Kindergarten children’s attitudes towards homosexuality: The influence of puppet theatre on the topic of diversity in a group of kindergarten children

Maus, Johanna; ALEKSIC, Gabrijela

doi:10.1007/s42087-022-00320-8

Article (Scientific journals)

Kindergarten children’s attitudes towards homosexuality: The influence of puppet theatre on the topic of diversity in a group of kindergarten children

Maus, Johanna; ALEKSIC, Gabrijela

2023 • In Human Arenas

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

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https://hdl.handle.net/10993/53994

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10.1007/s42087-022-00320-8

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Keywords :

puppet theatre; homophobic stigma; kindergarten

Abstract :

[en] Homophobic stigmas and the discrimination of homosexual people are still worrying in today’s society. The current study seeks to investigate kindergarten children’s attitudes towards homosexuality and how they are influenced by their peer-groups and authorities. It does so by means of a puppet theatre presentation including ‘Kasperl’ and ‘Seppel’ puppets as the main protagonists in a German puppet theatre. The audience consisted of six German kindergarten children aged 4–6 years, randomly selected by the kindergarten director. A participant observation has been conducted with the first researcher as the presenter of the puppet show. The results of the recorded puppet theatre showed that several intragroup processes including the social identity theory with regard to group membership could be observed within the puppet theatre. Groups have been formed and children of the same ingroup showed equal attitudes towards homosexuality. However, the researcher’s influence as an authority figure could have as well impacted their attitudes through positive reinforcement. The present study contributed to the gap in research regarding kindergarten children’s attitudes towards homosexuality. To have a better overview of the results, future studies should include additional variables like kindergarten’s cultural and geographical differences.

Disciplines :

Education & instruction

Author, co-author :

Maus, Johanna

ALEKSIC, Gabrijela ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences (DBCS)

External co-authors :

yes

Language :

English

Title :

Kindergarten children’s attitudes towards homosexuality: The influence of puppet theatre on the topic of diversity in a group of kindergarten children

Publication date :

2023

Journal title :

Human Arenas

ISSN :

2522-5790

eISSN :

2522-5804

Publisher :

Springer, Cham, Switzerland

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Focus Area :

Educational Sciences

Available on ORBilu :

since 21 January 2023

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