As Australia faces a critical teacher shortage, experts say we’re ignoring the elephant in the room: men make up less than 4% of early childhood educators, and stigma about their role with young children is keeping those numbers stubbornly low.
It’s a dismal reality, yet despite increasing awareness that both men and women should take on caring roles, most early learning centres and preschools do not have a male educator or teacher.
With the rollout of three-year-old preschool in South Australia, UniSA’s Dr Martyn Mills-Bayne says it’s time to fight for better gender diversity in the early childhood education workforce.
“For too long, gender stereotypes have undermined early childhood education with entrenched perceptions of men not being built for, or good at, educating young children,” Dr Mills-Bayne says.
“But children, particularly boys, need to see positive male role models in early learning environments, because if there’s a lack of men, this will shape the next generation’s gender attitudes.”
Dr Mills-Bayne said an engaged, responsible male role model can make a profound difference in a child’s life – improving their mental health, confidence, as well as cognitive and social development.
“But you can’t be what you can’t see – and if we don’t normalise men in caring roles, we’re doing our children, and society, a real disservice.”
With horrific allegations of child sexual abuse in childcare centres across Melbourne, scrutiny on male educators is more acute than ever.
“We know that many men avoid early childhood careers because of fears and stereotypes about being judged in child safety contexts,” Dr Mills-Bayne said.
“Child safety is non-negotiable for every educator, so the real risk is letting outdated stereotypes block men from teaching young children.”
Dr Mills-Bayne said a more gender-diverse workforce will strengthen safety, because diverse perspectives improve workplace culture, vigilance, and accountability.
“When male and female educators work together, they model respectful, safe interactions and reinforce best practice.”
Dr Mills-Bayne says that a radical change is needed to realise any significant increase in the number of men in the workforce.
“We must advocate and actively promote the positive impact of male educators,” Dr Mills-Bayne said.
“Governments should fund and support a targeted workforce campaign explicitly encouraging men to choose early childhood education and teaching as an exciting and rewarding career – both for boys beyond school, and men looking to change careers.”
Dr Mills-Bayne said this is critical to address teacher shortages and has long been the missing piece to building a thriving and gender diverse early childhood education workforce.
“Actively increasing male early childhood teachers and educators will help strengthen the cycle of positive male identities and significantly impact on the negative effects of the culture of toxic masculinity,” he said.
“If we don’t start targeting men for teaching careers, male educators could disappear from the profession, and all children will miss out on the chance to learn from diverse role models.”
Dr Mills-Bayne says we all have a responsibility to champion male educators who are making a difference, and inspiring others to enter the field.
“Teachers don’t just shape children ¬– they help shape families and communities. It’s time we celebrated and supported the men making a difference in early education.”
This story was originally published as a media release by the University of South Australia.