Male educators in early childhood care and education in Johannesburg : lived experiences and policy issues (original) (raw)
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This essay is focused on the relation between educational care and masculinities. From a theoretical perspective it falls within Men’s Studies and describes an empirical research study, mainly realized using a biographical approach, on male teachers working in Early Childhood education (ECE). The aim of this study is to explore the stories of the lives of some men who do jobs closely related to childcare, three of which are summarized in the boxes below in an unconventional form to experiment with a new way to disseminate the findings of the sociological research. The interviews are focused on the biographical turning points and tbe reasons the men chose jobs with tasks traditionally considered to be “female” duties, as well as how these teachers feel about their work, their caring and relational approaches, and if and to what extent their jobs are changing/have changed their perceptions of themselves, and, finally, on the nature of the reactions to their choice both in the micro an...
Listen up! Demystifying the cult of the male teacher in Early Childhood Education
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Education 3-13, 2018
Primary teaching ITT courses across the UK have been under pressure from central government, Ofsted and the media to recruit more male students to their courses with the aim of increasing the proportion of males in the primary teaching workforce. This is because increasing the number of male role models in primary schools has been mooted as the solution to boys' underachievement, especially in reading and writing. There is, however, little evidence showing any correlation between boys' educational outcomes and the number of male primary teachers in schools. The purpose of the project reported in this paper was to ascertain the beliefs of the future primary school workforce about this focus on the need for male role models in schools. A mixed methods approach was employed; 120 male and female primary trainees were surveyed and a further 48 took part in group interviews, all of whom were based in an Initial Teacher Training department in a university in North West England. Results indicated that although aspiring teachers felt that males and females could make equally good role models for children their personal value systems perpetuated the myth that boys need male role models to achieve better educational outcomes.
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Observation and literature confirmed that men are unduly scarce in the count of foundation phase teachers in South Africa and the few that are presented as foundation phase teachers are often criticized and ridiculed with the argument that foundation phase teaching is for women. Therefore, the study sought to understand gendered ideologies in order to address the issue of missing male teachers in the foundation phase, which is currently considered to be feminized. Using Sandra Bem’s Gender Schema Theory, the study explores the perceptions embedded within gender issues and how these influence the appointment of male teachers in the foundation phase in the Amathole Education District of the Eastern Cape Province. A qualitative approach was adopted, and a case study research design was employed where six participants (three males and three females) were purposely sampled and interviewed. Data were analyzed using content analyses where some themes emerged. The study revealed that most m...