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The Dominion
January 28, 1997
Men scared off teaching by sex claims – report
by Alison Tocker
Fear of being
wrongly accused of having sexually abused children is scaring men away from
early childhood teaching, according to a report by Massey University lecturer
Sarah Farquhar.
More than half the male teachers surveyed report having been treated as if
they were a child abuser, or being made to feel they could be one.
The study, A Few Good Men or a Few Too Many? A Study of Male Teachers, says
employers appear to favour women teachers due to an apparent belief it is not
safe or good for children to have male teachers.
All of the 20 male and 20 female kindergarten and early childhood teachers
surveyed say the most relevant explanation for the lack of male teachers is
the fear of being falsely accused of child abuse.
The study says fears appear to have intensified after the Ellis and Scott
child sex abuse convictions.
Peter Ellis, a Christchurch
civic centre creche worker, was jailed for 10 years in 1993 and Wellington Hospital childcare centre teacher
Geoffrey Scott was jailed for seven years in 1994.
Since then, numbers of male teachers in early childhood education have
dropped from 2.1 per cent fulltime equivalent positions in 1992 to 1.4 per
cent in 1996.
However, Ms Farquhar said yesterday there was no evidence that men in early
childhood education were more dangerous to children than women. And there
were many educational advantages for children from having men around.
It could even be damaging not to have male teachers, as gender identification
and attitude development took place under the age of five, she said.
Dr Farquhar called for positive publicity and support for men who chose to
teach children.
Education Minister Wyatt Creech said he had no doubt that fears of being
wrongly accused of sex abuse were putting men off the profession. He had
heard the comment in many childhood centres he had visited.
"It's obviously a concern because we would like to see more gender
balance in the early childhood profession and in teaching generally."
Procedures put in place to protect children should allay parents' concerns,
but were perceived by some as being so stringent as to create a further
barrier.
Parents often over-reacted about child sex abuse issues, he said, and many
concerns were unfounded.
"In the overwhelming majority of cases, these problems (child sex abuse)
don't occur. They're rare."
Mr Creech said the only real answer was to change public attitudes, "but
that will take time".
The union that represents early childhood teachers, the Educational
Institute, rejected the contention that sex abuse fears were the main reason
for the lack of men.
National secretary Joanna Beresford said it was more likely to be low pay
levels that were putting men off, coupled with the traditional assumption
that looking after children was women's work.
"If you found early childhood workers were going to be paid $50,000 a
year, you'd suddenly have lots of men seeking to train," she said,
"but it's rare for people in the profession to get paid out of the
$20,000s".
While a few male teachers had reported not being fully trusted in their work
after the Ellis case, the concerns appeared to have died off, Ms Beresford
said.
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