I would like to use my last blog to hear your opinion about recruiting males in early childhood programmes. At present in MCAST we only engage females and no male has ever trained to teach in the early Years.
There are, of course, many reasons to include men in the lives of young children. Foremost of these is the need for young boys and girls to develop positive relationships with men, and to develop positive views of maleness and masculinity (Cunningham & Dorsey, 2004). The overall positive impact of father involvement in the healthy development of young children has been well documented (MacDonald & Parke, 1984; Lamb, Pleck, & Levine, 1985; Gadsden & Ray, 2002). One way to increase the involvement of men in the lives of their children is to include more fathers, other male relatives, boyfriends, etc., into the early childhood education program (Fagan, 1996). And the best way to attract these men is to make them feel welcome. Research shows that fathers are more likely to become involved with their children when opportunities to do so are provided for them (Cohen, 1993).
More over MCAST could engage in offering training through an e learning programme, hope you find this interesting and I look forward to hear your views.
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A really interesting blog. After reading this blog I started to do some research based on “How much time a father spends with his children?”, because if someone replies to this question, one can deduce how much it is important to include men in the lives of young children.
ReplyDeleteI found this information from several places throughout the Internet.
“A typical working parent spends just 19 minutes a day looking after their children.” (BARROW, 2006)
“Darwin's theory of evolution predicts that men will take more care of children that look like them. A team at the Institut des sciences de l'évolution (CNRS / Université de Montpellier 2) verified this prediction in a study published online in the pre-print issue of the journal Animal Behaviour.” (CNRS, 2008)
"By stimulating exploration, controlled risk-taking and competition, fathers provide something different to the child who will benefit greatly from this singular contribution." (University of Montreal, 2010)
“More fathers are involved in caring for their children than their own fathers were, especially in the early phases of a child's life” (Fogarty, 2009)
“According to according to the latest family survey, mothers are spending more quality time with their children than ever before. That will come as something of a surprise to many stressed-out mums who, intent on 'having it all', are sacrificing time with their children for extra hours in the office.” (APPLEYARD)
“Multiple regression analysis showed that low father involvement and peer victimization contributed significantly and independently to low levels of life satisfaction in adolescent boys.” (Buchanan, 2002)
“[M]ost Australian fathers spend around one minute per day during the working week.” (just4families, 2008)
“A study conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on working time (2005) reported that workers work an average of 38.1 ‘normal hours’ and 36.5 ‘actual hours’ per week.” (EWCO, 2009)
After these findings I can say that fathers do have time to spend with their children. The working weekly should be at most 48 according to the 1993 EU Working Time Directive. Some of the references mentioned above mentions the fact that fathers spend really little time with their children. I don’t think they can blame the work, unless they are doing also part time jobs. Also some of these references say that fathers do care more nowadays than their fathers did with them. This is a positive feedback, and maybe this is the result of education. According to research, fathers’ involvement contributes a lot in the students’ education. I also believe that fathers can contribute a lot to their children’s education. From my own view I can only say that here in Malta, the mother is the person that is most involved during her child growth period, but lately this tendency is also changing, since more mothers are working on a full time job, and grandmothers are taking the role of the mother. I think that, mothers and fathers have to find ways how to do their work and at the same time take care of their children simultaneously without involving others. After all they should be responsible for their child education.
I am putting the Reference list of my previous post here because of limitations.
ReplyDeleteReferences
APPLEYARD, D. (n.d.). How much time do you spend with your children in a week? Retrieved June 23, 2010, from The Free Library by Farlex: http://www.thefreelibrary.com/How+much+time+do+you+spend+with+your+children+in+a+week%3F-a0109625325
BARROW, B. (2006, July 19). 19 minutes - how long working parents give their children. Retrieved June 23, 2010, from Mail Online: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-396609/19-minutes--long-working-parents-children.html
Buchanan, E. F. (2002). Life satisfaction in teenage boys: The moderating role of father involvement and bullying. Aggressive Behavior, 126-133.
