Getting men involved!

Date Released: Wed, 16 March 2011 16:10 +0200

The field of Early Childhood Development (ECD) is an overwhelmingly female one, with men taking
a backseat, especially in our local communities. The reason for this is that many families are headed
by the female, usually the mother or grandmother because fathers are either working away from
home or there is none. The belief is thus that women are naturally pre-disposed to caring for young
children and men are not.

There are many reasons why men should be included as equal partners in ECD training. Men bring
more play, active movement, entertainment and rough and tumble play to the way they interact
with children. Not that females are not physical, but international studies have shown that a male
approach will challenge the way in which many ECD programmes currently operate. Secondly, young
boys and girls need to develop positive relationships with men. Again several studies have reported
on the positive impact of father involvement in the intellectual and emotional development of
children. However often society tends to question the motives of male staff wanting to work with
children and they tend to be labelled as either gay or paedophiles. The ECD profession can play an
important role in breaking this societal stereotype and hire and retain males as ECD practitioners.
One way is to involve the fathers more in their child’s ECD programme. The Centre for Social Development (CSD) at Rhodes University has been conducting father’s workshops for the past year
in an effort to involve them more in their child’s education. They are also asked to explore their
feelings about their role in child care and are taught to make toys using easily available resources.
After one such workshop one of the dads remarked: “I have a new definition of a man”.

This year two of the CSD’s ECD Level 5 training courses boast two men as part of the course
participants. CSD will also continue hosting the father’s workshops and through these activities and
others they hope to slowly create some changes in the culture of ECD practice in an effort to recruit
men and help them to play an active and lasting role in the ECD field. This change however must also
be supported outside the ECD programme by establishing forum or support groups for male ECD
practitioners as well as designing training materials that include men routinely caring for children.