Exploring Career Trajectories of Men in the Early Childhood Education and Care Workforce

Why They Leave and Why They Stay

David L. Brody, Kari Emilsen, Tim Rohrmann, Jo Warin, David L. Brody, Kari Emilsen, Tim Rohrmann, Jo Warin

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780367500016
• eBook ISBN: 9781000284362
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

The role of men in early childhood education and care is crucial for the future of all children growing up in a gender sensitive world. Achieving greater diversity and gender balance in the workforce has proved a challenging goal, despite concerted efforts on the part of individuals, institutions, and governments around the world. Many men remain reluctant to enter the profession, and once they choose this work many leave. This book explores how men in the field make their career decisions to remain in or leave the profession.

Taking a broad international perspective and exploring the role of gender in these career decisions, contributors from around the globe unpack how gender concepts influence men's career trajectories. Through their collaborative research, the team of 17 gender and early childhood researchers investigate various critical and relevant factors such as professionalisation, workplace environment, leadership, day to day interactions in the workplace, societal considerations, internal motivations, agency, masculinities, and critical moments in career decision making. Using cultural, racial, ethnic, and social class lenses to examine men's career decisions over their professional lives, the contributors' unique approach uncovers the complexity of the issue and offers evidence-based recommendations for policy both on national and local levels. These include practical suggestions to directors and managers who care about achieving a gender-mixed workforce.

Accessible and enlightening, this is a unique resource for scholars, policymakers, and any others in the education community who support boosting the inclusion of men in early childhood education.

PART 1

Background

Men, gender, and culture in ECEC

1
INTRODUCTION

David L. Brody, Kari Emilsen, Tim Rohrmann, and Jo Warin

Actually, there have always been two hearts beating in my chest… . Working as an educator seemed to be a better decision, compared to working with computers.

(Bernd, Germany, dropout from qualification studies)

Recruiting and retaining men in the early childhood workforce has captured the attention of both gender balance researchers and policymakers around the world. A global awareness of the need to achieve equity in a democratic society points to the critical need for men’s participation in early childhood education and care (ECEC). Their inclusion in the workforce is recognised as a central issue in meeting the policy goals of providing excellent care and education for the youngest members of society. While recruiting men has been the focus of many national programs, less attention has been paid to retaining those who choose to study and work in the profession. In the opening quotation, Bernd, a dropout from Germany, acknowledges his personal dilemma of choosing between a career in ECEC and computers, illustrating the difficulties that men face in deciding to stay or leave the profession. Our team of researchers examines the multiple perspectives of men who have entered the profession either with or without academic preparation, who then rethought their decision and decided to leave whether during study or once in the workforce. We also look at men already in the workforce who deliberate about whether to continue in the field working directly with young children, to move into a position with administrative responsibilities, or to drop out altogether. By carefully listening to the voices of these men we aim to better understand the motivations, forces, and circumstances related to their career decisions. Viewed longitudinally, these decisions make up what we call the career trajectory. This book is the outgrowth of a collaborative international study of experts from many academic disciplines, providing multiple lenses on the rich data gathered by our research team. The resulting insights offer new tools for unpacking and understanding the question of why many men leave and others remain in the ECEC workforce.

Problematizing men’s career trajectories in ECEC

Ever since Cameron, Moss, & Owen (1999) published their groundbreaking study Men in the Nursery 20 years ago, researchers interested in including men in the ECEC workforce have largely focused their efforts on examining why men are attracted to the profession (Wohlgemuth, 2015), what they experience in training (Heikkilä & Hellman, 2017) and then upon entering the workforce (Wright, 2018; Cameron, 2011), and how they deal with stigmatization, bias, and suspicion as part of their daily professional existence (Sargent, 2004). The sources mentioned here are but a sampling of the rich body of literature on men in ECEC. However, when it comes to the phenomenon of men dropping out, there has yet to appear a systematic study, nor has the question of why men stay in the profession been dealt with in a comprehensive fashion. This book addresses the gap in scholarship on these two topics.

