Gender diversification of the early years education workforce: Recruiting, supporting and retaining male practitioners

这项研究旨在提高我们对阻碍更多男性在幼儿教育劳动力中就业的障碍的了解；了解可能的解决方案；并以能够帮助英国以尽可能高效和有效的方式使劳动力性别多样化的方式利用这一基于证据的知识。目前，英国欧洲经委会的劳动力中只有2%左右是男性；几十年来，这一数字一直顽固地抵制改变。我们将与设在英国四个地方的欧洲经委会专业人员中心合作，他们有兴趣并积极倡导增加欧洲经委会的男子人数，并参与支持性的Mitey(早年男子)区域网络和国家会议。我们将与来自挪威的学者和从业人员团队合作，通过挪威的性别平等行动计划，参与区域和国家招聘战略，以实现幼儿园男性增加20%的政府目标。四个中心领导人将参加在挪威举行的知识交流活动，并将他们的学习传递给欧洲经委会的同事，邀请八个不同的环境(学前班和小学接待班)，然后他们将形成一个案例研究样本，每个中心两个。案例研究方法将遵循Warin在由Childbase Partnership资助的一项试点研究中使用的模式，该研究探索了在一个有五名男性从业者的托儿所中混合性别劳动力的影响。我们还将对更广泛的部门进行一项调查，寻求有关招聘和留住男性的数据，以及关于以往、正在进行和未来增加男性人数的方法的信息。此外，我们还将与主要培训提供者、职业利益攸关方和欧洲经委会主要战略家进行辅助性访谈。调查结果将转化为对欧洲经委会提供者和管理人员的建议和培训途径。我们将为这些利益攸关方举办一次培训活动，这些利益攸关方随后将成为Mitey‘冠军’，并将他们的知识进一步传播给欧洲经委会部门的其他人。我们还将利用现有的最佳证据，制作一套免费分发给该部门的培训工具包。我们将在项目结束时召开一次会议，团结起来，交流我们所有的学习。一个关键目标是利用我们的调查结果，制定一种可行和明确的理论，使将男子纳入欧洲经委会劳动力队伍的价值合理化，并可被欧洲经委会专业人员和其他人采纳，以倡导增加男子人数。这项研究将应用沃林在性别和教育方面长期研究的创新理论，该研究侧重于性别弹性教育学的概念。这一概念涉及转变传统性别规范的可能性和机会，并要求愿意并能够跨越传统性别界限的对性别问题敏感的从业人员，并鼓励儿童也这样做。通过让幼儿教育提供者(通过行动而不是言语)向幼儿表明，照料是男性和女性的一项活动，我们将加强努力，帮助幼儿自己挑战性别刻板印象，以便他们长大后可以对自己的职业和家庭中的性别角色做出更少的限制选择。这项研究是英国首次尝试系统地整理、收集和使用研究证据，以支持欧洲经委会工作人员的性别多样化。它将第一次建立强大的证据基础和丰富的学习经验，以支持欧洲经委会提供者有动力创建一支性别更加多样化的工作队伍，并提供资源，帮助它们制定最有效的战略，并向潜在的应聘者、欧洲经委会提供者、家长、培训提供者和职业服务机构传达关键信息。

This research aims to improve our understanding of the obstacles that stand in the way of more men taking up employment in the Early Childhood Education (ECE) workforce; to learn about possible solutions; and to harness this evidence-based knowledge in ways that can help the UK diversify the gender of its workforce in the most efficient and effective ways possible. Currently only around 2% of the UK's ECE workforce are male; a figure that has remained stubbornly resistant to change for several decades. We will work with hubs of ECE professionals located in four English localities, who are interested and active in advocating for an increase of men in ECE and engaged in supportive MITEY (Men in the Early Years) regional networks and national conferences. We will work with a team of academics and practitioners from Norway who have been engaged, through Norway's gender equality action plan, in regional and national recruitment strategies to achieve a government target of 20% more men in kindergartens.Four hub leaders will attend a knowledge exchange event in Norway and cascade their learning to ECE colleagues, engaging eight different settings (pre-schools and primary school Reception classes) who will then form a sample of case studies, two in each hub. The case study methodology will follow the model utilised by Warin in a pilot study, funded by Childbase Partnership, that explored impacts of a mixed-gender workforce in a nursery with five male practitioners. We will also administer a survey to the wider sector, seeking data on male recruitment and retention, and information about previous, ongoing and future approaches to increasing numbers. In addition we will conduct supporting interviews with key training providers, careers stakeholders and key ECE strategists. Findings will be translated into recommendations and training pathways for ECE providers and managers. We will deliver a training event for a group of these stakeholders, who will then act as MITEY 'champions' and cascade their knowledge further to others in the ECE sector. We will also produce a training toolkit for free distribution to the sector, drawing on the best available evidence. We will hold a conference at the end of the project, to pull together and communicate all our learning. A key aim is to harness our findings to develop a workable and explicit theory that rationalises the value of including men within the ECE workforce and can be taken up by ECE professionals and others to advocate for an increase in numbers of men. The study will apply an innovative theory drawn from Warin's longstanding research in gender and education which focuses on the concept of gender flexible pedagogy. The concept addresses possibilities and opportunities for the transformation of traditional gender norms and requires gender sensitive practitioners who are willing and able to traverse traditional gender boundaries, and encourage children to do the same. By enabling ECE providers to show young children (through actions rather than words) that caregiving is an activity for men as well as women, we will enhance efforts to help young children themselves to challenge gender stereotypes so that they may grow up to make less constrained choices about their own careers and gender roles within families.This research is the first ever attempt in the UK to collate, collect and use research evidence in a systematic way, to support gender diversification of the ECE workforce. It will, for the first time, create a strong evidence base and substantial learning experiences to support ECE providers motivated to create a more gender-diverse workforce, along with resources to help them develop the most effective strategies and communicate key messages to potential recruits, ECE providers, parents, training providers, and careers services.