Factors Influencing Male participattion in Early Childhood Education

Personal factors

Research has shown that there are various individual factors that may influence career choice. However there has been no specific research targeting a career choice in early childhood education. To begin with, individual perceptions of the ideal job one  intends to engage in sometimes in the future has been found to influence on the  decision on which course to pursue. Every individual has an idea of what a perfect job is and that determines the career they are to pursue. Student’s perception towards their environment, personality, and opportunity highly determine the career choices they make.

Rosenstock & Steinberg, cited in O’Brien, (1996) explain that individual’s job maturity affects one’s choice for a career. Job maturity is determined by how well a student possesses information about the job he intends to pursue in future. Depending on the maturity, every student carries the unique history of his/her past that determines how they view the world and how willing they are to seek information regarding that particular job.

It is therefore important to note that this maturity is in part as a result of the student’s environment, personality and opportunity.

Career decision has its basis on early years of an individual’s life. In support of this, Super, Savicks, & Super (1996), purport that an individual’s initial career decision-making is a cultural and developmental task that adolescents are expected to have accomplished by the end of their high school years. Trice and McClellan (1994) in their research found out that approximately 23% of adults aged 40-55 had made their career decisions during their childhood. Helwig (2001) concurs with the above by asserting that elementary aged children hold career goals that they intend to pursue. He advances that some of these goals are typically unattainable for the large part of the population.

Such career related beliefs imply that they may be inadvertently and needlessly restricting an individual’s future career options. One of the reasons behind this is the fact that they have inadequate information regarding careers they intend to pursue, and therefore a need for guidance. This is where ones family comes in to help children in making such decisions and ensuring that they don’t restrict themselves career wise. This helps them to avoid inappropriate career choices. (Gottfredson, 1981)

Splayer (1977) contends that individual’s self-understanding plays a vital role in determining career choice. According to him, it is always very important for students to have a good understanding of themselves and their personality if they are to make intelligent career plans. These include having knowledge on what they are and what they would like to become in the future. The personality factors to be considered include mental abilities, special abilities, and interests. According to Splaver, mental abilities such as verbal comprehension, word fluency, spatial ability, numerical ability, reasoning ability and memory determines what career one intends to pursue.

Worth noting is the fact that mental ability plays a great role in academic performance that restricts one to certain courses. Splaver advances that students need to be conscious about their personality as well as intellectual abilities while planning on the courses to pursue.  Harris and Jones (1997), agree to this explaining that in developing a career plan, individuals need to carry out an evaluation of own personality including abilities through self-assessment and communication with others.

Self-knowledge has been pivotal in career development (Anderson, 1995). There have been many examples to describe the process of self-knowledge. One example would be a student’s critical look at life’s experiences to enhance their self-knowledge. Another example would be students using problem-based learning to gain insight into self-knowledge (Lankard and Brown, 1996). According to the National Commission Site, (1989), every individual shares some factors also known as constructs. These constructs are personality traits that become valuable when choosing a career. The formation of these constructs are influenced by factors most notably the environment, such as our formal education. How well an individual forms constructs on careers determines his/her ability to set up a career path which begins with enrolling for a course.

Future expectations in terms of the benefits associated with a particular career determine what students’ choices. The salary expected from a career may either discourage students from pursuing it or encourage them. Ghorbani’s (2008) survey found that participants held impractical expectations towards their projected salaries during their first year of teaching. The survey for instance singled out men as placing a strong emphasis on the importance of money in determining their job satisfaction. Consequently, Ghorbani argues that administrator’s salaries tend to tempt men from the classroom to managerial positions, or possibly leaving education altogether. Ghorbani further proposes that the presence of financially struggling teachers will scare away individuals from a teaching career mostly men.

This implies that some of these challenges faced by men in ECDE tend to discourage–them from pursuing the course. However with ECE professionals hardly getting salary commensurate to their qualification, there remains to be established whether salary expectations remains a factor influencing men to enrol for a career in ECE.

Craig d'Arcy (2008) in his study presents a different scenario. He contends that there are special factors that attract individuals to enrol for specific courses. In the study, Craig d'Arcy found that a lot of men who choose early childhood education as a career had prior experiences in the field which they intended to bring on board. For instance one of the male participants explained that he was motivated into the field after having children of his own as well as having an intention of portraying that men too have much to offer in rearing children. He therefore concludes that prior experience with children, being parent as well as wanting to help children learn and develop appropriately, influenced males to enter and be sustained in early childhood as a career (DeCorse and Vogtle, 1997). This brings in the role of cultural socialization in child rearing. The African culture has socialized women to be child nurturers, while men on the other hand become bread winners. This leaves men at risk of being outpaced from the field of early childhood education early in life. However, the situation in Kenya seems to be different where discrimination, low pay and the low status are accorded to those working in ECE. It however remains to be established whether these practitioners would envy the experience they garner from the field.

