Hi @abagail-dantes, what a wonderful and insightful read!
I am a male early childhood teacher and I have observed gender steroetypes in children from a young age. I enjoyed your scientific approach - it was well written and researched.
I think that there is a huge ammount of sterotypes in our society - boys are told to play with trucks and sports while girls are told to wear pink and play with dolls. My role as an educator was to challenge these streotypes and encourage children to be whatever they want to be.
Obviously it comes back to the nature versus nurture debate - Boys and girls are geneticallty born differently but as a parents, teachers and a society we can challenge these sterotypes.
Even as an adult I still faced these sterotypes moving into early childhood teaching which is traditionally seen as a female role (98% of ECE teachers in New Zealand are females!)
Keep up the good work
I have resteemed and followed your page
Hello @conradt :)
Thank you very much for your most insightful and experienced view on this topic. Challenging stereotypes is never an easy thing to do, and it makes me smile to read your comment because I think of the children you teach. Having an educator with your mindset is really going to put those them in an advantaged position in terms of viewing the world and gowning in a fast-changing society!
Thank you for your support!
Best :)
Yes my view has certainly evolved over my time as as ECE teacher (I have been working in ECE for over 2 years). I always challenge children when it comes to gender sterotypes - and I would often do things that werent what males would traditionally do such as wear pink or paint my nails.
I was lucky that I has such a supportive team and environment in my last position I think the world is starting to accept and see the benefits of having a male teacher. I wish I could do more to be an advocate for being a teacher it is such a great job and I feel truly lucky.
Interestingly we have moved to Spain recently for our OE and it is nice to see the gender stereotypes arent so strong here and I think other countries could learn alot.