MenTeach E-News
November 2016
1) Thoughts from the Inaugural Northern California Men and Child Care Conference
2) 2016 National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) report and Awards
3) Wellington’s Y-Men programme trying to increase the low male ECE teacher numbers
4) 2014 & 2016 EC-MENZ – New Zealand Reports
5) Improving gender equality is the key to tackling Britain’s male teacher shortage
6) New figures reveal which region has the highest percentage of male teachers in England
7) Lack of African-American male educators is killing public education
8) Students Of Color Increasing And Teachers Of Color Not – Here’s Why And What We Can Do About It
9) Men in Early Childhood-Colorado Audio Digital Story Project
10) Editorial: With Gratitude for the Gifts
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1) Thoughts from the Inaugural Northern California Men and Child Care Conference
Let me begin by apologizing for the press release-sounding language. We haven’t yet had the opportunity to collectively dive into our notes and conference evaluations and I wanted to get something out immediately.
Close to 100 people were on hand at American River College for the Inaugural Northern California Men and Child Care (NorCal MaCC) Conference on Saturday, October 22nd. Inspired by a Men in Early Education Conference hosted by Redwood Empire Association for the Education of Young Children (Redwood Empire AEYC) in 2014 – the NorCal MaCC Conference was brought together by a broad collaboration that included American River College, Sacramento Valley AEYC, Redwood Empire AEYC, Peninsula AEYC, East Bay AEYC, the National Human Development Foundation, the Institute for the Study of Music Making Behavior, Californians for Quality Early Learning (CQEL), the Early Education Action League, and the DAD Project. Additional support for the conference came from Pacific Oaks College and Lakeshore Learning. Read the article: /node/3007
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2) 2016 National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Awards
Rodney West has been an advocate for young children for almost 40 years. He worked in the Early Childhood field as an Assistant, Teacher Resource Teacher, and Administrator. Rodney currently works as an administrator with San Diego Unified School District. He holds degrees in Child Development, Criminal Justice, and Business. His favorite pastime is coaching various youth sports, gardening, genealogy, drumming, and singing in choir.
Rodney is a co-facilitator for Men in Education Network (MEN) Interest Forum of National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), and a board member for California Association for the Education of Young Children (CAEYC) and San Diego Association for the Education of Young Children (SDAEYC). He currently is chairperson for the Diversity-in-Action committee of CAEYC. Rodney West has presented workshops at local, state, and national AEYC conferences in reference to Men in Child Care and Diversity. He has previously been a mentor of a Rites of Passage program for young males. Rodney is currently an ordained Elder with his Presbyterian congregation where he spearheads community outreach. Read the article: /node/3016
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3) Wellington’s Y-Men programme trying to increase the low male ECE teacher numbers
It took a terrible affliction suffered by a sibling for Anaru Jones to find his calling in life.
The 22-year-old from Stokes Valley helps out at Tui Park Kindergarten in Linden four days a week as part of programme run by Whanau Maanaki Kindergartens.
The Y-Men initiative has seen 32 men, in four groups in the past year, placed in a Wellington region kindergarten for six months to see whether teaching is something they want to pursue.
Figures from Ministry of Education show a wide gap between the number of male and female teachers in early childhood education in New Zealand – 321 out of 18,856 teachers, or 1.7 per cent, are male.
Going into the sector wasn’t something Jones thought of until last summer, when his younger brother Motunga, 4, lost his hearing after a bout of meningitis.
He was given an allowance from Work and Income to go to Tui Park to help Motunga every day and although his brother was his focus, he soon discovered that early childhood teaching was for him. Read the article: /node/3010
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4) 2014 & 2016 EC-MENZ – New Zealand Reports
The 10th Annual EC-MENz Summit was held on 8th & 9th April 2016 at BTI (Bethlehem Tertiary Institute), Bay of Plenty
Celebrating the many roles of men in ECE
With international guest stars Craig d’Arcy (Australian National Males in Early Childhood Network) and Martyn Mills-Bayne (MENtor coordinator at the University of South Australia). Also starring Maggie Lyall (Waikato University researcher on gender) and the Bop Polytech whānau (A Virtues-based curriculum – Transition to School). Read the reports: /node/3019
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5) Improving gender equality is the key to tackling Britain’s male teacher shortage
As it currently stands, less than 13% of the UK’s primary school teachers are male. A lot of this is down to the fact that primary teaching continues to be seen as a job only suitable for women. “Feminine” characteristics such as “caring” are seen as central to the role, and Western society mainly still envisions that it is only women – and not men – who possess such qualities.
