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The Christchurch Civic
Creche Case |
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Sexism in New Zealand early
childhood education is stronger than ever, says new research. A paper released today shows that
internationally New Zealand has one of the lowest rates of male participation
in early childhood teaching with less than one per cent of the workforce men.
Dr Sarah Farquhar, author of Men
at Work: Sexism in Early Childhood Education, said that in the 1990s the fear
of being accused of abusing children kept men out of the profession, but
attitudes had changed. Farquhar said it had been more
than a decade since the Peter Ellis case and it was time to move on and bring
men into the workforce. "Everyone's head is still in
the sand and the Peter Ellis case should no longer be an excuse,"
Farquhar said. "It created a kind of
hysteria throughout the community that perhaps men weren't safe." With 49% of children in early
childhood programmes being boys, the workforce was not reflecting society. "What children need is to
have contact with everybody within their community and instead they're having
only contact with women," she said. Both salaries and status in the
profession had improved and more promotion was needed to attract men to early
childhood education. "There's a huge emphasis on
equal employment for women but we need to realise that this is one job where
we actually need the reverse." Russell Ballantyne, who has been
in early childhood education for 23 years, said young children were losing out
by not having interaction with men. "I think it's a travesty for
young children that they don't have the chance to build relationships with
men," Ballantyne said. "To me it's really sad that
men and boys don't get the chance to experience contact with young
children." Ballantyne, who owns an early
childhood centre in Dunedin, said staff and parents had always been
supportive. He went into early childhood
education because he came from a teaching family. "It offers me flexibility. I
like being outdoors all of the time and I really enjoy the spontaneity of
really young children." Lance Cablk, who is the only male
in his early childhood course in Auckland, said it was interesting being a
pioneer in the profession. "It's been challenging,"
he said. "Obviously it'd be easier if there were more guys there but the
women that were in my programme are really good." |
