Men in early childhood education (ECE) are subjected to different discourses: while they are facing serious mistrust on the one hand, their otherness to the field is also interpreted as new and potentially innovative on the other hand. This article explores how male childcare workers create and take up different subject positions by drawing on…

Because professionalism in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is measured by standards relating to caring, men in the field are often held to expectations associated with female behaviors. This research examines the tensions arising from this encounter and explores alternative solutions which male ECEC workers around the world have…