Men can be nursery teachers too

[FSFRebecca]

An important point on Victoria Derbyshire's BBC programme today:

"Two in three councils providing nursery services do not employ any men, the Victoria Derbyshire programme has learned. How can diversity in the profession be improved?". David Wright, who wrote this article for us, has been a major contributor to this discussion.

You can read the BBC piece and listen to the discussion from here.

[finleysmaid]

I'm afraid until we get the pay scales right and the attitude to our profession sorted i fear this will not happen. childcare is "womens work" still gets quoted and young women are often pushed in to the profession because they are not good at anything else! Much of this is caused by well meaning but ill-informed careers teachers IMHO! Also i suspect childcare as an option is not one often put to boys in school whereas motor mechanics is still given as the default and hairdressing for girls.....catering seems to have managed to bridge the divide perhaps we could learn some lessons from that industry, which is also badly paid

[Dmccallin81]

As a male in the early years myself it is distressing to see the small number of male students who decide to complete a course in early years and lower primary ages in the first place. Many are then persuaded to teach higher up in the school system as this is where they are seen to have the biggest impact. We have had the grace of a few male students in my setting but I only know of one who has continued into a job role within an early years setting and he is widely respected by his colleagues.

Reflecting on the article it is definitely not just male students who benefit from a male role model within the setting. I like to think of it that everyones personal identity is on a spectrum spanning from the classically male (Rough and tumble, loud, jokey) to the classically female (Quieter and reserved) and there are many female students in my school who seek me out for a different type of interaction. I wouldn't say that this is definitely exclusively male but that children are very in tune with personalities of different adults in their life and know who will fulfil their needs in any given situation. I would also look towards approaches to unpick peoples personalities such as the myers briggs personality test which does have some lean based on gender due to social norms but explores peoples identity rather than their anatomical gender and gender identity.  

[Mouseketeer]

On 14/03/2018 at 12:55, finleysmaid said:

....catering seems to have managed to bridge the divide perhaps we could learn some lessons from that industry, which is also badly paid

Maybe it’s because in catering you get fed and don’t have to factor in food costs from your meagre childcare earnings