This article presents an exploration of a group of Early Years Practitioners' (EYPs) perceptions of gender that may provide some insight into the growing divide between boys' and girls' educational performance [Burusic, J., T. Babarovic, and M. Seric. 2012. "Differences in Elementary School Achievement between Girls and Boys: Does the…

In this paper I seek to address a series of tensions in the ways we think, write and speak about gender in classrooms and playgrounds, and in the language we use to describe children and their behaviour. I shall examine some of the concepts we use for describing gender relations among children and consider the extent to which they are still…