Queer Circle Time: Inviting Children’s Responses to 2SLGBTQI+ Picture Books

At a time when 2SLGBTQI+ identities are targeted with increasing hostility, criminalization, and attempted erasure by government officials, binary gender norms saturate the field of early childhood education (ECE). While there has been a surge in the publication of gender-diverse children’s literature in recent years, many of these books are now banned in the United States, which impacts their reception in Canada, including BC, Alberta, and New Brunswick. This study elicits children’s responses toward picture books about gender nonconformity, demonstrating how circle time can be queerly reimagined and practiced in ECE. Grounded in queer theory and trans studies, queer circle time is presented as an urgently needed and replicable pedagogical practice for ECE.