An evidence-informed approach (2nd ed.). https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000260770
Vancouver School Board. (2018). Sexual health education: Administrative procedures manual. https://media.vsb.bc.ca/media/Default/medialib/ap_206_sexual_health_education.51218a14442.pdf
Vecchi, V. (2010). Art and creativity in Reggio Emilia: Exploring the role and potential of ateliers in early childhood education. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203854679
Wilkening, H., Wilkening, G., & Wilkening, P. (1973). The psychology almanac: A handbook for students. Brooks/Cole.
World Health Organization. (2023, May 18). Comprehensive sexuality education. WHO. https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/comprehensive-sexuality-education
Yanko, M. (2019). Learners’ identity through soundscape composition: Extending the pedagogies of Loris Malaguzzi with music pedagogy. LEARNing Landscapes, 12(1), 271–284. https://doi.org/10.36510/learnland.v12i1.994
Yanko, M. (2021). Living assessment: The artful assessment of learning in the arts [Doctoral dissertation, University of British Columbia]. UBC Theses & Dissertations. https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0396866
Yanko, M., & Gouzouasis, P. (2020). Storied assessment of the aesthetic experiences of young learners. In P. P. Trifonas (Ed.), Handbook of theory and research in cultural studies and education (pp. 695–712). Springer International. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56988-8_61
Yanko, M., & Lee, H. (2023). Resisting heteronormative traditions to stage the possible. Departures in Critical Qualitative Research, 12(4), 53–76. https://doi.org/10.1525/dcqr.2023.12.4.53
Yanko, M., & Yap, P. (2020). A symbiotic link between music, movement, and social emotional learning: Mindful learning in early learners. LEARNing Landscapes, 13(1), 249–264. https://doi.org/10.36510/learnland.v13i1.1018
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Matthew Yanko

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors contributing to the Journal of Childhood Studies agree to release their articles under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International license. This licence allows anyone to share their work (copy, distribute, transmit) and to adapt it for non-commercial purposes provided that appropriate attribution is given, and that in the event of reuse or distribution, the terms of this license are made clear.
Authors retain copyright of their work and grant the journal right of first publication.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.