Attitudes to men in early childhood education

1 October 2007

When David Baxendell trained as an early childhood teacher at the start of the 1980s he was the only man in his year. "I had to remind people when they said 'now ladies' and I'd say 'and gentlemen'." However, he has happy memories of that time. "I didn't find it threatening and my fellow students treated me very well."

Fast forward to the turn of the century when Tahu Loper was training. "Me and fifty women!" Again he found his fellow-students were very supportive, even "protective'. I suppose they could see I really wanted to do this job".   However, he did feel excluded when it came to the content of, and approach taken in classes. While inclusion was talked about, he says he felt excluded because only one perspective was given.

Once a male teacher goes into the workforce, they can find themselves the centre of attention as a "novelty". As David Baxendell recalls: "In the early stages a lot of people came to look at me."   They were the adults. The children, he says, are much more accepting, although one did once ask "What do you do for a job?"

Attracting more men into early childhood teaching
All the men we spoke to for this feature had come into the job because they knew someone in the profession. David Baxendell believes one of the reason numbers are so low is that there is no visible face of men teaching young children. "The more men there are, the more visible this will be as a career option," he says. He also believes that the fact that more men are coming in to the early childhood centres and are taking an interest in their children's education seriously will help boost numbers. "They take us seriously and see us more as professionals and it's very important that we are seen as professionals."

He hopes the recently formed EC-MENZ organisation will help raise the visibility of men in New Zealand early childhood education. The group already has a website (www.ecmenz.org) and will hold its second Men in Early Childhood Care and Teaching Summit at Whitireia Polytechnic in Porirua next February.

But the men we interviewed don't expect to see gender balance in childhood education any time soon. Duncan Fisher believes there will be no significant rise in the percentage of men in the sector for several generations. While more men are now taking a bigger role in childbearing he believes it will be the children of their children who may finally see early childhood teaching as an acceptable occupation for a man.

In the meantime, he'd like to see more active promotion of men in information about the profession and by careers counsellors working in schools.