Gendered norms construct teaching young children in Early Childhood Education (ECE) as a 'feminine profession' and as 'women's work'. Subsequently, men who teach young children are often scrutinised. One troubling factor confronting men entering the profession is the construction of men as potential paedophiles. Scholars in the Global North have…

In this paper, we contribute to the understandings of young masculinities by turning attention to the South African schooling primary school context. In the context of scarcity of interventions around violence in the primary school, we focus on how young boys construct, negotiate and experience violence. Notwithstanding dominant discourses around…

In South Africa there are few male teachers in the Foundation Phase (FP) of schooling, where children are aged between five and nine. FP teaching is traditionally considered to be a 'woman's job' and essentialist gender discourses play a central role in impeding men's participation in the profession. These discourses are based on polarised…

The teaching of young children (aged between 5 and 9) or Foundation Phase (FP) as it is known in South Africa, is highly gendered and is labeled a 'woman's' job. Globally there have been calls to lessen the gender disparity within the profession by increasing the participation of men. However, apprehensions about men teaching young children can…

This study draws on focus group discussions to explore how 12- to 14-year-old boys in a low economic township primary school in South Africa construct their hegemonic identity as "real boys" in the school playground during break. Addressing masculinity and boys' investment in power is now a major research development in the country,…

In this article, we draw on data from focus group discussions to examine the ways in which some young boys in a South African township primary school construct and negotiate hegemonic masculinity through bullying, and other forms of violence, within the school. Deviating from the simplistic victim-bully binary, we draw from critical masculinity…

The teaching of young children or Foundation Phase (FP) teaching as it is known in South Africa continues to be regarded as 'women's work'. Lately South African research has focused on encouraging men's participation as FP teachers. In this paper, we offer a critical examination of how South African primary school teachers 'embrace' the need for…

This article focuses on how male and female primary school teachers' account of the suitability of male teachers in early years or Foundation Phase (FP) of schooling. We draw from an in-depth qualitative interview-based study to examine how ideals around hegemonic masculinity have effects for the characterization of FP within traditional feminine…

In this article we argue that eliminating the divisions of labour between men and women could work towards counteracting gender inequality within professions. Globally women are over-represented in the teaching of young children in the early years of primary school, or Foundation Phase (FP), as it is known in South Africa. We are concerned to go…

Drawing on a qualitative interview-based study, this article foregrounds the perspectives of a group of male pre-service teachers at a South African university for choosing "not" to specialise in the teaching of young children. Male pre-service teachers in this study associate with teaching older learners in the senior phases,…

In South Africa, the centrality of gender-based violence in the spread of HIV/AIDS has led to many educational efforts to address it. The particular social values that male teachers hold around gender-based violence have been less examined. By focusing on African male teachers' understandings of gender-based violence, this paper highlights the…

This paper focuses on the ways in which a selected group of early childhood teachers in grades one and two, located in a predominantly white middle-class context in Durban, South Africa ascribe meaning to young boys they teach. The study finds that early childhood teachers are bearers of masculinity and incorporate taken-for-granted assumptions of…

This paper explores the salience of sport in the lives of eight-year-old and nine-year-old South African primary school boys. Drawing on ethnographic and interview data, I argue that young boys' developing relationship with sport is inscribed within particular gendered, raced and classed discourses in South Africa. Throughout the paper I show…