Conceptualising the value of male practitioners in early childhood education and care: gender balance or gender flexibility

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to open up the rationales that are used to argue for an increase in male participation in the early childhood education and care (ECEC) workforce. Two theoretical concepts are highlighted and compared: gender balance and gender flexibility. An ethnographic study was conducted in one unusual nursery that has five male workers, using focus groups, one-to-one interviews and observations with male and female practitioners, managers and parents. Some practitioners used a discourse of gender balance to justify the value of the male contribution to the workforce, based on heteronormative ideas about the division of gendered labour within the traditional family. Others emphasised the importance of the highly versatile ECEC practitioner and linked a value for identity versatility with gender flexibility. Our findings lead to recommendations about the need to recruit, train and retain practitioners who are gender conscious and can respond to young children in gender-flexible ways.

KEYWORDS:

• Male teachers
• ECEC
• gender balance
• gender flexibility

Disclosure statement

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

Notes on contributor

Jo Warin is a senior lecturer in Educational Research and co-director of the Centre for Social Justice and Wellbeing in Education.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Childbase Partnership.