Masculinity as care: men can teach young children in the early years

ABSTRACT

In South Africa there are few male teachers in the Foundation Phase (FP) of schooling, where children are aged between five and nine. FP teaching is traditionally considered to be a ‘woman’s job’ and essentialist gender discourses play a central role in impeding men’s participation in the profession. These discourses are based on polarised differences between men and women that reinforce notions of care work as women’s work. Challenging gender binaries is vital if work options for both men and women are to be improved. Drawing on fieldwork with a group of South African primary school teachers, we demonstrate how feminised facets of FP teaching are contested by addressing flexible notions of gender which associate men with caring and gender equitable versions of masculinity. This recognition of men is especially important within a violent South African landscape in order to improve social relations amongst men, women and children.

KEYWORDS:

• Men
• Foundation Phase teaching
• young children
• caring
• masculinities

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Ilobola, is ‘the marriage practices the family of the man enters into with the family of the woman whom he desires to make his wife; practices which hinge around gifts and include blankets, mats, pots, clothes, and whatever items may be reasonably asked for or are believed to be liked by a specified family member of the bride, as well as currency (which used to be cattle but with urbanisation has increasingly taken the form of cash)’ (Ratele et al. 2010, p.561).

2. Inhlawulo is a cultural practice, where it is deemed necessary for an unmarried man to pay damages to a girl’s family for impregnation (Hunter, 2006).

3. In South Africa, the coloured race group is used to identify people of a mixed race (Anderson 2009).

Additional information

Funding

This work is based on the research supported by the South African Research Chairs Initiative of the Department of Science and Technology and National Research Foundation of South Africa [grant number 98407].