Critically Discuss the Policy and Research Evidence Which Examines the Role of Men in Early Childhood Education and Care

Abstract

Attracting more men to balance the predominantly female workforce is one of the key issues facing the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector. This research critically discusses the main debates regarding the issue of gendered ECEC sector, including the core concepts of childhood, masculinity and ECEC, followed by the debates about the influences of more male practitioners on both children and ECEC workforce. Although there exist some arguments against the hypothesis about men’s benefits on children and ECEC workforce, the need to get men involved in the lives of young children is reflected by government policies across different countries, such as recruitment and retention initiatives for male preschool teachers. However, most of these strategies to remove the barriers male teachers encountered, and to incorporate men and fathers, received negative results. Therefore, by building upon the need to enhance the holistic quality of ECEC workforce, new perspectives, especially from children’s perceptions, on how to change the gender imbalance in ECEC are recommended, including both the top-down policy and bottom-up strategy.