Magazine January 2019

Bright Little Stars bring cheer to the
residents of a local retirement home
New research to study why more men
don’t work in early years education
Since last year, Bright Little Stars Nursery in Watford has continued to build up a strong relationship
with Clements Court retirement home.
On Tuesday 4th December the
children embarked on their annual
outing to entertain the residents with
their festive Christmas songs and
to bring a little cheer. BLS Nursery
Manager, Nicola Freeman, said: “As
always, the event was a humbling
experience, with the children having
the opportunity to speak to the
residents, sharing what they would
like for Christmas and the older
adults reliving their past Christmases
and how they were always on the
‘good’ list!”
Men currently only make up around 2% of the UK’s early years education staff – and this is a
figure which has not changed for several decades.
The Economic and Social Research
Council at Lancaster University, have
funded a new study to get a better
understanding of the barriers men
face when taking up employment in
early years settings.
The team, led by Dr Jo Warin, from
the University’s Educational Research
department, will work with the
Fatherhood Institute to find solutions
which can help the early years
education (EYE) workforce to diversify
most effectively.
Sharing experiences between the
generations not only allows the
children to learn from role models
but also ignites the festive feeling
through the children’s excitement.
The nursery also delivered some
beautiful food hampers to the
retirement home, which were
gratefully received, from generous
donations from the nursery parents.
The GenderEYE (Gender
Diversification in Early Years
Education) team will work with
EYE professionals in four English
locations, who are interested in
boosting the number of men working
in early years, and who take part
in supporting the ‘Men in the Early
Years’ regional networks.
The research team will also work
with professionals from Norway,
which has the highest percentage
of males working in EYE (around
10%). Norway has a ‘gender equality
action plan’ which strives to increase
the percentage of males working in
childcare settings to 20%.
The focus of the research will be on
best practice recruitment, support
and retention.
GenderEYE attended a knowledge
exchange at Queen Maud University
College, Trondheim, the leading
organisation preparing teachers for
roles in early years education. The
team will share their learning with
colleagues and set up eight different
settings for their case studies.
The team will also create a survey
targeting a bigger sector to get
more data on male recruitment and
retention.
Dr Warin said to Psych.org: “The
study will provide a much-needed
evidence-base for understanding
what men’s contribution is, and what
it could be.”
“There’s a growing sense that the UK
needs to rethink its approach on this:
the lack of gender-diversity in our
EYE workforce has been allowed to
go unchecked for too long. We hope
that by focusing on what’s worked in
Norway, we can develop some clear,
achievable strategies for accelerating
the pace of progress,” said Dr
Jeremy Davies from the Fatherhood
Institute.
From the knowledge exchange
event, initial findings suggest that
with government support and a
little effort, the success seen in
Norway could, slowly and steadily
be replicated, leading to a change
of direction and improvement in the
number of males in our own EYE
workforce.
Key points from the event:
• Norway has a big equality
plan which includes everything
from paternal leave and free
childcare, to ways to remove the
gender-pay-gap and their target
is to increase males in EYE to
20%.
• Government funding was
designed especially for the
purpose of supporting male
recruitment at a local and
regional level.
• The importance of strong
leadership and the advantages
of a mixed-gender workforce
was emphasised.
• Retention can be improved with
good support and networking
opportunities for male
practitioners.
4 Parenta.com January 2019 5