Troubling gender norms: Reflections of two male early childhood teacher educators

African Journal of Career Development

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Troubling gender norms: Reflections of two male early childhood teacher educators
 
Creator Msiza, Vusi Kagola, Obakeng
 
Subject Early Childhood Education; Gender; Masculinities early childhood education (ECE); gender regime; masculinities; self-reflexive; teacher education.
Description Background: Early childhood education (ECE) in South Africa and globally continues to present low numbers of male teachers. However, studies have highlighted the importance of having men in children’s lives in the schooling context. However, getting men into the early years comes with various challenges, including those that relate to men choosing teaching as a career and, in particular, negotiating the gendered norms. Therefore, it is important to understand the reflections of men in the early years of teaching.Objectives: This self-reflective paper reflects on the authors experiences as young men becoming early childhood teacher educators in two South African higher education institutions.Method: This qualitative study employed self-reflexive methodologies and narratives to show how the author have negotiated the normative constructions of gender in ECE.Results: The authors found that even though institutions of higher education are vehicles for transformation, there are historical and contextual gendered norms that perpetuate inequalities. They also found that the inequalities may contribute to the recruitment, retainment and resignation of men in ECE teaching.Conclusion: The paper suggests the need for conversations on transforming gender relations among staff and students within ECE disciplines.Contribution: The gendered inequalities experienced by male teacher educators demonstrate a need to revisit career development approaches for teacher education in South Africa.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2023-09-01
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ajcd.v5i1.85
 
Source African Journal of Career Development; Vol 5, No 1 (2023); 7 pages 2617-7471 2709-7420
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd/article/view/85/342 https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd/article/view/85/343 https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd/article/view/85/344 https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd/article/view/85/345
 
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Rights Copyright (c) 2023 Vusi Msiza, Obakeng Kagola https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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