Guest Blog for MenTeachPrimary
If I had a pound for every time I have heard the phrase, “We need more males in the early years” or “We need more males in primary schools”, I would be a millionaire! Well, a millionaire is a bit of a stretch… but I always hear it at least every week when I am at work or in public.
I’ve always wanted to be a primary school teacher from a very young age. From using a whiteboard at home and teaching to an imaginary class, to looking at my dream university from Year 9 (I sound like a nerd… oh well!) I have always been inspired by our profession and how we inspire children to be the best that they can be. Through the inspiration of great teachers in primary and secondary school, it has always been a dream of mine to teach.
I fell into the Early Years sector accidentally when I was applying for college courses and I loved it ever since. What stood out to me when I started was the lack of males on the EY course: only 2 in the whole department. And to be honest, at the time, I never knew how much of an impact I would make to this sector by being a male role model, and it feels like now we need these male role models more than ever. During my first-year placement at university, I was fortunate to be in a primary school where I saw a gender-balanced workforce which was a pleasure was to work with. But there is still more work to be done. And it is not just the early years and education sector: it is across most sectors across the world that need to be adjusted to balance both genders in their workforce.
Why are we facing a gender imbalance in schools?
A recent CEEDA report, ‘About Early Years’, outlines some of the challenges facing the Early Years workforce:
In the UK primary education sector, only 15% of the workforce are men
Of those who teach two to five-year-olds just 5% are men in 2019 – that is however, a 2% increase from 2017
A BBC survey for the Victoria Derbyshire show highlighted that 2 in 3 councils providing nursery services do not employ any men
84% of providers in the EY sector found staff vacancies hard to fill
Early years teacher enrolment has plummeted from 2,327 in 2013, to just 595 in 2017
And it is not just in the UK where these challenges exist. In Australia for instance, the percentage of males in the EY sector is under 3% and less than 5% in the USA. As you can see from the graphic, there are various percentages of males in early years and education, which is astonishing.
In 2018, I wrote an article in The Guardian to try and encourage and attract males into teaching. As you can imagine, many people responding thought quite the opposite and expressed their views on what male primary teachers could be like. Some beliefs that came up included:
Most teachers are LGBT+
Male teachers are emotionless
Most males are more likely to work in secondary education after being in primary
Unfortunately, there are a lot of stereotypes that surround males in the education sector and some of these are the very reasons that push men away from entering the profession. Those of us who do teach just need to try our best to be ourselves – emotionally honest, supportive and resilient educators – and hope that in some way this will help to resolve the misconceptions that society holds but clearly there is a long way to go.
Well, what do children in EY think of all of this? In a recent survey from the London Early Years Foundation, the children often choose their favourite teacher by the activities that they carry out in the setting with them. Some perfect examples are, “She can hold a spider and not be scared” or, “He can wear the Elsa dress with me”, which breaks down gender stereotypes in education and breaks down gender stereotypes in children altogether.
As we all know, parents are currently extending their normal role to being a part-time teacher as well. As frustrating as it can be to see a different mathematical method is now used from when you were a child, this could be also become a ‘fight for flight’ moment for gender balance in education. Although it may be a daunting time for parents, there have been many articles in newspapers suggesting that more father figures have been using this time to educate their children in a more personal and valuable way. During this time, we still need to be a positive male role model for children so that they can be who they would like to be in the future.
What can we do to promote a gender-balanced workforce? Some food for thought…
In an ever-growing equal and increasingly inclusive society, we should encourage and motivate children to become the person that they see themselves to be, without having a fixed mind-set on stereotypes. The lack of male EY educators clearly needs to be addressed in a nationwide manner. I hope that the Department for Education can enforce a strategic plan to encourage a more equal and inclusive sector. Marketing and promotion are key to encourage a gender-balanced workforce so both genders are encouraged to join the sector. Finally, June O’Sullivan gives some food for thought to review your own practice:
When did you last review how gendered your practice is?
Is there a subtle difference in the language used by male and female staff?
How do you know if you are not coding activities as male or female?
What are your parent’s perceptions?
