Doing Masculinity and Professionality: Exploring the Intersectionalities of Gender and Professionalization in Early Childhood Education

Increasing men's presence in early childhood education is closely connected to expectations of as well increasing professionalization of the occupation. However, there is also a huge contradictory discourse constructing them as potentially dangerous, somehow suspicious or ill-motivated. Men are not only positioned by but also have to position themselves according to these contradicting discourses.

Using discursive psychology (Edley and Wetherell 1997; Davies and Harré 1990) as well as the concept of doing gender (West and Zimmerman 1987, Deutsch 2007) as theoretical framework, we analyze how our interviewees position themselves as male childcare workers by engaging in several discursive practices.

The results of the narrative interviews with ten male childcare workers will be introduced. The interviews focused on their entry into the organization, their perceptions of daily routines, and their experiences in the interaction with their female colleagues.

Six discursive strategies that men engage in were identified: Three refer to discourses of gender difference, two to equality/sameness and one strategy, which highlights professionalism, seems to move beyond this binary gender structure.