Paper short abstract:

Qualitative research techniques, employed with 9-12-year-old, aid in understanding the (re)production of gender inequalities normalized by the discourse of heterosexuality

Paper long abstract:

The results of our research on sexuality from a gender perspective involving boys and girls have revealed a contradiction between the egalitarian narratives they express and their everyday practices. In these practices, they often unknowingly reproduce gender inequalities. Building upon the reflexive process of qualitative research (Davis, 1998), understood as the acquisition of self-awareness and political awareness through self-analysis, this article aims to demonstrate how qualitative research techniques produce a self-reflexive process that can enhance children’s awareness of the (re)production of gender inequalities.

Alanen (1994) reflected on the limitations of children's involvement within the school institution, in terms of the predominance of power relations between adults and children. Her proposal for researchers to become adult 'allies' aimed to equip children with analytical tools that would enable them to become aware of the gendered power relations manifested within the classroom and normalized by the regulatory discourse of heterosexuality (Blaise, 2009).

Through six workshops conducted with children aged 9 to 12 (4th, 5th, and 6th grades) at a public primary school in a high-middle-class neighborhood in Barcelona, conducted in 2020 and 2021 during the Covid pandemic, this paper describes three ethnographic cases in which the self-reflexive process has been applied. Boys and girls analyze self-produced ethnographic material with the objective of prompting them to question gender through three symbolic elements: skirts, abs, and football. The results demonstrate that participating boys and girls feel challenged by the researchers' questions, gain awareness, and subsequently transform their everyday realities.