Analyzing the impact of gender on depictions of touch in early childhood textbooks.(Report)

Introduction

Recent research efforts have articulated that men teaching in early childhood contexts represent between 1% and 4% of all early childhood education (ECED) teachers, depending on the study and/or context (Cameron, 2001; Farquhar, 1997). A few countries have successfully recruited men into ECED contexts and raised the percentage of men working with young children to approximately 8% (Sumsion, 2005). Conversely, in the United States, men represent roughly 2% of all teachers in preschool and kindergarten classrooms (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2007, p. 29). The dearth of male teachers has also been a recurring issue in the early primary grades (1-3) in the United States (Cooney & Bittner, 2001; Sargent, 2004). Some data further suggest that the number of men working in ECED has continued to decline over the past decade (Farquhar, Cablk, Buckingham, Butler, & Ballantyne, 2006). Researchers have argued that the dearth of male teachers is the result of multiple factors related to the feminized nature of ECED teaching (Allan, 1993; Sargent, 2005). In this sense, early childhood contexts often enact "common-sense identities" that create and sustain the notion that teachers of young children are expressly female and heterosexual (Fifield & Swain, 2002). This study investigated the degree to which ECED textbooks enact these "common-sense identities" and further solidify socialized notions of gender.

Textbooks represent primary sources of information for preservice teachers in teacher education programs (Nicol & Crespo, 2006). Thus, we investigated whether gendered messages existed within the texts. We chose to focus on aspects of touch because it has often been described as a key difference between men and women in the ECED classroom (Cooney & Bittner, 2001). Touch can also speak to the level of comfort and trust between both teacher and child. Touch is also generally understood to be an essential element in the development of young children. However, we also argue that touch embodies not only the nurturing nature of ECED teaching but also the embedded constructs of femininity that also pervade the teaching of young children. It is our hypothesis that textbook images can provide insights into the implicit gendered rules that govern acceptable touch in the ECED classroom. We discuss touch in more detail later in the article.

Review of the Literature

ECED as a Gendered Profession

ECED teaching is an example of a gendered profession that is organized by images, symbols, and social understandings that allow for great distinctions in the enactment of gender roles (Sargent, 2005). In particular, women are viewed as the nurturing mother, and men wishing to work in this context are often assumed to be effeminate, homosexual, and/or pedophiles (Blount, 2005; Fifield & Swain, 2002; Weems, 1999). Farquhar et al. (2006) argued that this position drives both homosexual and heterosexual men from wanting to work with young children--further reducing the presence of men in ECED. King (1998) asserts that teaching in the early childhood portion of life has been assumed to be an "act of caring." King continues, saying that caring at all levels of teaching is important. This caring has been attributed to women, and therefore early childhood teaching has been deemed "women's work." Using this notion of a gendered profession, many researchers have uncovered numerous issues facing men in these contexts. The next section highlights some of the issues facing men working in ECED contexts and questions the benefit of men working with young children.

Touch in the ECED Classroom