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（ECE）工作队伍中就业的障碍的理解；了解可能的解决方案；并利用这些以证据为基础的知识，帮助英国以最有效的方式实现劳动力性别多元化。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，这个数字一直顽固地抵制变革。我们将与位于英国四个地区的欧洲经委会专业人员中心合作，这些专业人员有兴趣并积极倡导增加欧洲经委会的男性人数，并参与支持性的MITEY（早期男性）区域网络和国家会议。我们将与来自挪威的一组学者和从业人员合作，他们通过挪威的性别平等行动计划参与了区域和国家招聘战略，以实现政府制定的幼儿园男性人数增加20%的目标。四名中心领导将参加在挪威举行的知识交流活动，并将他们的学习成果传递给欧洲经委会的同事，参与八个不同的环境（幼儿园和小学接待班），然后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在一项由Childbase Partnership资助的试点研究中使用的模型，该研究探索了由五名男性从业者组成的托儿所的混合性别劳动力的影响。我们还将对更广泛的部门进行调查，寻求有关男性招聘和保留的数据，以及关于过去、正在进行和未来增加人数的方法的信息。此外，我们将对主要培训机构、职业利益相关者和欧洲经委会主要战略家进行支持性访谈。调查结果将转化为欧洲经委会提供者和管理人员的建议和培训途径。我们将为这些利益相关者提供一组培训活动，然后他们将作为MITEY的“倡导者”，并将他们的知识进一步传授给欧洲经委会部门的其他人。我们还将制作一个培训工具包，利用现有的最佳证据，免费分发给该部门。我们将在项目结束时召开一个会议，把我们所有的学习成果聚集在一起，进行交流。一个关键的目标是利用我们的研究结果来发展一个可行的和明确的理论，使欧洲经委会劳动力中包括男性的价值合理化，并可以被欧洲经委会专业人员和其他人采纳，以倡导增加男性数量。该研究将应用Warin在性别与教育方面长期研究的创新理论，该理论侧重于性别灵活教学法的概念。这一概念涉及改变传统性别规范的可能性和机会，要求对性别问题敏感的从业人员愿意并能够跨越传统性别界限，并鼓励儿童也这样做。通过使欧洲经委会提供者（通过行动而不是语言）向幼儿表明，照料是一项男性和女性的活动，我们将加强努力，帮助幼儿自己挑战性别陈规定型观念，以便他们长大后能够对自己的职业和家庭中的性别角色做出较少受限制的选择。这项研究是英国首次尝试以系统的方式整理、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。它将首次建立一个强有力的证据基础和丰富的学习经验，以支持有动机的欧洲经委会提供者建立一个更加性别多样化的劳动力队伍，并提供资源，帮助他们制定最有效的战略，并向潜在的新兵、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.