Time for Men to Be Early Childhood Teachers, ChildForum survey shows
ChildForum Early Childhood Network
Sept 7, 2012
More men in the early childhood education sector would not only bring a range of benefits for children, but could also
lift the quality of early childhood education, improve staff dynamics and encourage fathers to become more involved with
their child’s education, a new survey shows.
A more diverse workforce, with men represented as well as women, is seen as being necessary to expand the quality of
early childhood education for children and bring different viewpoints and ways of working to the ECE profession and the
sector.
The ChildForum Early Childhood Network survey questioned hundreds of people involved with early childhood education
services and teacher educators about whether they would like to see more men in the workplace and what benefits or
disadvantages that could bring.
The survey was conducted over one week in August and received more than 800 responses.
ChildForum CEO Dr Sarah Farquhar says women dominate the childcare and early education sector in New Zealand with more
than 98 percent of the early childhood education workforce being female.
“It would seem that society accepts the gender imbalance because the work involves being with young children” she says.
“The size of the early childhood sector and its workforce has grown exponentially over the past decade and early
childhood teaching has become professionalised with more qualified early childhood staff, but no significant increase in
male representation has occurred.”
The survey showed most respondents felt more men in early childhood teaching would benefit:
• children’s access to male role models (96% respondents)
• dad and male caregiver participation in their child’s ECE programme (85% respondents)
• children’s behaviour and social skills (78% respondents)
• children’s physical skills and development (78% respondents)
• staff relationships/team dynamics (70% respondents)
• children’s learning experiences/outcomes (67% respondents)
• the social status of early childhood work (64% respondents)
Around half of the respondents (47%) felt that parents would place a higher value on early childhood education if more
men were involved while only 11% felt that parents would see an ECE service as a less safe place for children if men
were employed.
Dr Farquhar says the results go against suggestions that ECE services feel they should not support men as teachers
because it would be unsafe for children.
“In fact from what some respondents said it could have quite the opposite effect of making children safer through a
heightened sense of the importance of ensuring safety and normalising the involvement of men in teaching”, she says.
The majority of respondents (64%) would like to see the Government play an active role, in some way to challenge the
persistent gender imbalance in the ECE workforce although others felt it was the responsibility of ECE services and
training organisations or even men themselves to take the initiative.
Dr Farquhar says despite being a country that is recognised internationally as being at the forefront of gender equality
in other areas, there have been no sustained initiatives to address the gender imbalance in the ECE sector.
However, the survey feedback provides a clear message that the Government must act to address this issue.
Many respondents felt the lack of men in ECE was a social issue that needed to be dealt with in the same pro-active way
as some other gender inequalities such as the need for more women in Parliament or in professions such as law and
medicine.
“The results suggest that while individual services and training organisations can, if they wish, go some way to making
the sector more attractive to men, to achieve any significant increases a wider more prominent campaign or policy push
is probably needed”, says Dr Farquhar.
While many felt the Government should act on the issue there was some concern about impacts on women in the sector and
whether it could take spending away from other areas in ECE.
Some said there might be fewer employment opportunities for women, that men might get special treatment or be given
better jobs, and that men who had not proven themselves capable of basic care-giving might be accepted into the
profession.
A range of suggestions on how more men could be encouraged were put forward, including scholarships, media campaigns,
incentive grants to ECE services, setting performance indicators for male employment, and helping to make ECE teaching
an attractive career option.
Further surveys on this issue could gauge whether parents would support more men in ECE and the support among MPs and
government officials, Dr Farquhar says.
To view the full report and findings click here
For an earlier news items on ECE services that employ the most men click here
About the ChildForum Early Childhood Network: ChildForum is the national ECE network in New Zealand providing fresh thinking, information and research on childcare
and early childhood education. Early childhood services across the sector, employers/managers, educators and parents are
supported by ChildForum. ChildForum’s members also include teacher educators, researchers, health professionals and
child advocates. For more information see ChildForum’s website at http://www.childforum.com
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