Head of the Class: a Survey of Male Attitudes Toward Teaching in Early Childhood Education
Head of the Class:
A Survey of Male Attitudes Toward Teaching in Early Childhood Education
McKenna Michell Keenan
Undergraduate Student
Saint Mary’s College
Notre Dame, IN 46556
(574) 284-4429
Advisor: Susan Alexander
Department of Sociology
Saint Mary’s College
(574) 284-4728
ABSTRACT
This research project surveyed male educators from the Listserv, MenTeach.org to examine their attitudes and perceptions towards teaching in Early Childhood Education. Males in this profession are viewed as deviating from the socially prescribed gender role. This study involves a survey that asked the respondents open-ended and closed-ended questions about demographics, attitudes, and perceptions in regard to Early Childhood Male Educators. Factors included the location of schools, salary, experience, and the societal roles and attitudes. Most respondents were comfortable with their role in society as an educator, but they did experience negativity from society in regards to their motives for entering the profession.
Head of the Class: A Survey of Male Attitudes Toward Teaching in Early Childhood Education
There is a lack of men working in the field of early childhood education. Jackman (2005: 12) defines early childhood education as “the curriculum, programs, and settings that serve young children, from birth through the eighth year of life.” The presence of males in early child education is often hidden or unknown. Individuals sometimes have problems accepting others who deviate from the social norm. For example, males working in Early Childhood Education are often questioned about their motives for entering the field. The purpose of this paper is to define male’s attitudes and perceptions toward teaching in Early Childhood Education. In particular, this study seeks to understand how males view their role in educating, the barriers for men entering into education, why males choose education, the biases or stereotypes men face as early childhood educators, and the retention rate of men working in early childhood education.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Importance of men in Early Childhood Education
The father of the kindergarten movement, Frederick Froebel, had an all-male staff for the first kindergarten that opened in 1837; in fact, women only began teaching after Froebal married (Clyde 1994). Teachers, both female and male are viewed by their students as a stable, adult figure in their lives; therefore, Rodriguez (1997) argues that it is imperative that schools have both men and women represented in their faculty. Barnard (2000: 17) argues that “men in early childhood education are thought to break traditional stereotypes about male careers.” Barnard (2000) believes that men should be encouraged to enter early childhood education because they serve as positive male role models. Since the 1970s the important role of men in the field of early childhood education has been acknowledged (Barnard 2000). Farquhar (1997: 5) states “social learning theory supports the popular belief about the importance of the “male” influence on the development of children’s behavior and attitudes up to about the age of eight years.”
According to Barnard (2000), children benefit from the presence of men in the classroom and the greater the number of men working with children better reflects the diversity of the world. Clyde (1997) notes that although men, by preference, may opt for physical activities, they can still meet the child’s needs socially, emotionally, and cognitively. Farquhar (1997) finds that boys are more likely to relate to and imitate a male rather than a female teacher. Barnard (2000: 18-19) noted “having men involved in early childhood education would allow children to see that men can be nurturing, loving, and understanding” and the early bonds between males and children can help clear the stereotype of women being the nurturing gender.
Scarcity of men
According to Barnard (2000), the number of men working in early childhood education is low. Only 12 percent of elementary teachers nationwide are men and the majority of them teach in the upper level elementary grades leaving very few in early childhood education (Rodriguez 1997). According to Clyde (1997), women thought the limited number of males in the early childhood profession was due to a lack of public acceptance, lack of promotional pay and opportunities, stigma of male involvement and child abuse, and conflict of males performing basic care tasks.
Barnard (2000) finds that a reason for scarcity of men in early childhood education includes the gender stereotypes that hold that women create a more nurturing environment, provide a more moral example than men, and are viewed as fulfilling the role of nurturer and teacher for young children. Additionally, Santiago (1999: 4) found “that some men may feel that teaching young children is not a masculine job and think that it is best suited for women.”
