Field side setting: Playground, Greenlake Park
There are various playing facilities, such as swings, slides, sand, climbers, playhouses, and etc. all the facilities are in fairly close distance to each other in one open area. The ground is paved with beach sand to prevent the kids from hurting themselves when falling or tripping.
Around the playground, there are all kinds of trees forming shades on the edge of the playing area. People who might be the kids’ parents are barbecuing under the shades near the picnic tables. Some young couples are resting on the grass hills under the sun. They are farther away from the playground.
The weather is warm with slight morning breeze. The Cherry trees around the playground are in full blossom. Overall, the playground appears to be a little overcrowded yet not overwhelming, conveying a sense of liveliness in the spring.
Research question:
What gender roles do young children portray in appearance/social action?
Researching method:
By employing Zelisal’s physical traces and environmental behavior, we sat on the bench near the playground and took observations of Merry-go-around, swings, and other playing facilities. We watched the kids play and their interaction with the people around them for approximately for about half hour and had discovered several appearance traces as well as social traces that would help us how gender role apply in such setting.
The results of analysis
One of the first things came to my eyes was that the boys, especially the older ones, tend to push the merry-go-around way more that the girls so. Although most time the job is still done by the adults dutifully, the boys try to push around just for fun. They also enjoy themselves by pushing while standing on the edge and the merry-go-around, seeming to challenge themselves with such tasks and fewer girls are seen attempting doing.
Another thing we observed was the clothing. I noticed that, despite all types of clothes the children wore at the playground, the typical color trend for boys and girls still prevail. For boys, almost all of them wore blue and something resembling that; whereas girls were dressed up with more and brighter colors with pink or red as the base color. Such phenomenon led us to believe that the gender roles are portrayed by children in many ways and certainly in the way of dressing. Dressing in two major different colors according their genders is definitely an important factor that builds up their self-image in later future, their gender roles are therefore constructed and confirmed at such an early stage.
Yet children themselves are less realization in such distinction in their gender roles than their parents are. One of major influences on roles of genders comes from the parents. At the playground, we observed that fathers outnumbered mothers greatly when pushing the swings for their kids. Also, father or male adults tend to push the merry-go-around, whereas the mothers or females adults stand by and watch the kids. This distribution of duties at the playground reflects the gender roles in adult society. Growing up with their parents’ gender role and learning from their behaviors, the young children will be aware of their gender roles and learn to fulfill them according the society’s needs and perceptions.
In conclusion, through our observations of the kids and their parents at the playground, I feel it is justify saying that the gender roles play a significant part in everyday life of young children, and they learn to portray the roles from the influences of both social and appearance actions.
Amsterdam research interests/preliminary questions:
For now, as vibrant and liberal as the city appears to be, I am leaning towards finding more about how the city functions with so many different perspectives and how are the people able to tolerate (more like enjoy though) the dissimilarities in every corner of the city. Who benefits from such liberalism and who suffers from it? What needs to be changed or kept to maintain the city in a harmonic tone if not the same?
There are various playing facilities, such as swings, slides, sand, climbers, playhouses, and etc. all the facilities are in fairly close distance to each other in one open area. The ground is paved with beach sand to prevent the kids from hurting themselves when falling or tripping.
Around the playground, there are all kinds of trees forming shades on the edge of the playing area. People who might be the kids’ parents are barbecuing under the shades near the picnic tables. Some young couples are resting on the grass hills under the sun. They are farther away from the playground.
The weather is warm with slight morning breeze. The Cherry trees around the playground are in full blossom. Overall, the playground appears to be a little overcrowded yet not overwhelming, conveying a sense of liveliness in the spring.
Research question:
What gender roles do young children portray in appearance/social action?
Researching method:
By employing Zelisal’s physical traces and environmental behavior, we sat on the bench near the playground and took observations of Merry-go-around, swings, and other playing facilities. We watched the kids play and their interaction with the people around them for approximately for about half hour and had discovered several appearance traces as well as social traces that would help us how gender role apply in such setting.
The results of analysis
One of the first things came to my eyes was that the boys, especially the older ones, tend to push the merry-go-around way more that the girls so. Although most time the job is still done by the adults dutifully, the boys try to push around just for fun. They also enjoy themselves by pushing while standing on the edge and the merry-go-around, seeming to challenge themselves with such tasks and fewer girls are seen attempting doing.
Another thing we observed was the clothing. I noticed that, despite all types of clothes the children wore at the playground, the typical color trend for boys and girls still prevail. For boys, almost all of them wore blue and something resembling that; whereas girls were dressed up with more and brighter colors with pink or red as the base color. Such phenomenon led us to believe that the gender roles are portrayed by children in many ways and certainly in the way of dressing. Dressing in two major different colors according their genders is definitely an important factor that builds up their self-image in later future, their gender roles are therefore constructed and confirmed at such an early stage.
Yet children themselves are less realization in such distinction in their gender roles than their parents are. One of major influences on roles of genders comes from the parents. At the playground, we observed that fathers outnumbered mothers greatly when pushing the swings for their kids. Also, father or male adults tend to push the merry-go-around, whereas the mothers or females adults stand by and watch the kids. This distribution of duties at the playground reflects the gender roles in adult society. Growing up with their parents’ gender role and learning from their behaviors, the young children will be aware of their gender roles and learn to fulfill them according the society’s needs and perceptions.
In conclusion, through our observations of the kids and their parents at the playground, I feel it is justify saying that the gender roles play a significant part in everyday life of young children, and they learn to portray the roles from the influences of both social and appearance actions.
Amsterdam research interests/preliminary questions:
For now, as vibrant and liberal as the city appears to be, I am leaning towards finding more about how the city functions with so many different perspectives and how are the people able to tolerate (more like enjoy though) the dissimilarities in every corner of the city. Who benefits from such liberalism and who suffers from it? What needs to be changed or kept to maintain the city in a harmonic tone if not the same?
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