Male educators in pre-school education: a case study of public and professional discourse in the 1980's in the USSR
Research Article
Acknowledgments
This article would not have been possible without the help of colleagues, and the authors express their gratitude to Kirill V. Chetvertakov, methodologist of the Moscow City Methodological Centre of the Department of Education and Science, for providing unique materials, as well as assistance and support in conducting the study.
How to Cite
Kolesnikova E.M., Kudenko I.A. (2024) Male educators in pre-school education: a case study of public and professional discourse in the 1980’s in the USSR. Zhurnal sotsiologii i sotsialnoy antropologii (The Journal of Sociology and Social Anthropology), 27(3): 216–249 (in Russian). DOI: https://doi.org/10.31119/jssa.2024.27.3.8 EDN: IGCGWT
Abstract
The social position of the pre-school educator profession is often problematised in public, political and academic discourses almost all over the world and in Russia, but the experiences of Russian male educators remain without due attention. In this case, we turn to an analysis of the discourse around one of the first male educators who, in the 1980s, found himself at the centre of a public discussion about the status of the kindergarten teaching profession and the place of men in it, as well as within the corporate discourse about 'women's' work and professionalisation. Article about one of the first male educators (1986 Izvestia), letters to the editor responding to article and an interview with the article's protagonist formed the study's empirical basis. Although neither the public nor colleagues doubted the ability of a man to perform the duties of an educator, they differed in their assessment of the uniqueness of a man as a teacher and the need for him for children, the professional community and society as a whole. In general, it is important that ideas about male educators do not exist in isolation, but are based on an opinion about the profession in general and its status characteristics in particular. The current discourse on male educators is in many ways similar to that of the Soviet Union, but there have also been changes.
Keywords:
sociology of professions, sociology of education, preschool teacher, male educator, gender stereotypes, Russian preschool education, early childhood education and care, male workers
References
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Novik N.N., Tvardovskaya A.A. (2020) Novik N.N., Tvardovskaya A.A. (2020) Professional'noe obrazovanie pedagogov doshkol'nyh organizacij: ozhidaniya i real'nost' [Vocational education of teachers of preschool organizations: expectations and reality]. Professional'noe obrazovanie i rynok truda [Vocational education and the labor market], 4(43): 49–55 (in Russian). https://doi.org/10.24411/2307-4264-2020-10406.
Rodina V.V. (2018) Diskurs: genezis, priroda i soderzhanie, obzor nauchnyh shkol. [Discourse: genesis, nature and content, review of scientific schools]. Izvestiya Sankt-peterburgskogo gosudarstvennogo ekonomicheskogo universiteta [Proceedings of Saint Petersburg State University of Economics], 1(109): 101–111 (in Russian). EDN: YQNHFS.
Sacks M. (2020) Neoveberianstvo i professii [Neo-Weberianism and the Professions]. Sotsiologicheskiye issledovaniya [Sociological Research], 6: 28–41 (in Russian). https://doi.org/10.31857/S013216250009646-3.
Smirnova E. (2005) Pedagogicheskie sistemy i programmy doshkol'nogo vospitaniya [Pedagogical systems and programs of preschool education]. Moscow: Vlados. EDN: QUGYCL (in Russian).
Temkina A.A., Rotkirch A. (2002) Sovetskie gendernye kontrakty i ih transformaciya v sovremennoj Rossii [Soviet gender contracts and their transformation in modern Russia]. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 11: 4–15. EDN: MQDNJB (in Russian).
Abbott A. (1993) The Sociology of Work and Occupations. Annual Review of Sociology, 19: 187–209. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.so.19.080193.001155.
Bhana D., Moosa S., Xu Y., Emilsen K. (2022) Men in early childhood education and care: on navigating a gendered terrain. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2022.2074070.
Bonnett T.H., Wade C.E. (2022) Procuring Gender-Situated Voices of Male Early Childhood Professionals in Canada. International Journal of Early Childhood. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13158-022-00337-8.
Brante T. (1988) Sociological Approaches to the Professions. Acta Sociologica, 31(2): 119–142. https://doi.org/10.1177/000169938803100202.
Brante T. (2013) The Professional Landscape: The Historical Development of Professions in Sweden. Professions and Professionalism, 3(2): 1–18. https://doi.org/10.7577/pp.558.
Cameron C. (2006) Men in the Nursery Revisited: Issues of Male Workers and Professionalism. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 7(1): 68–79. https://doi.org/10.2304/ciec.2006.7.1.68.
