‘Troubling men who teach young children’: masculinity and the paedophilic threat

ABSTRACT

Gendered norms construct teaching young children in Early Childhood Education (ECE) as a ‘feminine profession’ and as ‘women’s work’. Subsequently, men whoteach young children are often scrutinised. One troubling factor confronting men entering the profession is the construction of men as potential paedophiles. Scholars in the Global North have shown how a conflation of homosexuality with paedophilia positions gay men as actual and potential paedophilic perpetrators. We present a view from the Global South which demonstrates how South African male ECE preservice teachers favour gay men as teachers of young children . Gay men were depicted as feminine and more appropriate for teaching ECE than heterosexual men. Additionally, gay men were constructed as men who did not pose a paedophilic threat in ECE. Conversely, heterosexual male power and violence were used to distance heterosexual men from ECE. These findings demonstrate the fluidity of masculinity and the paedophilic threat in ECE.

KEYWORDS:

• Male teachers
• foundation phase
• masculinity
• heterosexuality
• gay
• paedophilia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The FP of schooling in South Africa comprises of early childhood education where learners are aged between 5 and 9.

2. Light-hearted in this specific context denotes being less strict and more amenable to being approachable in the classroom- a demeanour that is needed to teach younger children, and this contrasts the callous and hard nature stereotypically associated with South African men in the context of high levels of male violence and toxic masculinities (Moosa and Bhana 2020)