Men in early childhood education

2009-06-15T02:50:00.000-07:00

Hi, I am one of the .94 percent of male early childhood teachers. When I became involved in education for children ( in my case 2.5 to 5 year olds ) I was confused and frustrated as to why the industry is represented by so few blokes. After having gained a diploma of teaching in early childhood education, a license to practice and a job in a full time ece center I began to develop my own theories why.

There seem to be two statistics as to the ratio of blokes in early childhood education ( ece ) Firstly why do we represent less than 1percent of the workforce in ece and why has that figure dropped from almost 2.5 percent in 1994 and is continuing to drop.

The well publisied case of Peter Ellis at Christchurch Creche didnt do us blokes any favours, with his alleged abuse of innocent children, infact for some time men cited this as a reason to stay well clear of jobs in childcare or ece.

After more than 5 years in ece I can say that never once has my integrity been questioned, nor have I been descriminaed against due to my gendar. Like every other teacher who is female, I do my share of diapers, changing, and all the other forms of nurturing that are a part and parcel of early childhood education and childcare.

To be an early childhood teachers, like most other ocupations takes a certain type of person. I never considered myself to be anything special, but I do like working with children ( that helps I guess) and women. I also fully expect that most most of the teachers I work with will be young enough to be my daughters. ( I am in my 50s ).

Gendar Issues.......I have never been a sexist by any means, my wife is certainly the main "bread winner" in our family and I would hardly be in ece if I made or thought sexist comments about women would I? However as time goes on, differences beween the ways that women do things compared to men are drawn into sharp focus. Being involved in an industry that has a nurturing almost maternal element at times seems to amplify this.

I have chosen to focus my attentions on children from 3 to 5 years old rarther than babies. I always been "steered away" from really young children because the usual opinion was that I would be better suited for older children. I agree and do have a great relationship with older children ( 3-5 year olds ) and their families, finding a great deal of exceptance and support from paents.

Unforunately as one of the few other male ece teachers told me " If it was only about the kids and the parents it would be great".

My opinion is that there are negative forces, biases, attitudes and predudices that exist as a result of mens involvement in early childhood eduaction that are driving the few of us blokes that are ece teachers out of the industry. These include our place within the "team" and basically a disaproval of the way blokes do things in general. It is far too convinient to blame this attitude on sexism, but I do belive there is an undercurrent of uncertaity and negativity to scares men in ece away.

Early childhod eduaction is a rewarding carrer that is constantly changing, always rewarding, and funny as heck. I would recommend it to any man. Don't be put off by feeling that you wont be trusted, at least not the way that Peter Ellis was involved, that for me was never an issue. Be aware though that some forms of trust or mis-trust are more underlying, ambiguous and even sinister.

Staff Synergy.

The Mouse....A teacher who gets on with things, not particularly dynamic or a go getter just some one who does the job and plods on from day to day. When they ave a half pie good idea or actually speak up, everyone admires them and gives them mre support than anyone else.

The Firework....A teacher who makes a lot of noise, very high profile and who tries to outshine everyone else...regardless or not whether they are actually better than anyone else, may or not be the head teacher or manager.

The Candle...A very average teacher who always complains about how tough things are.."Im so stressed, so sick, so tired ...burning the candle from both ends....in otherwords...a drama queen"

The Plodder....Just that....a teacher who has go ideas, a hard worker but because they never speak up for themselves, they are not appreciated or taken seriously....they just keep quite, and work on often getting called on to do the head teachers dirty work.

The Crawler.....A teacher who likes to "brown nose" others in authority...usually well known in the ece industry as "that bitch"

have found that in ECE a lot of early childhood centers seem to have all of these types of teachers...If it seems like I have a chip on my shoulder about this, I guess that is understandable, but out of the 5 ece centres I have worked at, this pattern of The mouse, firework,candle, plodder and crawler seem to be apparent in all centers.

Men in Early Childhood Education

Men in early childhood education