Logics of categorization at the frontline: how do kindergarten professionals apply and block stereotypes?

• Ano de defesa: 2024
• Autor(a) principal: Sampaio, Gabriela Thomazinho Clementino
• Orientador(a): Lotta, Gabriela Spanghero, Møller, Marie Østergard
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Palavras-chave em Português: Burocracia de nível de rua; Trabalhadores da linha de frente; Estereótipos; Categorização; Profissionalismo; Profissionais da pré-escola
• Palavras-chave em Inglês: Street-level bureaucracy; Frontline workers; Stereotypes; Categorization; Professionalism; Kindergarten professionals
• Palavras-chave em Espanhol: Burocracia de calle; Trabajadores de primera línea; Categorización; Profesionalidad; Profesionales de la educación infantil
• Link de acesso: https://hdl.handle.net/10438/35866

Frontline workers are the public employees who encounter citizens on the frontline of policy implementation. Common features among part of these workers are the regular interaction with citizens and their discretion power to decide how to face each case. Frontline workers often deploy stereotypes when categorizing citizens. The utilization of stereotypes configures a simplified use of categories, commonly exaggerating the differences between ourselves and the members of the stereotyped social category. There is a literature gap in explaining the variations in the use of stereotypes by frontline workers and more empirical research should have this focus. This thesis introduces the Categorization Logic Scale — a continuum ranging from 'stereotyped categorization' to 'investigative categorization'. The stereotyped categorization is the process in which the classifier deals with the classified one as if the latter had all the stereotypical characteristics of his perceived membership group, and there is no attempt to create a more accurate personal identification of the other. The investigative categorization is the continuous process of formulation of hypotheses about the other, verification, and formulation of new hypotheses, and there is a high level of openness to enquire if initial hypotheses can be proved with new observations and interactions. Based on an institutionalist perspective, this thesis investigates how frontline workers use institutional repertoires when categorizing citizens. The empirical case is professionals working in Brazilian kindergartens. Based on fieldwork done in 8 kindergartens, which included interviews and the application of vignettes with 46 kindergarten professionals, the thesis aims to answer two research questions: i) What are the reasonings produced by kindergarten professionals when they categorize children?; ii) How do political-administrative, professional, and sociocultural institutions influence these reasonings? By analyzing the interviewees' reactions to the vignettes, the study identifies a large variation in the logic of categorization used by each kindergarten professional. The results show how workers who were more embedded in the Pedagogy profession were more investigative - and drew less on stereotypes. The professional embeddedness enhances investigative categorization mainly when the interviewees used the professional logic of diagnosis and problem solution, or indicated the importance of collaboration with peers, knowledge development, and reflection about their practice. Another pattern was that kindergarten professionals with higher background status tended to be more investigative than the ones with a lower background status. The qualitative analysis provided two complementary explanations for this result. Interviewees with a higher background status had a greater embeddedness and commitment to the profession. The second explanation is that some of the interviewees with a low-status background used more moral norms to categorize the families presented in the vignettes as a way of distancing themselves from them. The analysis also indicated that interviewees working in some kindergartens were more investigative than the ones working in other organizations. The comparison of the kindergartens gives insights into how a scholastic/punitive orientation and lack of support for professionals may make it harder for the professional to have an investigative approach.