2021 EC MENz Summit

KATE RUSSELL investigates why there are so few male early childhood education teachers in New Zealand.  January 2013  NZ Teacher

Early childhood teaching is one of the most gender-segregated professions in New Zealand. According to the Ministry of Education’s latest statistics from July 2011, over 98 per cent of early childhood education (ECE) teachers are female. That’s a total of 379 male teachers, compared with 20,267 female teachers.

However, Ministry of Education statistics say that male ECE teachers have nearly trebled since 2001, and have grown as a percentage from 1.1 per cent in 2001 to 1.8 per cent in 2011. Despite this growth, there is still a shockingly small number of men teaching in our early childhood centres.

radio y men Sunday 25 November 2012, with David SteemsonDeborah Nation & Jack Perkins

Audio from Sunday 25 November 2012  http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/spectrum/20121125

Not all audio is available due to copyright restrictions.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012 • Alice Te Puni

BLOKES teaching in early childhood education are “rare” which makes Neil Aitkenhead’s bachelors graduation especially precious, says Early Childhood Education Centre manager Wendy Ure.

New Zealand has one of the lowest rates of male early childhood teachers in the OECD, at around 1 percent.

This makes early childhood teaching one of the most gender-segregated occupations in the labour force, even more so than firefighters, says Mrs Ure.

Part One - Close Up debates the need for more male teachers in early childhood learning.

Part Two - Two male preschool teachers in Wellington feature in part two of Close Up’s series.

Click links to view the items on TVNZ’s website.