CNRS. (2008, July 8). Fathers Spend More Time With Children Who Resemble Them, Study Suggests. Retrieved June 23, 2010, from ScienceDaily: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090618180334.htm
EWCO. (2009, November 16). Working time in the European Union: Malta. Retrieved June 23, 2010, from European Working Conditions Observatory: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/ewco/studies/tn0803046s/mt0803049q.htm
Fogarty, K. (2009, November). Being an Involved Father: What Does It Mean? Retrieved June 23, 2010, from EDIS: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/he141
just4families. (2008, October 29). Dads - How Much Time Do You Spend With Your Children. Retrieved June 23, 2010, from http://just4families.com/drupal/How+Much+Time+Do+You+Spend+With+Your+Children
University of Montreal. (2010, April 1). Exploration in toddlers activated by fathers. Retrieved June 23, 2010, from ScienceDaily: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100331091145.htm
A very interesting blog Josette! Indeed there is a big lack of males in the early years even though it is possible for them to apply.
ReplyDeleteGenerally, males and females opt for courses that lead them towards jobs which require specific qualities that are generally associated with predominantly male or predominantly female qualities. Obviously, this does not mean that everyone will proceed towards jobs that generally require character traits that are predominantly attributed to a males or females. I for one, followed a Social Work course at University, a caring profession usually attributed to females. This does not mean that I am (or wish to be) female :)
With regards to the Early Years courses, I believe that there are different factors affecting the lack of applications from males. Primarily, peer opinions have a lot of weight at the age of 16-18. They might also be guided towards other jobs by their parents from an early age. Moreover, the subjects that are chosen at Form 3 level generally align males towards other types of jobs and therefore away from areas such as Early Years.
There would definitely be nothing wrong with males working in the Early Years - I believe that children stand to gain from this. I also believe that there are males who would positively consider such an idea. The way society has moved on has made the role of the male as the sole or main breadwinner obsolete. This has enabled couples to have the female as the breadwinner with the male happily choosing to stay at home to rear the kids.
I think that the best idea would be to PROMOTE such courses in a wise way, such as the nursing courses have been promoted lately.
Further to what I wrote above, I wanted to add that e-Learning could make it possible for males to follow such courses part-time online. In this way, they would learn the necessary knowledge and not feel daunted by the fact that they would be the only males in a class full of females. Simultaneously, face to face interaction is still needed to ensure that information learnt online is synthesised with practical examples during workshops held every month.
ReplyDeleteThis is interesting particularly because it highlights the divide between genders in the selection of jobs. Luke also hinted at a very interesting point which might be an extremely challenging subject for discussion: "guided towards other jobs by their parents from an early age. Moreover, the subjects that are chosen at Form 3 level generally align males towards other types of jobs and therefore away from areas such as Early Years."
ReplyDeleteThis is true of the choice-trends we see at post-sec and university where the humanities remain very much a female domain.
What are your views?
I'm all for the inclusion of more men in courses concerning childcare, especially early years. One thing I noticed while on traineeship abroad 5 years ago was the staggering number of fathers carrying their children strapped to their backs, or going alone with their babies in prams to public gardens, and this was in Germany! I wish I'd see this happening here, it would really demonstrate a shift in the fatherhood mentality we have.
ReplyDeleteBesides, it's a fact that there are many sensitive males out there, who would enjoy having full-time jobs caring for little children. These men should be encouraged, and shown that it doesn't remove any of their manliness, rather enhances it beyond the ordinary, as I'm sure many mothers would appreciate.
It is a fact that we should train more male teachers to teach early years, through e-learning programs. So I observed first observed that women are more associated with children. The ratio in fact is 5:1 (women tending children: men tending children)
ReplyDeleteWomen are by nature more nurturing than men. They go through all the work of gestation, childbirth, and caring for the newborn which creates a deeper bond with the child. I think that nowadays the situation is rather changing regarding family issues but not changing in early years teaching through e-learning programs.
@ Josette
ReplyDeleteIt's a bit of a problem with most courses in our institute actually, since the health studies, care, hairdressing and beauty courses also show much more female students enrolled. Int the area I teach which is healthcare there is a huge need for males to be employed. In fact during work placement visits the students supervisors often remark how much they need to have more males in the industry. I guess there may be a stigma that such courses are 'girly'. Maybe indeed online courses can help make it more interesting and attractive to male students.