Not by the hair of your chinny chin‐chin, I'm not so sure that we're letting you in

Abstract

It's no good telling people what you want if what you want is for them to know without your telling them.(Tannen, 1986, p.57)

Deborah Tannen cites conversations between men and women to explore how metamessages (rapport, directness/indirectness, connectedness/avoidance) in communication impact our relationships for the better and often for worse. In many ways, this dance of communication plays out in the female mentorship of males in early childhood preservice experiences. The metamessages of females impact their effectiveness in mentorship and impacts how males look upon their career choice and their own sense of efficacy to carry out their roles as early childhood educators.

Gender bias subtly weaves its ways into the fabric of professional ethos of educational practice. The female ethos in early childhood education often acts as a finely woven screen that makes it difficult for men to open the door to try out,let alone enter the profession. The invisible questioning screens of Do males care, notice detail, do they clearly see children's needs, do they understand the female way?need to be explored so that supportive mentorship can be consciously extended to male preservice educators. This article tells the stories of two male preservice educators and their struggles to open the door of the female ethos in their clinical experiences. Their stories point to the idea that we still have a long way to go to support males in their initial journey to become early childhood educators. © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

Notes

Corresponding author. Tel.: [phone]. E-mail address:[email protected] (S.E. Morrison).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sally E. Morrison*

Corresponding author. Tel.: [phone]. E-mail address:[email protected] (S.E. Morrison).