Why do men choose to become pedagogues? A profession continuously in pursuit of male colleagues

Abstract

This article reports the results from a study on reasons for choosing social education for a profession when you are a man. The study concluded that multiple job opportunities and caring for others is a strong motive for men along with possible further studies. The study also disclosed that many men still encounter incomprehension when stating their choice of career. The study is actualised by five new projects supported by the Ministry of Children, Gender Equality, Integration and Social Affairs (MBLIS). These five projects are engaged to seek new ways within attraction and recruitment of (more) men to early childhood education (ECE). By now the projects have completed interesting practices when aiming to attract and recruit men and the pedagogues engaged in the projects have gained new perspectives on their profession. However, attracting men to study programmes within care and ECE is one thing, recruiting men to ECE work is quite another matter, especially when gender and ECE hold very strong gender-associated expectations.