Men times ten: does the presence of more men support inclusion of male educators in early childhood education and care?

ABSTRACT

Retention rates for men in early childhood education and care (ECEC) are low. Exit is associated with experience of feeling ‘other’ perpetuated by judgements of men’s sexuality, motives, and ability. In this paper, we take the unique circumstance of many men working together in ECEC to ask whether more men on staff improves experiences of inclusion. We analyse interviews with 10 men working in two Australian ECEC centres in which male educators comprise >20%, of the staff; ten times the international representation of men in the ECEC workforce. Our data identify a developmental process in which supports and mentorship, from female and male colleagues, are critical to retention early in career. Beyond, the building of a distinct male contribution underpins continuing career engagement. However, with the presence of more men new tensions emerge as the ‘alien invader’ becomes the face of the centre, potentially eclipsing the contribution of female colleagues.

KEYWORDS:

• Early childhood
• occupational sex segregation
• childcare
• workforce
• diversity

Acknowledgements

The research team would like to acknowledge the support of our industry partner Goodstart Early Learning and also thank Dr Kate Liley for being a critical friend and facilitator for this research. The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course awarded financial support. We would also like to acknowledge Dr Azhar Potia for providing statistical background data. The research team could not have done this work without the interview participants. We thank them for their time, energy, and openness.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Australian Research Council [Children and Families over the Life Course]; Australian Government Department of Education [Research Training Program].

Notes on contributors

Victoria Sullivan

Victoria Sullivan, is a PhD student with The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course and The Institute for Social Science Research at the University of Queensland. Her research centres around, education, disadvantage, workforce and workplace wellbeing, diversity, and inclusion.

Laetitia Coles

Laetitia Coles, is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at The University of Queensland, Australia. Her research focuses on families and caregiving, childhood development, and gender dynamics in the home and at work from a sociological perspective. Her current topic areas of research include technology and sleep within the family context, gender, and men in ECEC, and the experiences of families of children with a disability.

Yuwei Xu

Yuwei Xu, is Assistant Professor in Education and Teacher Development at the School of Education, University of Nottingham. His research centres around the sociology of education, gender, and childhood; and he has researched topics such as gender and men in ECEC, child agency, child-centred diversity, and quality ECEC, and women in STEM.

Karen Thorpe

Karen Thorpe, is a Professor with the Queensland Brain Institute at the University of Queensland. She is a developmental scientist who works closely with government and non-government agencies to improve the lives of children and families. She has an international track-record in studies of the impact of early life experience on children’s ongoing life course, applying her expertise in large-scale longitudinal and observational studies to deliver policy and practice actions across the fields of health and education.