Worldwide, there is a growing need for workers in ECEC institutions, especially for qualified workers (OECD, 2019). Although retention of workers is a common issue in many fields, dropout from academic qualification studies as well as from the workplace is a persistent problem in ECEC. Totenhagen et al. (2016) remark that high turnover rates have negative effects not only on children but also on the remaining staff and centres. Against this background, dropout from qualification studies and worker turnover has been an issue of debate not only in research but also in ECEC policy making for some time.

The dropout rate among childcare workers in general is known to be quite high. While in the US there is no national database of the ECEC workforce, a large survey conducted in 2012 National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE, 2013) indicated an annual staff/teacher departure rate ranging from 10% to 27% depending on the type of program, with non-profit centres showing a lower staff turnover rate than for-profit institutions (Whitebook, Phillips, & Howes, 2014). Totenhagen et al. (2016) found even higher turnover rates, ranging from 26% to 40%. However, this evidence derives mostly from older studies. Following a recent US report on teacher fluctuation from 2014, turnover rates are highest in ECEC, with about 15 percent overall, and half of all centres report turnovers every year (Whitebook, 2014). A UK survey reports turnover rates between 8% and 15%, depending on the type of provider (Department of Education, 2017).

A nationwide Australian survey of childcare workers found that 20% intended to leave their job in the next 12 months (Irvine et al., 2016). In a small-scale Australian study, over half (56%) the childcare workers reported plans to remain for one to five years, while 21% planned to leave within the year (Jones et al., 2017). In Germany, Müller et al. (2018) found that 25% of qualified workers had left ECEC after five years. Academically trained workers (a minority in Germany) tend to shift to other employment involving social and pedagogical work, or totally leave the field. Even higher rates of early childhood teachers who intended to change their career choice are reported from China (Liu & Boyd, 2018).

Such alarming turnover rates have led to discussions about workplace sustainability (Cumming, Sumsion, & Wong, 2015) as an urgent goal on the macro policymaking level as well as on the meso level of the single childcare centre. While no data is available comparing men’s and women’s dropout rates from the field, anecdotal reports from around the world indicate that men as well as women choose to leave the profession at very high rates.

Norway provides a case in point. This country enjoys the highest rate of male participation in the ECEC workforce in the world (9% in 2019). Furthermore, Norway has a very high rate of men enrolled in university ECEC departments, 19% in 2018 (Samordna opptak, 2018); however, dropout rates from qualification training is remarkably high (Emilsen et al., 2020). Dropouts from ECEC bachelor education between 2012–2017 show more than twice as many men interrupting their studies than women (20% male student dropout rate during first year of study compared to 9% females). Similar statistics are found for male and female students at the graduate level (Statistics Norway, 2019).

What is known about teachers’ career trajectories?

Research on teachers’ career trajectories over the past two decades points to the complexity of why teachers leave and why they stay in the profession. Teacher turnover is lower in the primary and secondary school system than in ECEC, although it is also a problem there. While no research has been found focusing on career trajectories of men in ECEC, several relevant studies on elementary grade teachers shed light on the broader question, each in its own manner. Firstly, the configuration of career trajectories is important in and of itself. In a Swedish study of 87 teachers, Lindqvist, Nordänger, & Carlsson (2014) found trajectories to be nonlinear, as teachers often leave and then return to the workforce after acquiring enhanced abilities outside the school framework.

