Why are there so few male teachers in Early Childhood Education?

23 rd April 2018 I like to think of Aotearoa as a fairly tolerant, progressive country. We have embraced equality through legalising gay marriage. That being said why is the general public perspective still negative when it comes to embracing men in early childhood education. Most people are very accepting and welcoming of men working in the industry but there are still a portion who stereotype and discriminate. I first hand experienced discrimination and I am very lucky to only have encountered this one time in three years throughout multiple centres.   There is still a lot of work to be done in changing public view and it starts from within the education sector. The education reform, currently up for review, gives the government an amazing opportunity to address the shortage of men working in the sector by making it priority. Increasing salaries and placing priority on equality recruitment would make the job a lot more appealing for men to enter the profession. ...

https://www.google.com/search?biw=1366&bih=651&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=_sjdWu_4EIOV8wWp-r_IAw&q=men+in+ece+quotes&oq=men+in+ece+quotes&gs_l=psy-ab.3...66201.71793.0.71852.39.20.0.0.0.0.564.3534.2-2j3j2j2.10.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..30.6.2560.0..0j0i67k1.436.FadWBTeziLk#imgrc=wOJin6aNfR947M: 21st April 2018. “Men cross gender boundaries by choosing to work with children, and thus challenge societal norms as well as their masculine identity” (Brody, 2015 p.351). These perceived boundaries create risks such as sexism and discrimination for both the employer and employee when dealing with parents and whānau. From a management perspective there is a requirement to provide good working conditions for teachers, whether they be male or female. All staff deserve to be treated the same and a lack of equality between male and female teachers opens the door for discrimination.   Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education, 2017) advocates for the rights of ch...

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwi2mczprtDaAhWFyLwKHf3XBp0QjRx6BAgAEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fckmgrey.wordpress.com%2F2015%2F01%2F15%2Fno-human-should-be-without-rights%2F&psig=AOvVaw13rN74W33S-nhbmX6PfhOO&ust=1524571825420303 20 th April 2018 There has been very little push for the government to address the inequality of male teachers in early childhood. In fact, since the uproar in the early 1990s after the Peter Ellis convictions there was a significant drop in the number of male teachers working in the industry and this is only now starting to climb steadily. At a Governmental level there is policy for employer’s obligations and employees are covered by collective agreements or employmentcontracts . There does not however seem to be any policy to address the vast gender imbalance in the workforce which could be beneficial to recruit more male’s. The government seems ...

19 th April 2018 Historically teaching has been a female dominated profession with very few males entering the industry (Crisp & King, 2016;Williams, 2012; Sargent, 2005). Statistics show a decrease of men working in the Early Childhood Education (ECE) sector between 1992 and 2010. Male teachers made up 2.3% of the workforce in 1992 dropping to a low of 1% in 2005 and slowly building back up to 1.80% in 2010.   The number of male teachers halved between 1988 and 2005. There needs to be a balance of male and female role models in ECE (Farquhar et al. 2006). Generally, the culture within the ECE sector male teachers appear to be always welcomed with open arms and encourage them but the statistics of retention show a very different picture. Sargent (2005) proposed two circumstances present that contribute to the gender inequality in the workplace. The first circumstance is that majority of staff is female dominated and secondly that the nature of the work involved i...

-17 th April 2018. The purpose of this blog is to investigate why there are low numbers of male teachers in Early Childhood Education (ECE). From my own personal experiences as a training teacher I have only come across two men that I have meet within the ECE industry. Consequently, I have experienced first-hand the lack of male role models. Traditionally education has been a female dominated profession and the statistics for the ECE sector proves it. It is incredibly disappointing to see the latest figures in 2015 for male teachers come out at a lousy 2% of teachers. I think a vital part in these low statistics is the perception of teaching and care in ECE being ‘woman’s work’.   Historically within the Western world woman were considered the home keepers and were responsible for the education and care of their children. This was the role of women and these expectations travelled for future generations to come. Nevertheless, times have changed and now fathers have a...