Celebrated as the country with the best education system globally, Finland has also gained a reputation as one of the most racist countries in Europe for black people, especially people from Sub-Saharan Africa. The best education system in the world is built on the sweat and blood of racialised people whose experiences and roles they play as…

In South Africa, the recruitment and retention of men to teach in the foundation phase (Grade "R"-3) has gained national attention. In a patriarchal society such as South Africa, where such jobs are regarded as the purview of women, men's perceptions of gender and gender equality in schools might explain their existence at this level of…

Across the globe the prevalence of men who work in the early education and care field is scant. This phenomenon is evidenced in the Canadian childcare milieu where male early childhood professionals constitute a modest fraction of the sector. At the nucleus of this are gender-situated scrutinization, role model binaries, and adverse occupational…

Gender representation in children's books may influence young children's formation of the gender-equity concept. Previous studies show a male protagonist overrepresentation in US children's books. This study analyzed 956 Chinese children's books to investigate if similar patterns of gender representation exist. Research Findings: Binomial logistic…

Globally, the underrepresentation of men in the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) workforce is ongoing and has been largely attributed to the construction of ECEC as 'women's work'. Men's involvement in ECEC can help to deconstruct the feminisation of work and the gender binaries through which occupations are structured. Further to this,…

The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative descriptive study was to examine the perceptions of PreK-12th grade educators from a public school district in northwest Houston, Texas, regarding factors that may contribute to the disproportionate placement of African American males. The researcher used this methodology to explain and describe the…

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) is one of the most highly sex-segregated sectors globally. Adopting frame analysis and drawing on 96 semi-structured interviews, this study asks how female educators, who are numerically dominant, discursively construct men's reluctance to seek roles in ECEC and/or sustain participation in the sector.…

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…

This article examines everyday disciplinary practices in three kindergarten classrooms and their role in identity construction. Taking a "figured worlds" perspective, I show how racialized and ableist discourses mediated processes of surveillance, escalation, and physical restraint, leading educators to disproportionately position Black…

The purpose of this article is to examine how the discourse of childhood innocence masks the ways in which sexual violence by boys against girls is perpetrated in kindergarten. Findings from a year-long ethnographic study conducted in two Canadian kindergarten classrooms show that narrow understandings of gender and sexuality in childhood obscure…

Within the realm of education, the pervasive underrepresentation plagues Black male educators, with stark implications for students and the teaching profession. This issue significantly impacts early childhood education because female educators predominantly staff it, while the presence of Black male teachers in this field is quite limited. This…

Males comprise less than 2% of the early childhood classroom teacher population. This research explored the experiences of male teachers from career exploration to classroom teaching. The purpose of the study included discovery of the influences motivating choice to teach in the early childhood education field. Five male teachers who have taught,…

In the study reported on here we employed the interpretivist qualitative approach to explore the recruitment and retention of male educators in preschool centres. Purposive sampling was used to select 2 preschool owners, 2 principals, 4 preschool educators and 2 male educators in the Foundation Phase. Data were obtained by in-depth interviewing…

This paper gives an overview of international developments towards gender balance in the ECEC workforce in the last three decades. Research results on the role of male and female ECEC professionals and strategies for recruiting more men are reflected against goals of gender diversity and equality. As the overview shows, attitudes towards male…

Caring for children and teaching the youngest students have a strong historical connection to women and femininity. The few men working within early childhood education and care occupy an ambivalent position. On the one hand, they often receive a positive reception in preschools; on the other, they are also met with mistrust and suspicion. The…