Another personal factor likely to influence an individual’s career choice is one’s family. Leong (1993) found that Asian Americans do not always choose a career based on their own interests or intentions but on the family’s decision and expectation. He observed that the younger generations feel obliged to carry on the family tradition and accomplish the wishes of the older generation. This forces students into careers that advance their family’s interests as opposed to their own.

In a study on role models’ influence on the career decisiveness of college students, Perrone, (2001) concludes that role model supportiveness as well as quality of relationship highly contributes to a career a student decides to pursue. This shows how important one’s friends have on their choice on career.

Whether these personal factors are directly linked to student’s choice to pursue a course in ECE remains to be established, while what would motivate a family to guide one of their own towards a course where men are facing such challenges is still not clear.

Economic factors

Research has established that the economic status of an individual or his/her family has great influence on a student’s choice to enrol for a course. Economic status refers to economic situation of individuals and the society in general. According to Fergusson & Woodward, (2000) a very strong relationship exists between economic status and occupational choice. Bandura, Barbaranelli, Caprara, &Pastorelli (2001), advance that every individual in the process of making a career decision is influenced by the social context we live in as well as the economic status of the entire society. They further explain that social and economic circumstances of a broader community highly affect youth's perceptions towards a certain career. Worth noting is the fact that the impact of poverty is felt from the early age. According to Purcell-Gates, McIntyre, & Freppon, (1995) children from low-Social Economic Status families often begin kindergarten with significantly less linguistic knowledge. This also tends to impact negatively on a student’s general performance, which if no intervention is made in good time, may deny a student an opportunity to pursue certain careers.

Poverty has a direct influence on the choice of a career. For instance, students from poor backgrounds have had to opt for cheaper courses just because they cannot afford certain courses. Such students are blocked from pursuing certain courses, not because of their intellectual inability but because they can’t pay for the course.

An individual’s residence is another factor that influences career choice, Oyamo and Amoth (2008). They advance that students from rural homes tend to seek help from their parents more than their counterparts from the urban areas. This is exacerbated by the fact that parents more than teachers, play a major role when it comes to students making decisions about careers.

The economic status of the wider society also determines the availability of opportunities in the society from which students make career decisions. It is worth noting that students will most likely direct their thinking along a career perceived to place them at a better position of getting a job in the society. The argument here is that when there are employment opportunities in the ECE sector within the society, many will form favourable perception and this would attract more students to ECE. Poverty has partly contributed to the availability of opportunities within the society. Where the poverty levels are high, employment opportunities are low and vice versa. The income level of the community may determine what career a student chooses. Some students will have to plan and prepare for a career according to their family’s income level. This is because some courses are more expensive compared to others. (Pastorelli, 2001)

Need for career guidance is highly influenced by the social economic status. On this, Thout (1969) explains that social and economic status determines whether one needs career guidance or not. He advances that those in desperate economic status mostly labelled as living below the poverty line need to be assisted through special training programmes. The purpose would be to help them overcome educational and social challenges in order to attain minimum job standards. The implication is that such student’s decision will be based on the guidance through these training programmes. It is also argued that students from low socioeconomic background have parents who are semi illiterate or completely illiterate. These parents are not in a position to guide their children adequately on which course to pursue. Such children are also limited in terms of opportunities to meet the cost associated with such guidance. They also have limited knowledge on availability and need for career guidance.

According to Donald (2007), availability of career support facilities is another factor that is affected by the economic status which subsequently affects career choice. For instance, availability and ability to access career support groups is dependent on one’s economic status. Research has clearly shown that once properly utilized, these support groups turn up to be good opportunity that can help students in making good choices concerning the course to pursue.

Finally, is the government of Kenya’s admission and placement policy. Wabwoba, F and Fullgence M. Mwakondo, (2011) points out that every year, the Joint Admission Board (JAB) currently the Kenya Universities and Colleges Placement Services, is tasked with determining which students should join various Kenyan public universities under the government sponsorship scheme. According to Wabwoba, F et al (2011) this is an extensive exercise given the large number of qualified students all competing to benefit from the  funding by the government as well as the limited available slots. They further state that the selection is made more complicated by the fact that it is done against a predefined cluster of subjects in relation to the student’s preference.

 Minimum requirements exist for each course, and only students with the prescribed grades in specific subjects are eligible to pursue that course. Due to this, students are often admitted to courses they consider irrelevant to their career prospects. This further affects job satisfaction as well as career establishment. This is because, these students ends up pursuing courses that aren’t in line with their interest.

