This stimulating book sets out to critically explore the notion of men, masculinities and teaching in early childhood education. It addresses the global pattern of gender, teaching and care where men are in the minority, and explores the notion that the greater involvement of men within teaching and associated professions has the potential to transform gender relations for future generations. International contributors raise critical questions about the construction of masculinities, the continuing reluctance of men to engage in this type of work, and the influence of political and public debates on the issue. Through this engaging discussion readers are asked to question whether this is something that we should care about, with key topics including: The roles of men in education and care Teachers’ beliefs, norms and values of gender equality The construction of male identities Gendered ideals, and children’s interpretations of gender. Men, Masculinities and Teaching in Early Childhood Education brings together a refreshing and critical set of perspectives linked to an increasingly important educational debate and will be a valuable text for practitioners, professionals, policy makers and parents/carers.

Gender and Care in Pedagogical Relations with Young Children is an exploration of how children, educators, and things become implicated in gendered caring practices. Drawing on a collaborative research study with early childhood educators and young children, the author explores what an engagement with human-and non-human relationality does to complicate conversations about gender and care. By employing a material feminist analysis of early childhood education, this book rethinks dominant Western individualist pedagogies in order to politically reposition them within a relationality framework.

By offering practical steps for adults who work with young children to build inclusive and intentional spaces where all children receive positive messages about their unique gender selves, this book increases awareness about gender diversity in learning environments such as child care centres, family child care homes and preschools. The book is based on some of the most progressive, modern understandings of gender and intersectionality, as well as research on child development, gender health, trauma informed practices and the science of adult learning. By including the voices and lived experiences of gender-expansive children, transgender adults, early childhood educators and parents and family members of trans and gender-expansive children, it contextualizes what it means to rethink early learning programs with a commitment to gender justice and gender equality for all children.

Gender and Care in Pedagogical Relations with Young Children is an exploration of how children, educators, and things become implicated in gendered caring practices. Drawing on a collaborative research study with early childhood educators and young children, the author explores what an engagement with human-and non-human relationality does to complicate conversations about gender and care. By employing a material feminist analysis of early childhood education, this book rethinks dominant Western individualist pedagogies in order to politically reposition them within a relationality framework.

This book explores the many ways and opportunities in which men and women might work together to highlight creative ways as well as examine the role of men in schools, families, and community engagement. The book helps to broaden the group’s “collective identity” of those who work with male teachers and caregivers by expanding an understanding of their experiences in order to better ways of collaboration. This book serves as a practical guide and resource to challenge the status quo in following our own intuition about our life’s work as men and women in early childhood education. The central theme that is sought here is to remember the general purpose of education: to enlighten for multiple purposes and to ask the resounding questions of how do we best achieve this purpose as men and women working together without the confines of gender roles, especially as educators in early childhood and the general educational setting where gender roles are specific to men and women’s perceived ways of caring, nurturing, providing, and educating future generations.

Anti-bias education begins with you! Become a skilled anti-bias teacher with this practical guidance to confronting and eliminating barriers.

In this volume, gender and schooling in the early years addresses a broad range of issues including, but not limited, to gender equity in education. We explore, for example, the complex world of play in Fromberg's chapter and are reminded that for young children, play involves issues of power and hierarchy in ways that parallel the role of gender in society. Miletta's study of preschool children in northern Italy, at Reggio Emilia, reveals a story of classroom interactions where gender differences are not part of the equation for the youngsters. Her chapter begs the question, "How does this environment empower all children, regardless of gender?" Two chapters provide a lens to the Montessori setting for young children. Wilgus studies the gendered patterns of young women teaching at a Montessori school, while Irby, Rodriguez, and Lara-Alecio explore the intersections of culture and gender at a bilingual Montessori public school. Further examining the preschool years, Plaster and Schiller address the current brain research and examine the ways in which the adults that staff early child care programs, and the environments that they offer, play an important role in the development of our children.