Guest Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 Hi I am starting my dissertation for BA childhood studies and I am thinking of doing something to do with men in childcare. My title may be 'Do boys need male practitioners as role models in an early years setting'. I would like to know if anybody has ideas, views or experience on this subject please. I work in a sessional pre-school with Children mainly with English as an additional language from a muslim background. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidW Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 I just wonder whether this is a complex question to answer, as it stands. My experience suggests that boys and girls respond to both male and female practitioners. There is always a danger of stereotyping men as "blokes" who like to do the rough stuff outdoors with the boys and women as being more suited to activities for girls when of course men, women, boys and girls have characters that encompass a wide spectrum of needs and interests. I see several questions to ask yourself - what is a role model? why have you chosen to ask this question about boys specifically and then linked this to male practitioners as an implied "solution" to their implied predicament? - what is it about boys in early years settings that you have observed or read about that suggests they are not getting something they need? why have you suggested male practitioners as a solution and in particular, male practitioners as role models? Are all males the same? You could, for example, ask 'do boyish boys need manly men to act as roles models in early years settings' etc. I'm not trying to be pedantic here, I'm just not sure your question is focused enough. My take on this is that all children benefit from balance in the workforce and that there is currently a massive imbalance. I hope this is helpful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 Maybe i do need to change my question. In my setting, we find that some of the boys have more respect for men and have little respect for women. One male parent, who is also a pakistani muslim told me that in his culture some families still have little respect for the female population. He did say that this is changing as new generations are becoming equal partners. I would love a male worker in our setting, we have had male voluntary workers who have helped on our parent committee and have been fantastic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gezabel Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 Mm! I like the overall idea of men in childcare However, I agree with what DavidW says (put much more eloquently than I could! ) I am guessing that your choice is influenced by the children in your setting. In view of the background of the majority of your children and the comments from one of the fathers it is clear why you have selected the question but it is perhaps also clear why some boys in your setting have little respect for women. In general terms the potential is huge and 'loaded' with gender and cultural issues. My brain cells are all worn out but I do think that the question as it stands is too broad. I am not sure the question needs 'changing' per se more a case of refining it so it is specific and yet covers the breadth of issues you will need to include sorry not much help and hope I don't come across as bouncing in with criticism and bouncing out again as that is not my intention Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyMaz Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 There is always a danger of stereotyping men as "blokes" who like to do the rough stuff outdoors with the boys and women as being more suited to activities for girls when of course men, women, boys and girls have characters that encompass a wide spectrum of needs and interests. I am guessing that your choice is influenced by the children in your setting. Perhaps (given what you say about boys having more respect for men than women - and I'd be really interested to know how they communicate this within the setting!), you could look at whether there are any differences between the quality of interaction between children with male and female practitioners? I've just re-read your post and realise that you don't have a male practitioner though - that could be a powerful barrier, I guess. I'd be interested in looking at how children perceive male and female practitioners differently, too. So do children stereotype practitioners in the way that DavidW describes, according to their gender? One idea might be to have photographs of various men and women that the children are unfamiliar with, and ask them to choose the person they would like to play football with, or to have a story with or play with dough with etc. Whatever question/hypothesis you choose needs to be wide enough to generate enough research for your literature review, but narrow enough to be manageable within the time you have to carry out the research. I'll wager that once you begin to break the subject down you'll be able to find lots of different aspects of your topic to choose from. Gender is a fascinating issue and I'll be interested to hear what you decide on! Maz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 Hi I know a lot about men in childcare. My husband has been working as a registered Childminder for over 20 years and my son is now a registered childcare assistant. The biggest advantage of having 'men on board' is that the children get lots of new experiences and activities that I would not have covered. ie. Fishing, visits to Aircraft museums, Learning about UFO's, games of football, tuition on guitar,drums,keyboard etc. making go-kart and a tardis, how to mend a puncture, karate lessons, finding conkers, woodwork and planting vegetables. To have a balanced curriculum, men must be included. Laura Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyMaz Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 To have a balanced curriculum, men must be included. So are you saying that settings without any male practitioners are unable to offer a balanced curriculum then, Laura? Seriously though, is there an argument for saying that all those experiences and activities you list as being only available because men are working with teh children are actually available purely because of the knowledge and interests of the practitioners working in your setting (whether as a childminder, pre-school or reception class?). What an interesting discussion! Maz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 I am also doing my disseratation in the area of men in early years and im looking at focusing on why few men choose early years. As a male practitioner (almost) I have a very keen interest in this area, there is only one other male on my course and I have not had change to expereince any other male practitioners in settings. I am in my final year of BA QTS Early years Education and would be grateful of any suggestion or advice and will also be willing to help and share ideas with any other users! so far i am struggling to find any books in this area... journal articles loads but i need to have a range of sources! any help/suggestions/ideas will be very much apprecuiuated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Upsy Daisy Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 Hi I know a lot about men in childcare. My husband has been working as a registered Childminder for over 20 years and my son is now a registered childcare assistant. The biggest advantage of having 'men on board' is that the children get lots of new experiences and activities that I would not have covered. ie. Fishing, visits to Aircraft museums, Learning about UFO's, games of football, tuition on guitar,drums,keyboard etc. making go-kart and a tardis, how to mend a puncture, karate lessons, finding conkers, woodwork and planting vegetables. To have a balanced curriculum, men must be included. Laura I'm not sure that these things can't happen without men, Laura. In fact I can tick off eight things on your list which I have done with childminded children. However I'm not sure whether they were presented in the same way as other people, including men, may have presented them. I think it would be easy for a very feminine female carer to present a fairly female dominated curriculum and that is an issue for female childminders working alone and settings with predominantly female staff to address. Although recruitment of male childcarers is an important issue we have to work with what we have got right now so I would be interested to know; 1) Is a female orientated curriculum detrimental to the development of boys, boys and girls or is it unimportant as long as all of the areas of learning and development are covered 2) What can we as a predominantly female workforce do to redress the balance? (Do we all need to learn the offside rule? ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 It is refreshing to read this thread and the level of reflection that is clearing happening within this thread, there are very many worthwhile questions here that should be looked into. However I think that the key to your dissertation is the questions you ask - they must be answerable within the time you have. You also need to think about the contexts in which you are going to be doing your research - Racquel - before you ask if boys need male role models you might need to think about what you actually mean by 'a male role model' there are a multitude of ways to be a man - not all of these are 'masculine' and many cultures have different understandings of 'maleness'. I do not think your question is not a good one - it is just very broad. The simple questions that we need to ask in the role model argument (remember Bandura ) is whether or not children actually attend to the gender of their 'teacher' as a salient factor - this is disputed by some (Sumsion Jennifer / Skelton Christine) and it would be interesting to see if these results were replicable. gbrom - you have an interesting idea here however I am interested to know how you identify those men who 'have not' rather than those men 'who have' chosen the early years. However that said I am sure there are no end of men through this forum who would provide you with case studies, for me the focus on the positive - why the men who do choose the early years is more measurable. It is beyond the scope of this forum posting to give you details of articles and books that might be of use however I do have a significant 'library' and are prepared to share details with anyone who is interested. You can get hold of me at r.j.harty@uel.ac.uk if you wish - I am always happy to discuss research on men in the early years. Richard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 Thank you everyone for your advice. I will now put my thinking cap on and decide which direction to take. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 (edited) for support and information you might like to visit http://miecuk.wetpaint.com/ and join the group Edited November 19, 2009 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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