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Embracing diversity: a novel approach to deconstructing gender stereotyped traits through gender atypical Kiswahili children's storybooks
This paper explores the potential of using gender atypical Kiswahili children's storybooks as a powerful tool to deconstruct traditional, ingrained gender stereotyped traits among children. In recent years, there has been a growing concern about the negative impact of gender stereotyped traits on children's development and self-perception. Traditional societal gender schemata often reinforce stereotypical traits for boys and girls from an early age, limiting their understanding of the diverse range of personalities, qualities, and characteristics that individuals can possess. Therefore, this paper adopts a novel approach that utilises gender atypical Kiswahili storybooks to challenge and reshape these preconceived notions about gender traits. The study explores how children construct gender traits when exposed to gender atypical Kiswahili children’s storybooks. Bandura’s social learning theory formed the theoretical framework on which the study was underpinned. Data was generated using drawings with grade three children from a purposively selected school in TransNzoia County, Kenya. The findings of this study revealed that when children were exposed to gender-atypical Kiswahili children’s stories, more girls compared to boys changed from constructing gender stereotyped traits to gender-atypical traits. The findings also revealed that even though some participants conformed to gender stereotyped traits, there was a change in their perspectives to adopt gender-atypical traits. This paper, therefore, suggests that exposure of children to gender-atypical Kiswahili children’s stories could deconstruct gender stereotyped traits during their early stages of socialisation. The paper recommends that Ministries of Education, Curriculum Development, and book publishers should develop guidelines and a policy framework to promote the authorship and publication of gender atypical Kiswahili children’s storybooks to enable children to construct gender traits in a neutral and nonsexist manner. This will enable children to question and redefine their understanding of gender, thus fostering a more diverse, inclusive, and openminded generation.
Keywords: Gender-Atypical Storybooks, Gender Stereotypes, Gender Traits
Author: Ekiru, Simon Esekon | ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-6560-3813
Institution: None | Centre: East and South African-German Centre for Educational Research, Methodologies and Management (CERM-ESA)
Type: Journal article | English | Peer Reviewed
Subjects: Education, Development
Published in: East African Journal of Arts and Social Sciences Print, ISSN 2707-4277, EISSN 2707-4285 | Vol. 8, no. 4, 2025
Publisher of document: Nairobi, Kenya: East African Nature and Science Organization
Date: 21 October 2025 | Pages: 113-131
https://doi.org/10.37284/eajass.8.4.3863
Copyright: © 2025 Simon Esekon Ekiru | License: Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0)
