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Otago's largest early childhood
education provider the Dunedin Kindergarten Association has 60 staff working
in its 22 centres this year. Most of these worked are teaching,
and yet, only two of the teaching staff are male. So why is this? Some clues were
provided in a study by Child Forum researcher and former University of Otago
post graduate student Sarah Farquhar who found the main reasons males were
under-represented in early childhood teaching included fear of child sex
abuse allegations, low wages and the perceived feminine nature of the work. “Male teachers had a tougher time
than their female counterparts,” Mr Farquhar wrote. “Their own families and
friends tended to be less supportive of their decision to become teachers.
They were more likely to have difficulty in gaining employment, and they
experienced greater levels of suspicion from employers and parents.” Yet, it seems the chronic shortage
of male teachers is not a new trend it has been that way for decades. City Heights Childcare owner Ann
Barrowclough said she had been in the early childhood education profession
for more than 40 years in Dunedin and could count the number of permanent
male teachers she had personally known on just one hand. “They’re as rare as roosters’
teeth. I haven’t got anything personally against male teachers. There just
aren’t very many around. “I’ve got four children, and in
all the years they’ve been going through the kindergarten scene, they’ve
never encountered a male teacher.” She believed New Zealand, and
possibly other nations across the globe, were in the grip of a chronic
shortage of male early childhood education teachers. City Heights Childcare employed
males on its holiday programme and on a relieving basis but full-time
teachers were rare, she said. “In the whole 16 years we’ve been
here, only one male has applied for a full-time teaching position in our
preschool.” Mrs Barrowclough said the problem
was not exclusive to early childhood education. The lack of male teachers was
also an issue in New Zealand’s primary schools. “I think that the PC hysteria generated
by people like Miriam Saphira and the Peter Ellis case has scared males from
the profession and it has scared employers from employing males. They fear
unfounded allegations.” Part of the cause may also be
attributed to the comparatively poor remuneration for working in the
profession, she said. Males had the potential to earn far more money by
working in other professions, despite the fact that early childhood education
teachers recently won pay packets matching those of primary school teachers. “It’s profoundly sad, especially
when a lot of female and male children are growing up in homes where they are
lacking good male role models. They are growing up in allfemale houses. “I think it’s worrying that there
are so few males involved in children’s lives. They miss out on the ability
to identify with males. “It would be helpful for boys to
be taught literacy and numeracy from an early age by male teachers. It would
help these children to see that these are skills that males have and they
don’t have difficulty with them.” However, Dunedin Kindergarten
Association senior teacher Christine Gale said the children at the
Association’s 22 centres were not without male role models. “The children have other role
models I don’t think the lack of male presence affects the children’s
learning. Having male teachers certainly enriches their experience though,”
Mrs Gale said. She said the centres encouraged
the children to interact with males by having fathers’ days, grandfathers’
days and male members of the community came in to share their skills on a
regular basis. It may be one thing to have a
shortage of male teachers in the profession, but another problem is being
able to keep them. Methodist Connect acting general
manager Nick Orbell was formerly an early childhood teacher in Dunedin
between 1976 and 1981. He was one of only two male early childhood teachers
in the city at the time. “In the time I was working, my employers and I were
proud to be working in early childhood. It was a real feather in their cap to
have male staff,” Mr Orbell said. He eventually ended up in a management
position at the Dunedin Community Childcare Association, supervising the full
day programme. Sadly, he was lost to the profession in 1981. “My main reason
for leaving was that I had a young family and I was beginning to feel like I
was spending more time with other people’s kids than my own.” Perhaps sadder
still, was his reason for not returning to the profession. “The reason I
didn’t return was more economic. “It didn’t pay enough in terms of supporting
my family.” While he no longer teaches, Mr Orbell said it was still close to
his heart. One of his responsibilities at Methodist Connect is managing the
organisation’s two early childhood teaching programmes. If he was 20 years younger, he
said he would consider going back into the profession, given the pay equity
with primary teachers now. “I think the barriers to men
taking up the role have reduced. The negative stigma about men generated
through the 1990s has dissipated to some extent, but I still don’t think it’s
easy. “The sideways look why would you
want to work with young children is still an issue. From a management point
of view, there are some safety concerns still out there for many employers
rightly or wrongly.” |
