Dr Mindy Blaise

Biography

Before receiving her doctorate in early childhood education from Teachers College, Columbia University, Mindy was a kindergarten and second grade teacher in the US. Mindy is interested in 'doing' research with young children and teachers and spent a year in an urban kindergarten classroom, conducting a qualitative and feminist poststructuralist study of gender. As a recipient of a Spencer Small Research Grant, Mindy continued to explore the active role that children took in constructing and regulating gender in their classroom. She is currently working with a group of early childhood teachers in Victoria who are revolutionising the work that they do with children, families, and colleagues. Mindy remains committed to troubling early childhood teaching and researching.

Research Interests

Gender

Identity Politics

Classroom based research

Qualitative Research Methods

Play

Professional Associations

• Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE)
• SIG: Early Childhood Education; Gender and Sexualities
• American Educational Research Association (AERA)
• Division K: Teaching and Learning; SIG: Critical Perspectives on Early Childhood Education, Early Education andDevelopment, Queer Studies in Education
• Early Childhood Australia (ECA)
• National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)

Community Service

• Professional Service
• Research Fellow, Centre for Equity and Innovation in Early Childhood (CEIEC), Melbourne University (2000-present)
• Executive Board Member, Chair (2004-2005) of the Special Interest Group: Critical Perspectives in Early Childhood, American Educational Research Association.
• Review Book Proposals and Manuscripts
• Routledge Press, Teachers College Press Early Childhood Series, Open University Press, Merrill Prentice Hall, The New Educator, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, Australian Research in Early Childhood Education.
• Conference Planning Committee Member
• Centre for Equity and Innovation in Early Childhood (2002-2005)
• Pacific-Rim Early Childhood Research Association Conference (2004)
• Peer Reviewer of Conference Paper Proposals
• Australian Association for Research in Education
• American Educational Research Association
• Reconceptualising In Early Childhood Education
• Centre for Equity and Innovation in Early Childhood Conference

Editorial

Early Childhood Research Quarterly

Publications

Recent Publications (2000-2006) for Dr Mindy Blaise (formerly Ochsner)

Latham, G., Blaise, M., Dole, S., Faulkner, J., Malone, K., and Lang, J. ( 2006). Learning to Teach: New Times, New Practices. Oxford University Press.

Blaise, M. (2005). Playing it straight!: Uncovering gender discourses in the early childhood classroom. NY: Routledge Press.

Blaise, M. (2005). A feminist poststructuralist study of children doing gender. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 20, 85-108.

Blaise, M. & Andrew, Y. (2005). How bad can it be?: Troubling gender, sexuality, and teaching in early childhood education. In N. Yelland (Ed.) Critical Issues in Early Childhood (pp.49-57). Open University Press.

Blaise, M. (2005). Performing femininities through gender discourses. In. B.B. Swadener & L. Diaz Soto (Eds.) Power and Voice in Research with Children (pp.105-116). NY: Peter Lang.

Genishi, C., Ryan, S., Ochsner, M., & Yarnell, M.M. (2001). Teaching in early childhood education: Understanding practices through research and theory. In V. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of research on teaching (4th ed.). (pp. 1175-1210) Washington D.C.: American Educational Research Association.

Ochsner, M. (2001). Developing reciprocity in a multimethod small scale research study. In G. Mac Naughton, S. Rolfe, & I. Siraj-Blatchford (Eds.), Doing early childhood research: Theory and process. An international perspective. NY: Allen & Unwin.

Ryan, S., Ochsner, M., & Genishi, C. (2001). Miss Nelson is missing!: Teacher sightings in research on teaching. In S. Grieshaber & G. Canella (Eds.), Embracing identities in early childhood education: Diversity and possibilities. NY: Teachers College Press.