Laying out a script for students’ emotions through gender and emotion socialisation

Abstract

Acknowledging the harmful impact gender stereotypes have on children’s social and emotional development and education (Fawcett Society, 2020; King et al., 2021) is essential to fostering a positive developmental process. Utilising a gender and emotion socialisation lens, this preliminary study investigates the expression of gender stereotypes and feeling rules in school interactions. Building from Judith Butler’s (2006) theory of gender performativity and Arlie Hochschild’s (1979, 2012) concepts of feeling rules and emotion work, an ethnographic study was conducted at a Portuguese primary school in the spring of 2023. The preliminary data observed feeling rules and gender stereotypes in classroom discourse, learning material, and student acts.