Cameron C., Mooney A., Moss P. (2002) The child care workforce: current conditions and future directions. Critical Social Policy, 22(4): 572–595. https://doi.org/10.1177/02610183020220040201.
Carrington B., Francis B., Hutchings M., Skelton C., Read B., Hall I. (2007) “Does the gender of the teacher really matter? Seven- to eight-year-olds” accounts of their interactions with their teachers'. Educational Studies, 33(4): 397–413. https://doi.org/10.1080/03055690701423580.
Demirkasımoğlu N., Taşkın P. (2019). The Career Journey of the First Male Preschool Teacher in Turkey: An Optimistic Perspective to A Female Dominated Occupation. Journal of Qualitative Research in Education, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.14689/issn.2148-2624.1.7c1s.19m.
Erden S., Ozgun O., Ciftci M.A. (2011) “I am a man, but i am a pre-school education teacher”: Self and social-perception of male pre-school teachers. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 15: 3199–3204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.04.271/
Etzioni A. (ed.) (1969) The semi-professions and their organization: teachers, nurses, social workers. New York: The Free Press.
Flyvbjerg B. (2011) Case Study. In: Denzin N.K., Lincoln Y.S. (eds.) The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications: 301–316.
Goings R.B., Davis J., Britto J., Greene D. (2017). The influence of mentoring on the academic trajectory of a 17-year-old black male college sophomore from the United Kingdom: A single case study. Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, 25(3), 346–368. https://doi.org/10.1080/13611267.2017.1364853.
Harris K., Barnes S. (2009) Male teacher, female teacher: Exploring children's perspectives of teachers' roles in Kindergartens. Early Child Development and Care, 179(2): 167–181. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430802667005.
Hedlin M., Åberg M., Johansson C. (2019) Fun guy and possible perpetrator: an interview study of how men are positioned within early childhood education and care. Education Inquiry, 10(2): 95–115. https://doi.org/10.1080/20004508.2018.1492844/
Hofman J. (2023) Classroom management and teacher emotions in secondary mathematics teaching: a qualitative video-based single case study. Education Inquiry, 14:3, 389–405. https://doi.org/10.1080/20004508.2022.2028441.
Kolesnikova E.M., Kudenko I.А. (2023) Male Educators in Pre-School Education: A Recognition or an Anxiety? Integration of Education, 27(4): 646–668. https://doi.org/10.15507/1991-9468.113.027.202304.646-668.
Kreitz-Sandberg S. (2013) Gender inclusion and horizontal gender segregation: stakeholders' strategies and dilemmas in Swedish teachers' education. Gender and Education, 25(4): 444–465. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2013.772566.
Martin D.M., Luth Jr F.W. (2000) Where are the men? the scarcity of males in early childhood classrooms. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 21(3). https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0163638000210303.
Martino W.J. (2008) Male Teachers as Role Models: Addressing Issues of Masculinity, Pedagogy and the Re‐Masculinization of Schooling. Curriculum Inquiry, 38(2): 189–223. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-873X.2007.00405.x.
Mills M., Martino W., Lingard B. (2004) Attracting, Recruiting and Retaining Male Teachers: Policy Issues in the Male Teacher Debate. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 25(3): 355–369. https://doi.org/10.1080/0142569042000216990.
Sargent P. (2000) Real men or real teachers? Contradictions in the lives of men elementary teachers. Men and Masculinities, 2(4): 410–433. https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X00002004003.
Sargent P. (2013) Reluctant Role Models: Men Teachers and the Reproduction of Hegemonic Masculinity. Qualitative Sociology Review, 9(3): 188–203. https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.9.3.10.
Sevier B., Ashcraft C. (2009) Be Careful What You Ask For: Exploring the Confusion around and Usefulness of the Male Teacher as Male Role Model Discourse. Men and Masculinities, 11(5): 533–557. https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X07302290.
Siraj-Blatchford I., Taggart B., Sylva K., Sammons P., Melhuish E. (2008) Towards the transformation of practice in early childhood education: the effective provision of pre-school education (EPPE) project. Cambridge Journal of Education, 38(1): 23–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057640801889956.
Sumsion J. Critical Reflections on the Experiences of a Male Early Childhood Worker (1999) Gender and Education, 11(4): 455–468. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540259920519.
Wood P., Brownhill S. (2018). ‘Absent fathers,’ and children’s social and emotional learning: An exploration of the perceptions of ‘positive male role models’ in the primary school sector. Gender and Education, 30(2): 177–186. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2016.1187264.
