Abstract:

Media of all kinds are generally one of the essential sources for lifelong learning processes. In this context, media participation begins long before children enter school (Chaudron, Di Giola & Gemo 2018) and hence, should already be promoted in early educational institutions. In fact, the media act as "worldview generators" for children (Rath 2000). Above all, they determine the opportunities for participation in our digital-mediatized world. Therefore, media competence becomes the key to the world, which determines educational opportunities and shapes the personality (Burns/Gottschalk 2019). Exactly, for this reason, it is essential to promote media literacy for all children at an early age and to introduce them - regardless of their gender or ethnic background, or other social attributing - to a reflective and competent use of media (Kontovourki & Tafa et al., 2020). Early education bears tremendous responsibility here. However, gender stereotypes (Meland & Kaltvedt 2017) and cultural preferences in the belief system (Hachfeld, Hahn, Schroeder & al. 2011, Pajares 1992, Calderhead 1996, Fenstermacher 1979) of early childhood educators affect not only children's development in general but also children's media literacy development.

This paper presents the results of a qualitative empirical study on teachers' beliefs on media competencies of pre-school children, which was conducted in 32 kindergartens of a mid-sized city in Germany (Marci-Boehncke & Rath 2013), located in an educationally disadvantaged and culturally diverse milieu. The paper will argue that:
(a) not only gender stereotyping and discrimination takes place in early childhood education for both sexes, but that
(b) discrimination also takes place on an ethnic level, whereby specifically Turkish children are intersectional disadvantaged due to the race and gender disparities in their teachers' perceptions.

This intersectional bias (Crenshaw 1989) threatens to reinforce already existing disadvantages. As we will show, the educators' non-reflective beliefs about children's gender and ethnicity lead to unconscious intersectional disadvantages and discrimination in particular against Turkish boys and girls regarding their development into competent media users. Already in early childhood education, this will reinforce educational inequalities and will affect children's development in terms of their self-esteem, social gender, related role model attributions, participation in political and social processes, and their educational careers.

Keywords:

Intersectionality, early childhood education, media literacy in early years, action research.