Early Childhood Research and Practice

Men represent roughly 2% of all teachers in preschool and kindergarten classrooms in the United States, and that number may be declining. Researchers have argued that the dearth of male teachers is related in multiple complex ways to the feminized nature of ECED teaching.

Men in early childhood classrooms encounter implicit rules for engaging with children that are different from those encountered by female teachers. An article in the Fall 2008 issue of Early Childhood Research and Practice examines how these implicit rules are reflected in images depicting touch in early childhood education textbooks. The authors note that, although the images of male teachers are positive, the texts provide clear messages to beginning teachers that acceptable types of touch differ by gender. Read more at http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v10n2/gilbert.html

The second article, by a member of that 2% (that is, a male EC teacher), is a description of a Project undertaken in his preschool classroom.

The URL: http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v10n2/brouette.html