Men in Early Childhood Education

Structure of Early Childcare and pre-school and out of school education in the Netherlands

Age 0-6 Minimum qualifications and percentage of men in early years work

Minimum: Certificate of at least professional education in the field plus a declaration of good behavior check on relevant convictions. Approx. 1-2 per cent men.

Age 6-12 Minimum qualifications and percentage of men in out of school care

Minimum: Certificate of at least mid level professional education in the field plus a declaration of good behavior check on relevant convictions. Approx. 3-5 per cent men

Structure of education: Initial qualification 3 years of mid level professional education in the field of Socio-pedagogic work part-time or full-time

Salary is Low. Although a bit higher than minimum wages.

Nearly all jobs in the field are part time. Most women in the field are married or have a partner with another income. For men it’s hard to find a full-time paid job in this field that offers enough to support a family if their partner only works part time. In Dutch practice it is not easy to live a family life with two part timers

Existing Dutch network(s) of Men in Early Child Education in pre-school or out of school education Under construction.

In April 2009 there was a first and very successful meeting of men in the field, supported widely by many women too. 45 men were present, as were 7 women directorsand staff personnel who want to raise the number of men in their institute.

Successes

Problem of low numbers of men is gradually being recognized.

Main problems:

Low Wages

No full time jobs, hard to combine functions all kind of regulations, time-table, social insurances, tax, etc.

Education for the childcare profession is officially mid level but in practice is often still on quite a low level although with of course some good exceptions.

Education for this profession is very much gendered:

In numbers of students many of the few male students vanish during the course, In numbers of teachers predominantly female.

In content focus is on verbal-emotional skills, fine motor movements and in culture.

Very seldom attention is being paid to differences in development and needs of boys and girls.

Isolation of men in the field, usually if there is only one men in a predominately female team he tends to leave after a few years, possibly because of different styles and cultures. If there are at least two men in a workplace, their chance of staying is much greater.

Taken all together: the situation in the Netherlands is slowly changing towards more involvement of men