Kashurkina S.S., Lukishina T.A. (2019) Prestizh professii "pedagog doshkol'nogo obrazovaniya": ocenki pedagogov i poziciya roditelej [Prestige of the profession "preschool teacher": teachers' assessments and parents' position]. Sovremennoe doshkol'noe obrazovanie [Modern preschool education], 96(6): 36–49 (in Russian). https://doi.org/10.24411/1997-9657-2019-10057.
Kolesnikova E.M. (2016) Pedagogi chastnogo i gosudarstvennogo doshkol'nogo obrazovaniya: status gruppy i perspektivy razvitiya[Teachers in Private and Public Pre-School Education: Status and Prospects]. Sociologicheskij zhurnal [Sociological Journal], 22(1): 114–132. https://doi.org/10.19181/socjour.2016.22.1.3919 (in Russian).
Kolesnikova E.M., Mitrokhina E.V. (2017) Vospitateli i uchitelya ob usloviyah truda i organizacionnoj podderzhke [Educators and teachers on working conditions and organizational support]. Vestnik Instituta sociologii [Bulletin of the Institute of Sociology], 1(20): 13–34. https://doi.org/10.19181/vis.2017.20.1.443 (in Russian).
Novik N.N., Tvardovskaya A.A. (2020) Novik N.N., Tvardovskaya A.A. (2020) Professional'noe obrazovanie pedagogov doshkol'nyh organizacij: ozhidaniya i real'nost' [Vocational education of teachers of preschool organizations: expectations and reality]. Professional'noe obrazovanie i rynok truda [Vocational education and the labor market], 4(43): 49–55 (in Russian). https://doi.org/10.24411/2307-4264-2020-10406.
Rodina V.V. (2018) Diskurs: genezis, priroda i soderzhanie, obzor nauchnyh shkol. [Discourse: genesis, nature and content, review of scientific schools]. Izvestiya Sankt-peterburgskogo gosudarstvennogo ekonomicheskogo universiteta [Proceedings of Saint Petersburg State University of Economics], 1(109): 101–111 (in Russian). EDN: YQNHFS.
Sacks M. (2020) Neoveberianstvo i professii [Neo-Weberianism and the Professions]. Sotsiologicheskiye issledovaniya [Sociological Research], 6: 28–41 (in Russian). https://doi.org/10.31857/S013216250009646-3.
Smirnova E. (2005) Pedagogicheskie sistemy i programmy doshkol'nogo vospitaniya [Pedagogical systems and programs of preschool education]. Moscow: Vlados. EDN: QUGYCL (in Russian).
Temkina A.A., Rotkirch A. (2002) Sovetskie gendernye kontrakty i ih transformaciya v sovremennoj Rossii [Soviet gender contracts and their transformation in modern Russia]. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 11: 4–15. EDN: MQDNJB (in Russian).
Abbott A. (1993) The Sociology of Work and Occupations. Annual Review of Sociology, 19: 187–209. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.so.19.080193.001155.
Bhana D., Moosa S., Xu Y., Emilsen K. (2022) Men in early childhood education and care: on navigating a gendered terrain. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2022.2074070.
Bonnett T.H., Wade C.E. (2022) Procuring Gender-Situated Voices of Male Early Childhood Professionals in Canada. International Journal of Early Childhood. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13158-022-00337-8.
Brante T. (1988) Sociological Approaches to the Professions. Acta Sociologica, 31(2): 119–142. https://doi.org/10.1177/000169938803100202.
Brante T. (2013) The Professional Landscape: The Historical Development of Professions in Sweden. Professions and Professionalism, 3(2): 1–18. https://doi.org/10.7577/pp.558.
Cameron C. (2006) Men in the Nursery Revisited: Issues of Male Workers and Professionalism. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 7(1): 68–79. https://doi.org/10.2304/ciec.2006.7.1.68.
Cameron C., Mooney A., Moss P. (2002) The child care workforce: current conditions and future directions. Critical Social Policy, 22(4): 572–595. https://doi.org/10.1177/02610183020220040201.
Carrington B., Francis B., Hutchings M., Skelton C., Read B., Hall I. (2007) “Does the gender of the teacher really matter? Seven- to eight-year-olds” accounts of their interactions with their teachers'. Educational Studies, 33(4): 397–413. https://doi.org/10.1080/03055690701423580.
