World News

...but you'll need to go to Scotland to get it!


A new DVD created by Men in Child Care in Scotland titled: See the Difference: A question of gender equality.

Peter De Pratto is a white, middle-class man. And he's a minority.

The 54-year-old is a Grade 2 teacher at St. Luke School in Waterloo. He has been teaching for 31 years and has taught junior kindergarten to Grade 8.

"I enjoy working with younger children. I find it challenging and rewarding at the same time," he said.

As a male primary school teacher, he knows he stands out. He has been the only man on staff at times. It doesn't really bother him.

There were 20 Canadians (at least 8 Manitobans) who took the time and resources to show up for the historic gathering at the 2008 Working Forum on Men in ECE. The 140 delegates had a great time together and many friendships were born out of this gathering.

Discussions were rich, workshops incredibly insightful, and plenary sessions well received. Most of us will remember most the wonderful stories that were shared about our journeys into and in the field of ECE.All left sharing a renewed urgency to work to wards a more gender balanced workforce, for the sake of the children.

Six-year-old Nguyen Khanh Linh is astonished to see a television cartoon of a male bear teaching a class.

And it's not because the teacher is a large furry animal.

"Why is it a he-teacher? Teachers must be female," she says.

In Viet Nam, where female teachers vastly outnumber their male colleagues, the little girl has enunciated a truth not a prejudice.

[MenTeach: Don Piburn was the co-facilitator for the Working Forum Men in Early Childhood Education in Hawaii and has sent out a message to the men and women in his local community about what's going on in the world.]

Aloha Hawaii supporters of Men in ECE Hawaii!

International Efforts

A NEW report has found that the abolition of the honours Irish requirement will not entice more men to become primary school teachers.

Politicians, such as former education minister Mary Hanafin, have suggested that dropping the honours Irish rule would help tackle the gender imbalance in national schools.

Dutch Christian Democrats (CDA) have called for an increase in the number of male teachers in primary schools. CDA MP Jan Jacob van Dyke claims that children are better off if they are taught by both men and women. At the moment, the majority of primary school teachers are women. According to the CDA, teacher training colleges need to change their curriculum in order to attract more male students.

I've been trying to set the time aside to post to MenTeach but there has been so many e-mails to answer. One of the participants sent me a photo of our discussion group (there were several). It has taken five years to make the event happen - it was outstanding!

The prospect of having more fun on the job and better work-life balance - despite the drop in pay - has been enough to motivate several men with well-paid professional careers to throw caution to the wind and go teaching.

Craig d'Arcy, facilitator of the Newcastle Males in Early Childhood Network Group, discusses the barriers that men often face in early childhood and why it's crucial we work to remove these obstacles.

Blokes can do it as well

(Please note some of the guys were near the end of "Mo-vember" - growing moustaches to raise funds for male prostrate cancer research - can't wait to see what they come up with for "Man-uary"!)

Watch the video panel discussion about men teaching and read the follow-up controversial comments at: Onatrio Televsion.

October 22, 2007

This is a link to an video about Male Teachers - Careers in Primary Education. It was produced in the United Kingdom to promote male teachers. It's about 15 minutes long and an interesting video.

In March this year, a Men in Early Child Care and Teaching summit brought together advocates for increasing the number of men in early childhood sector. Researcher Sarah Farquhar, of Childforum Research www.childforum.com outlined to the conference some of the arguments as to why we need more men in the workforce teaching and caring for children in these formative years.

First, she argues, society has moved on and men are now more actively engaged in caring for their children with an increasing number taking over as the main caregiver as their partners choose to work fulltime.

According to statistics published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) the feminization of the early years in education appears to be a worldwide trend. Based on 2003 statistics published in Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators 2005 (Paris: OECD, 2005; ISBN 9264011919; www.oecd.org), the percentage of female teachers in different grade levels in 25 OECD member countries (the more industrialized countries of the world) is as follows:

Pre-Primary = 96%
Primary = 80%