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…

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…

The framing of news promotes certain interpretations. The representation of a problem in public media thereby affects the idea of what to do about that problem. This article analyses discourses about child sexual abuse (CSA) in preschools, occurring in Swedish printed media 2014-2015, and interprets the effects that the discourses may have on the…

The main focus areas of this research are pointing out the public perceptions and beliefs about male preschool teachers, fear of child sexual molestation, moral panic, and power relations in the society. The sample of the study composed of one white, female preschool teacher with a single interview transcript, working in the city of Tempe,…

In the context of the foundation phase, where women tend to dominate, the increasing numbers of male students entering teaching programmes for this phase of schooling has generated considerable praise, as well as criticism. This paper explores the views of two first-year foundation phase (FP) student cohorts at a Johannesburg university about male…

The history of kiwi men's participation in paid early childcare and teaching work has not been documented to date. But what can be learned from the New Zealand experience may be helpful internationally in the movement towards greater male representation in early years work. This paper provides a brief recent history only, highlighting issues that…