Emergent issues for men
Barnard (2000) noted that two main barriers that prevent men from entering the field of early childhood education include the lack of status associated with teaching young children and the low salary earned. Cooney and Bittner (2001) surveyed males enrolled in early childhood education courses and identified six emergent issues experienced by men choosing to study early childhood education including: low salaries, family and other influences to enter the field, teaching beyond the basics, improving pre-service education, recruitment of males into the field, and advantages and disadvantages of being males in a field dominated by women.
According to Cooney (2001), the public perceives teaching to be an undemanding occupation with low salaries. Cooney (2001: 78) found that men “wanted to be the sole provider for the family and worried that the low salary would put their spouse and children in jeopardy.” Farquhar (1997) also found that wage-level or earnings is an important factor for men. Rodriguez (1997) found that 60% of the men surveyed would leave the field based on the low pay.
In addition, potential male teachers are lost from the field of early childhood education due to college classroom bias. Males want to study in a gender- neutral learning environment and they expressed feeling uncomfortable or isolated talking with female colleagues about their classroom issues. Male education students expressed the desire to have other males as their mentors, according to Cooney (2001). Additionally, Santiago (1999) argues that some men do not enter the field because they have a fear of being labeled as a pedophile or being falsely accused of sexual abuse. Rodriquez (1997: 9) agrees that the “threat of suspicion, false reports, and mostly, conviction of an abuse or harassment charge” is a major reason that keeps men from pursuing a career in early childhood education.
Recruitment and retention of men
Since many males on predominantly female staffs tend to feel isolated, Barnard (2000) argues that it is important to recruit and hire as many men as possible. Cooney (2001: 80) found that “having other males as role models was seen as an affirmation of their career choice to see another male who made the same choice.” Even if males are successfully recruited into early childhood education, retaining them can be difficult. Barnard (2000) argues that it is important for the work environment to feel safe, to value males, and to show support for their professional and personal growth. In addition, males and females should be assigned similar tasks, and tasks should not be stereotypical of a man’s athletic or mechanical skills.
Santiago (1999) found that females who have previously worked with males are more welcoming and do not practice prejudice or carry out stereotypes towards their male colleagues. However, Barnard (2000) found that female early childhood educators believe that the salary is inadequate in order to recruit males; therefore, incentives such as signing bonuses or releasing college loans would be helpful. Farquhar (1997: 8) found “an improvement in wages would be one way of raising the status of teaching and at the same time attract more men into the profession.” Barnard (2000) suggests that media campaigns displaying the unique roles men could play in early childhood education may help recruit men into the field, and advertisements might display early male childhood education as socially important in order to encourage males to apply.
Why men choose to teach?
Santiago (1999) found that men chose to teach for altruistic reasons. For example, interviews with four males currently teaching in early childhood education revealed the reasons for males entering the field. These reasons included encouragement from family and friends, previous job dissatisfaction, desire to be a teacher throughout life, following in a family member’s footsteps, and an overall love for teaching (Santiago 1999). Men also remained in early childhood education for altruistic reasons that included: opportunities to nurture, contribute something to this age group, and general love and enjoyment of working with young children (Santiago 1999).
Rodriguez (1997: 8) reports “most men who teach agree that they feel like a strong influential role model to their students, both boys and girls.” To assess what men think about teaching at the early childhood education level. Rodriguez (1997) surveys 20 males currently working in the field. Rodriguez (1997: 10) says “most of those who responded (65%) reported they are in the field of early childhood education because they love working with children.”
Children need educators of both sexes, but women are more predominant in the field. For sociologists interested in gender issues, it is important to assess why men choose or elect not to be in a predominantly female occupation like early childhood education.
MASCULINITY THEORY
For many individuals, the difference between sex and gender is unclear. According to Kimmel (1997: 1), sex is defined as the biological trait that categorized individuals in society as either male or female and gender is “a central, primordial experience, one that permeates every aspect of social life, constructing the values, attitudes, and behaviors that constitute cultural experience.” In other words, gender is socially constructed.