While one would hope for clear-cut answers that identify factors related to staying and leaving the teaching profession, the reader of these studies quickly realises that there are no easy solutions. Studies from the US and Australia concur that poor working conditions, low salaries, and a lack of career opportunities are major reasons for high fluctuation in ECEC (Cassidy, Lower, Kintner-Duffy, Hegde, & Shim, 2011; McDonald et al., 2018; Irvine, Thorpe, McDonald, Lunn, & Sumsion, 2016, Whitebook, 2014). In a longitudinal study of US teachers’ career paths, Barnatt et al. (2017) found no single teacher attribute or workplace condition that determined career decisions. Rather, the authors conclude that ‘the manner in which they are able to figure and refigure themselves into the ever-evolving teaching world … were closely connected to teachers’ career trajectories’ (p. 1021). Their research revealed a configuration of key factors including the ability to address equilibrium, teacher identity, agency, and collaborative capacity. A seven-year study focusing on one female Australian ECEC teacher’s career showed the interplay between personal, relational, and contextual influences on teacher attrition (Sumsion, 2002). Another longitudinal study of three teachers over a ten-year period revealed a layered process of socialization that became a continuous reconstruction of personal and professional knowledge over the years that influenced retention. Four themes emerged: teacher collaboration, belonging to the profession, engaging in leadership, and creating supportive school cultures (Clayton & Schoonmaker, 2007).

Rinke and Mawhinney’s (2017) study of 24 American teacher leavers found that career pathways were shaped by ongoing negotiation between intrinsic and extrinsic factors. They conceptualised these dynamics as pushing and pulling individuals into and out of the classroom. Finally, in their study of 15 American teachers’ career decisions over a five-year period, Cochran-Smith et al. (2012) identified multiple patterns of teaching practice linked to early career decisions, showing variation in the quality of teaching and career decisions. They argue that stayers and leavers are not homogeneous groups, rather they represent multiple variations in practice coupled with career decisions.

Research specifically on ECEC workers also points to a variety of factors related to retention. Totenhagen et al. (2016) summarise that retention rates are related to ‘wages and benefits, job satisfaction, organizational characteristics, alternative employment opportunities, demographic characteristics, job characteristics, and education and training’ (p. 585). Educators point out that working in ECEC is much more demanding nowadays, because the recognition of early education as important for children’s development has led to increased expectations towards the work of practitioners (Grant, Comber, Danby, Theobald, & Thorpe, 2018). In today’s ECEC institutions, educational goals as well as documentation and evaluation tasks are basic parts of the workday at the expense of direct work with children. This becomes problematic because ECEC practitioners view their interactions with children at the heart of their professional work commitment (Viernickel, Nentwig-Gesemann, Nicolai, Schwarz, & Zenker, 2013; Grant et al., 2018). It is agreed that to become a qualified practitioner, it is not enough simply to ‘like children’ (Irvine et al., 2016, p. 4). At the same time, status and salaries in childcare professions remain low in many countries, notably when compared to school teachers. However, in some countries, wages of school-based preschool and kindergarten teachers are higher and sometimes comparable to primary school teachers, as for example in Turkey and Israel. When salaries are considered as a reason for dropout, national contexts and relative salary value must be taken into account.

It is not surprising to find job retention connected to job satisfaction. However, research results on this issue are remarkably varied. Several studies state that job satisfaction amongst ECEC workers is high. Intrinsic rewards of the work, for example the variety of activities during the workday and the positive relations with children are reported as high (Aigner & Rohrmann, 2012; Cole, Reich-Shapiro, Siganporia, Bibiana, & Plaisir, 2019; Rolfe, 2005). Studies from Germany state that good collaboration, team cohesion, and support by leaders are positive factors influencing job satisfaction, whereas structural workplace conditions and salaries are rated less positive (Viernickel et al., 2013; Züchner & Fuchs-Rechlin, 2018). Totenhagen et al. (2016) summarise several studies indicating that workers committed to a career in childcare and to the organization are more satisfied with both intrinsic and extrinsic work dimensions (cf. Irvine et al., 2016 with similar results).

On the other hand, international research problematises the low status of ECEC. Fenech, Waniganayake, & Fleet (2009) see ECEC as ‘a profession on ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of contributors
• Foreword
• Part 1 Background: men, gender, and culture in ECEC
• Part 2 Factors that influence men’s career decisions
• Part 3 Overview of findings and the way ahead
• Appendix A Data collection protocol
• Appendix B Coding scheme for researchers
• Appendix C Thumbnail profiles of participants
• Index