So here lies part of the problem. While women have long been rightly told that they can be what they want to be – that they can enter into traditional “men’s work” – and to not let their gender prevent them from doing so, we have not seen the same push for men. Indeed, men who do enter into so-called “female” professions often report challenges to their masculinity. They are often labelled by society as “gay”, “unmanly”, or even as sexual predators. Read the article: /node/3022
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6) New figures reveal which region has the highest percentage of male teachers in England
Torbay has the highest percentage of male primary and secondary teachers in the country.
But education charity Teach First is calling for more men in the South West to become teachers, as the latest figures show a stubborn gender gap in the profession.
The latest Government statistics reveal that just 28.4 per cent of teachers in South West schools are men, although these figures were the best for any region in England.
While Torbay and Bath and North-East Somerset jointly have the highest percentage of male primary and secondary teachers in the country, this figure stands at only 32.1 per cent.
Eight local authorities in the South West appeared in the top 10 for the country for most male teachers.
Read the article & watch a recruitment video: /node/3024
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7) Lack of African-American male educators is killing public education
According to researchers Ana Maria Villegas and Jacqueline Jordan Irvine, minority teachers, as role models, improved the self-worth of minority students. Others found that a diverse teaching population improved academic achievement for minorities along with the educational climate for white students.
Educators and the makers of policy have spoken about the need to diversify the teaching population for a number of years. A recent study by Yale University further explains why America’s classrooms need more African-American male teachers. The study compared the unconscious stereotypes of black and white preschool teachers toward students. The results of the study yielded that teachers who care for young children judge those kids’ behaviors differently based on race or implicit bias.
Implicit bias is the bias in judgment and/or behavior that results from subtle cognitive processes. To a large extent the ultimate effect of implicit bias for African-American students is the widening of the discipline gap and achievement gap.
Recent estimates reveal that one in three students will be suspended between kindergarten and 12th grade. African-American preschool children are overall 3.6 times as likely to be suspended as white preschoolers. Across all grade levels, African-American students are nearly four times as likely to be suspended and almost twice as likely to be expelled as white students. Read the opinion: /node/3025
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8) Students Of Color Increasing And Teachers Of Color Not – Here’s Why And What We Can Do About It
Promoting diversity to increase the number of Black male teachers, and Hispanic male teachers, in public schools is vital to improving the educational outcomes for boys and young men of color to put them on a path to success.
For the first time in history, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Black, Hispanic and other students of color represent a majority of the nation’s public elementary and secondary school students. The NCES’ national education profile shows that as of fall 2015 there were about 50.1 million students attending public elementary and secondary schools. White students compose 24.7 million of the total, and Black, Hispanic and other students of color compose 25.4 million.
Specifically, the public school population included 7.7 million Blacks and 13.1 million Hispanics, with the remaining 4.6 million composed of Asian/Pacific Islander and American Indian/Alaska Native students, and students of two or more races. The enrollment trend for Hispanics and other students of color is expected to increase through 2024.
Although students of color now represent a majority in public schools, NCES reports that as of fall 2015 public schools employed about 3.1 million full-time teachers, a majority of whom are White. According to a recent U.S. Department of Education Schools and Staffing Survey, 82 percent of public school teachers during 2011-12 were White while 7 percent of public school teachers were Black (down from 8 percent), and 8 percent were Hispanic. Read the article: /node/3026
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9) Men in Early Childhood-Colorado Audio Digital Story Project
Over the last six months, Men in Early Childhood-Colorado has been working on an audio digital story project. The purpose of this project was to gather stories from men who are studying ECE, working in the ECE field currently, or had worked in the ECE field.
After the completion of the interviews in June 2016, there were 50 interviews conducted. The participants lived throughout the United States and Australia. There was a large range of experience and education within the participants, with freshman undergraduate students studying ECE to individuals with over 40 years of ECE experience.
Read the letter/announcement & listen to the audio: /node/3028
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10) Editorial: With Gratitude for the Gifts
Gratitude is the quality of being thankful, showing appreciation for, and returning kindness. Having just celebrated Thanksgiving, it is impossible to negate the meaning of the holiday especially from the perspective of an educator.
Sometimes, in the day-to-day happenings of being a teacher it is easy to become overwhelmed when negative aspects of teaching come into focus. At those times I attempt to shift my thinking from the undesirable characteristics to the multitude of gifts that come from being a part of the teaching profession.
Gifts come in different shapes and sizes but typically gift is defined as something given willingly to someone without payment. A person’s natural ability or talent can also be considered a gift. As we enter the gift-giving season, it seems appropriate to identify some gifts that all of us may receive as teachers. I choose to address these gifts within three categories: 1. Gifts considered personal attributes, 2. Gifts received as a member of an organized group, and 3. Gifts from colleagues. Read the editorial: /node/3023
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