Surprising results from study into men in early childhood

Associate Professor Jennifer Sumsion

Associate Professor Jennifer Sumsion recently published a paper which features a case study into children’s perceptions of their male preschool teacher.

The issue of men working with children has fascinated Sumsion since her time teaching infant school children, and she has been researching the topic for the past 10 years.

“It’s been an interesting topic as the arguments for and against having more male teachers are actually quite complex,” she says.

Very few men choose to work with young children as their profession. According to Sumsion, Macquarie University’s Institute of Early Childhood typically graduates 100 students a year from the Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood) program. If there is one man in the group, that is seen as a good result.

“Low salary in the early childhood context is an issue,” she says. “Many people working in early childhood either don’t have family commitments or are not the main bread winner.”

The focus of Sumsion’s recently published paper is Bill* a Macquarie University graduate. Bill was the teacher-director and only male staff member in a pre-school which provided a full day program for children aged between three and five years.

“A specific aim of this study was to provide some preliminary insights into whether the presence of a male teacher might challenge children’s gender stereotypes,” explains Sumsion. “More broadly, the study was intended to assist in informing debates about the desirability or otherwise, of attempting to increase participation of men in early childhood education and care.”

The study, which was conducted in December 2000 and 2001, saw Sumsion spending five consecutive mornings in the pre-school. Of the 80 children at the centre (whose parents had provided consent to interview), 63 chose to participate in the study. Thirty-six of these children were boys and 27 were girls, with a mean age of four years and 11 months.

Participants were asked to complete drawings of Bill and add some text to explain them. They also took part in one-on-one interviews with Sumsion based on the drawings.

Sumsion found herself surprised by some of the results as she felt that the children might be more influenced by Bill’s gender.

“I found that for most of the children, gender was a bit of a non-issue,” she says. “Their focus seemed to be mostly on Bill as a teacher, rather than Bill as a male teacher. There didn’t seem to be much support in that study for the notion that more male early childhood teachers would lead to children who are less gender stereotyped in their thinking.”

Should there be more men in the early childhood field? Sumsion believes so.

“I would like to see more men involved in early childhood but some of the arguments in favour of recruiting more men are quite disturbing,” she says. “I think men should be involved as part of increasing the diversity of the early childhood teaching profession as a whole. I would like to see more gender diversity but not any more than I would like to see more cultural diversity or any other sort of diversity.”

Sumsion’s case study on Bill has been published in the Early Childhood Research Quarterly. For further information contact Sumsion via email: jennifer.sumsion@mq.edu.au

*  not his real name

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