Demirkasımoğlu N., Taşkın P. (2019). The Career Journey of the First Male Preschool Teacher in Turkey: An Optimistic Perspective to A Female Dominated Occupation. Journal of Qualitative Research in Education, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.14689/issn.2148-2624.1.7c1s.19m.
Erden S., Ozgun O., Ciftci M.A. (2011) “I am a man, but i am a pre-school education teacher”: Self and social-perception of male pre-school teachers. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 15: 3199–3204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.04.271/
Etzioni A. (ed.) (1969) The semi-professions and their organization: teachers, nurses, social workers. New York: The Free Press.
Flyvbjerg B. (2011) Case Study. In: Denzin N.K., Lincoln Y.S. (eds.) The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications: 301–316.
Goings R.B., Davis J., Britto J., Greene D. (2017). The influence of mentoring on the academic trajectory of a 17-year-old black male college sophomore from the United Kingdom: A single case study. Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, 25(3), 346–368. https://doi.org/10.1080/13611267.2017.1364853.
Harris K., Barnes S. (2009) Male teacher, female teacher: Exploring children's perspectives of teachers' roles in Kindergartens. Early Child Development and Care, 179(2): 167–181. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430802667005.
Hedlin M., Åberg M., Johansson C. (2019) Fun guy and possible perpetrator: an interview study of how men are positioned within early childhood education and care. Education Inquiry, 10(2): 95–115. https://doi.org/10.1080/20004508.2018.1492844/
Hofman J. (2023) Classroom management and teacher emotions in secondary mathematics teaching: a qualitative video-based single case study. Education Inquiry, 14:3, 389–405. https://doi.org/10.1080/20004508.2022.2028441.
Kolesnikova E.M., Kudenko I.А. (2023) Male Educators in Pre-School Education: A Recognition or an Anxiety? Integration of Education, 27(4): 646–668. https://doi.org/10.15507/1991-9468.113.027.202304.646-668.
Kreitz-Sandberg S. (2013) Gender inclusion and horizontal gender segregation: stakeholders' strategies and dilemmas in Swedish teachers' education. Gender and Education, 25(4): 444–465. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2013.772566.
Martin D.M., Luth Jr F.W. (2000) Where are the men? the scarcity of males in early childhood classrooms. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 21(3). https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0163638000210303.
Martino W.J. (2008) Male Teachers as Role Models: Addressing Issues of Masculinity, Pedagogy and the Re‐Masculinization of Schooling. Curriculum Inquiry, 38(2): 189–223. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-873X.2007.00405.x.
Mills M., Martino W., Lingard B. (2004) Attracting, Recruiting and Retaining Male Teachers: Policy Issues in the Male Teacher Debate. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 25(3): 355–369. https://doi.org/10.1080/0142569042000216990.
Sargent P. (2000) Real men or real teachers? Contradictions in the lives of men elementary teachers. Men and Masculinities, 2(4): 410–433. https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X00002004003.
Sargent P. (2013) Reluctant Role Models: Men Teachers and the Reproduction of Hegemonic Masculinity. Qualitative Sociology Review, 9(3): 188–203. https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.9.3.10.
Sevier B., Ashcraft C. (2009) Be Careful What You Ask For: Exploring the Confusion around and Usefulness of the Male Teacher as Male Role Model Discourse. Men and Masculinities, 11(5): 533–557. https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X07302290.
Siraj-Blatchford I., Taggart B., Sylva K., Sammons P., Melhuish E. (2008) Towards the transformation of practice in early childhood education: the effective provision of pre-school education (EPPE) project. Cambridge Journal of Education, 38(1): 23–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057640801889956.
Sumsion J. Critical Reflections on the Experiences of a Male Early Childhood Worker (1999) Gender and Education, 11(4): 455–468. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540259920519.
Wood P., Brownhill S. (2018). ‘Absent fathers,’ and children’s social and emotional learning: An exploration of the perceptions of ‘positive male role models’ in the primary school sector. Gender and Education, 30(2): 177–186. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2016.1187264.
Article
Received: 30.10.2023
Accepted: 15.08.2024
Citation Formats
Other cite formats:
ACM
[1]
Kolesnikova, E.M. and Kudenko, I.A. 2024. Male educators in pre-school education: a case study of public and professional discourse in the 1980’s in the USSR. Zhurnal sotsiologii i sotsialnoy antropologii (The Journal of Sociology and Social Anthropology). 27, 3 (Aug. 2024), 216–249. DOI:https://doi.org/10.31119/jssa.2024.27.3.8.
Section
Sociology of Professions
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