The teaching of young children or Foundation Phase (FP) teaching as it is known in South Africa continues to be regarded as 'women's work'. Lately South African research has focused on encouraging men's participation as FP teachers. In this paper, we offer a critical examination of how South African primary school teachers 'embrace' the need for…

Professional literature in human development, social foundations, and academic subject area courses function as a major but understudied tool of teacher preparation programs. Through the overlapping lenses of sociocultural and critical theories of child development, this study employs descriptive content analysis to investigate the potential of…

In comparison to men, the high school principal role in Texas is a position that few women obtain in their educational leadership journey. Even though women are statistically more prominently employed as teachers in K-12 public education in Texas, women are not equally represented in the superintendency. This disparity of representation starts at…

Popular culture is omnipresent in the lives of young children. The mass media, movies, television, and product advertising all carry messages about acceptability and desirability, deeply entangled with traditional stereotypes about gender, sex-roles, and sexuality. The intersection of discourses of media, gender, and performativity and their…

Men are traditionally portrayed as being successful in sports, and male teachers in physical activities are portrayed as successful teachers. How do female teachers perceive the gender role of kindergarten teachers in early childhood physical activities? Using hegemonic masculinity theory as an analytical tool, semi-structured interviews with…

This study investigated the extent to which teacher and staff's gender role beliefs differ from the U.S. population and such beliefs are associated with their preference of leader gender in a P-8 Midwestern school through the lens of Bandura's (1971) Social Learning Theory. Teachers and staff who participated in this study responded to the survey…

In the study reported on here we employed the interpretivist qualitative approach to explore the recruitment and retention of male educators in preschool centres. Purposive sampling was used to select 2 preschool owners, 2 principals, 4 preschool educators and 2 male educators in the Foundation Phase. Data were obtained by in-depth interviewing…

In line with the theory of planned behaviour, different factors influencing the formation of attitudes and beliefs indirectly affect the intentions that determine an individual's behaviour. Hence, it is important to examine the factors affecting the attitudes of preschool teachers towards children's gender roles considering that their own…

This article presents results from qualitative research on children's dominant gender discourses in kindergarten and the influence of the socio-pedagogical aspects of kindergarten culture, transmitted via teachers' gender discourses and personal epistemologies, on the construction of children's gender discourses and identities. The main questions…

Reproductive health education for early childhood it has been the time to teach, because the demand of the changing times and will affect the child's life when he/she is a teenager. During this time, the reproductive health education, which is in it there is sex education, considered taboo among some communities. They argue that the reproductive…

The fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are being refined to prepare learners for 21st-century careers. The jobs in the STEM fields are on the rise, but there is still a lack of representation of women in these fields. Gender stereotypes and biased viewpoints on gender may prevent female interest and success in STEM…

This case study using ethnographic methods addresses how teachers shape cultural processes related to girlhoods, and the roles of children's play in this dynamic. Poststructuralist theory of the carnival was used to analyze gendered, classed power dynamics within two rural Appalachian preschool classrooms influenced by a popular local festival.…

This study investigated the role of gender plays in the relation between children's theory of mind (ToM) and persuasion. We explored children's use of the belief information of the characters involved within a persuasive situation. In two studies, children (four- to eight-year-olds) performed a comic strip task that described a…

As societal needs change and STEM solutions are offered, an increasing concern for the participation of girls in STEM has emerged. Research has consistently shown the unintended preferential treatment of boys by teachers during STEM teaching and, although well recognised, has seen limited change over the past decades. Gendered interactions,…

This paper discusses whether practitioners' gender subjectivities influence pedagogies and practices in early years education and care (EYEC) settings and whether an increase of men's participation can improve gender diversity in EYEC. It draws on poststructuralist theories, understanding gender as the product/outcome of the social formation of…