Men and women have different gendered experiences; they are socialized to act, speak, think, and feel in gendered ways. Therefore, both males and females experience opportunities and obstacles throughout their lives based primarily on their socially constructed gender. While women’s gendered experiences have been greatly studied during the past three decades, research on men’s gendered experience is relatively new. Cohen (2001: 2) argues that “men’s lives are shaped by cultural and social structural forces that act upon them because they’re men.” This section will focus on social construction theory about “men and masculinity” and how this theoretical perspective may help sociologists better understand men in nontraditional settings, such as early childhood education careers.
Gender defined
The concepts of gender and biological sex are often confused. Studies in social and behavioral sciences frequently list gender according to two categories: males and females. Kimmel (1997) argues that duality is limited. Instead, social scientist should move beyond the essentialist concept of gender-appropriate behavior. Since gender refers to the socially constructed meanings attached to sexes, gender varies from culture to culture. Kimmel (1997) also notes that gender varies and changes over time, within different subgroups, and during any individual’s lifetime. “Gender is a process—negotiated, contested, interactive. Gender is embodied by men and women, applied to those gendered bodies, and inscribed in the artifacts of material life” (Kimmel 1997: 2).
Masculinity defined
According to Kimmel in Manhood in America: A Cultural History (2006), the definition of masculinity has changed over time. He argues that the experiences and activities of American men need to be explored. Kimmel (2006: 3) further argues “the quest for manhood—the effort to achieve, to demonstrate, to prove our masculinity—has been one of the formative and persistent experiences in men’s lives.” However, most men remain unaware of the central role of gender in their lives. Therefore, men unconsciously help to continue the inequality of gender.
For Kimmel, manhood is not static, timeless, a manifestation of the inner essence, nor is manhood a biological essentialism. Manhood is created within a content specific culture; therefore, it is socially constructed. Kimmel (2006: 3) argues “to be a man in America depends heavily on one’s class, race, ethnicity, age, sexuality, region of the country.” In the United States, there is often a singular vision of masculinity to which men compare themselves, a hegemonic ideal.
In an important sense there is only one complete unblushing male in America: a young, married, white, urban, northern, heterosexual, Protestant, father, of college education, fully employed, of good complexion, weight, and height, and a recent record in sports….Any male who fails to qualify in any one of these ways is likely to view himself—during moments at least—as unworthy, incomplete, and inferior (Kimmel 2006: 4).
Kimmel (2006) argues that manhood is not about the drive for domination, rather it is about the fear men have of others dominating, and holding power or control over them. According to the hegemonic ideal in the United States, men are afraid of being viewed as weak, timid, less manly, or failing to measure up to what it means to be a man in America. Kimmel( 2006: 7) is interested in “what they [men] were told that they were supposed to do, feel, and think and what happened in response to those prescriptions.”
Just Because They’re Men
Using a theoretical framework that is similar to Kimmel, Cohen (2001) explores the experiences of men due to gender roles. Cohen (2001) argues that there is diversity among men, but all men are measured against a standard that society has in terms of expected and accepted masculinity behaviors, a “hegemonic masculinity.” Cohen (2001: 2) emphasizes that “upbringing and opportunities and obstacles indicate that men’s lives are products of the socialization they’ve experienced, the statuses they occupy, and the subsequent roles they play.” Cohen (2001) finds that women believe the benefits of being male includes higher pay and not having to worry about childcare; while some of the costs include the pressure to be the breadwinner and restricted intimacy, specifically in relations with children.
For Cohen, the accepted behavior “do’s and don’ts” of masculinity illustrate the sociological concept of role. “Gendered roles are socially acquired through processes of socialization and interaction” (Cohen 2001: 5). Display is the way in which a man reveals verbally or nonverbally that he fits masculine ideals. Cohen (2001: 5) defines gender ideals as “the shared beliefs or models of gender that a majority of society accepts as appropriate masculinity.” Cohen (2001: 4) argues “All men don’t share the same fate or fortune. Thus, another major emphasis… is to illustrate some distinctions in men’s lives.” Thus, some behaviors, such as teaching early childhood education may be viewed as deviating from the socially prescribed male gender role.