Childhood Education Within the Field

¶ … Childhood Education

Within the field of early childhood education, there is much debate about the role gender plays within the social and intellectual growth experience of younger children. A 2004 research evaluation from the Center for Early Childhood Leadership gave this overview about the contemporary situation:

A fundamental principle of child development underpinning early childhood practice is that children need stable, nurturing relationships with both men and women to develop strong gender identities. With more than 60% of young children in non-parental care during part of their day, it is of serious concern that less than 5% of the early childhood workforce is comprised of males. The low wages typically paid to early childhood teachers is often cited as the reason for this under-representation. However, this explanation only partly explains the phenomena as there are numerous low paying occupations in which both men and women are employed.

Almost three quarters of those surveyed agreed that low-wagers were the primary reason so few men worked in early childhood education. However, many felt strongly that individual and societal bias also accounted for the under-representation of males in the early childhood workforce. Many commented that these biases were either held by those in their organizations, or comments they had heard more than once in their career:

I don't think males have the nurturing qualities that females do. Men tend to be the hunters. Women naturally nurture.

Many men just don't enjoy spending time with children or have the patience needed to teach young children.

Society considers working with young children to be women's work so men who choose this work are looked down upon.

Parents don't want male teachers; we will lose children from program.

There are still strong cultural expectations that a man needs to be the primary wage earner and a women should be the primary caregiver.

Men are concerned about perceptions of why they would want to work with young children.

Men have told me that when people hear they work with young children, they assume they are gay.

I believe that many men worry about being subjected to unfounded allegations of child abuse (Ibid).

The results of this, and other surveys, show that there is still a large amount of personal and professional bias regarding men in the field of early-childhood education. There are gender-biased and gender-balanced practices in early-childhood educational organizations, but there is clearly the need for a further examination of the issue of gender within the field, and male involvement. Using three peer-reviewed articles as a template, we will examine the issue of males in early childhood education.

Overall Issues - Why is it important as an issue to not only discuss, but to actively find a way to engender more men in the early childhood experience?

There is a measurable changing of the role of men in society. Men are now moving towards engaging in more child care within the family structure. This is not yet adequately reflected in early childhood education, in teacher recruitment, and in most district employment practice. Society continues to evolve, men are more actively engaged in caring for their own children; yet the early childhood workforce seems stuck in the 1970s family model.

During their formative years of early learning and development, children 0-5 years are placed for up to 50 hours per week in childcare environment for education -- in an almost exclusively female environment. Children's time with adult males and their contact with positive male role models in the family/community is thus reduced. This is exacerbated with the high rate of divorce in the developed world, and the fact than many children grow up with no male figures in their lives (Sumison, 2005).

Most early childhood programs have goals of teaching children to be non-sexist in their attitudes, behaviors, and choices of play activities, sports, and friends. The composition of the workforce that these children observe does not meet these criteria.

Women have more career choices open to them, thus are not always inclined to teach at the preschool or elementary level. It is more difficult to find qualified teachers, and school systems should actively engage in finding the best fit.