However, men are still training for a career in ECE. It still remains to be established whether, the above discussed economic factors are the same factors that influence the student’s choice to enrol for training in ECE.

Male Participation in Early Childhood Education (By Ignatius Moses)

Establishing oneself in a specific career begins with one enrolling for training in an institution of higher learning. Career development is a life-long process that should be given a careful thought and adequately planned for. If well thought of, it should provide meaningful, productive and satisfying quality career choices. Career decision making is a complex process affected by various factors that come into interplay in one’s own life (Brown and Brooks, 2002).

ECE is one of the courses one may choose to pursue. However as a career, it has been highly engendered. According to Mukuna, E and Mutsotso, N. (2011), gender imbalance in the pre-school teaching profession has been a common practice globally. An Australian College of Educators’ National Survey of the Teachers’ Workforce for example, found that two thirds of all the school teachers to comprise females with men preferring managerial positions. Consistently, Australian College of Educators, (2001) found that male ECE teachers expressed greater desire to apply for managerial positions rather than classroom teaching.

In Kenya, the situation hasn’t been different. Several researchers have identified high gender disparity as far as early childhood service delivery is concerned. Waithaka (2002) in her study among schools in Thika District established that out of a total of 166 pre-school teachers, only one was male. Gakii (2004) in a study conducted at Miriga Mieru division of Meru County found that out of 475 pre-school teachers in the division only two were male. In Nairobi, Kivuva (1996) reveals that of all preschool teachers, 94.6% were female, while 5.4% were male. This information shows the extent to which early childhood education has been engendered not just in Kenya but in the entire world as well.

Several factors and stereotypes hinder men’s participation in ECE. Many feminist scholars insist that there are no natural differences between men and women, and that sex discrimination is the primary reason for differences between men and women in ECE labour market outcomes (Bryson, 1992; Phillips, 2004).

On their part, MacNaughton and Newton, (2001) argue that the effects of increasing male participation in children’s services workforce could be problematic, especially if the presence of men perpetuated traditional gender roles and stereotypes.

The argument of many is that additional men in the field would do more harm than good by denying female workers opportunities to advance in managerial and other senior positions. Others according to Cameron (2001) contend that since males are more likely to be sexual predators of young children than females, they could be restricted in their duties because of the heightened regulations on them. Carrington (2002) was highly concerned by the fact that despite playing the same role of a teacher, men are under more pressure to act differently when handling children.

Males too have had a fair share towards this disparity. On this, Ghorbani (2008) found that men had unrealistic salary expectations during their first year of teaching. As a result of this unrealistic expectation, they place a lot of importance on the amount of money to be earned when making a choice regarding a job to undertake as well as job satisfaction.

High salaries, according to Ghorbani, tempt men to administrative and managerial positions in certain schools. To a worse extent, men may even quit teaching jobs all together in search of better paying jobs. Macharia, (2011) found out that gender disparities in career choice results from cultural beliefs, upbringing factors and support an individual receives from the society that usually have gender as the main factor. The perception the society has pertaining to gender and career plays a major role in individual’s career choice. For instance, in most cultures ECE in particular is regarded as a female career. Karanja (2009) shares the same sentiments. In her study, Karanja found out that the high gender disparity in preschools among teachers is brought about by the fact that parents prefer taking their children to schools with female teachers. The argument behind this is that the society considers female teachers to be well positioned to take care of young ones since it is their natural role. This locks men out of employment in this sector. Neugebauer, (1999), Cunningham and Dorsey (2004), agree on this, and add that many people in and out of the early childhood sector believe that women are naturally predisposed to caring for young children whereas men are not. This is due to the fact that, in most cultures, the responsibility of bringing up children is bestowed on women both at home and in other environs (Koech, 2010). With such perception from the society, few men will be willing to risk pursuing a career in ECE.

Parents too have played their part as far as engendering ECE is concerned. Their unsympathetic attitudes towards males not only impact on recruitment but also on their retention. On recruitment, parents will emphasise on the institution employing female teachers as opposed to their counterparts. In addition their pressure towards school administration requiring them employ females would see many males lose their job or quit voluntarily quit. This has seen some males, even though willing to be part of workforce, denied an opportunity to work.

Even with these challenges, the need for male role models cannot be disputed as agreed by Nelson and Ruddock, (2004), who contend that lack of these models has a detrimental impact on the education of the boy child.

Despite the challenges noted above, there is an emergent trend in Kenya of men training as professionals in Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) though they are underrepresented in ECE workforce.