engleski

The Role of Parents’ Attitudes in Accepting Male Teachers in Kindergartens in Contemporary Croatia

One of the important reasons for the insufficient affirmation of the early childhood and preschool education profession in the Croatian education system is its low social status, which partly stems from the fact that it is a highly feminized profession. This chapter examines parents’ attitudes about male teachers and the possibility of an increase in their number in kindergartens. The theoretical framework is based on Connell’s theory of different types of masculinity (Connell, 1987, 2005), where the main assumption is that parents’ disapproval of male teachers is associated with their gender-conservative values. The survey was conducted on a sample of 290 parents whose children attended kindergartens on the island of Krk in northwest Croatia. The research examined the relationship between parents’ attitudes about male teachers and their gender attitudes, experience of collaboration with male teachers and sociodemographic characteristics. The results showed that parents generally express positive attitudes towards male teachers. Parents who did not have any experience with male teachers had slightly more negative attitudes than parents whose children had male teachers. Younger parents preferred “male” qualities in male teachers, while parents with a lower level of education considered male teachers to be “feminized”.

Male teachers, Masculinity, Parents, Parents’ attitudes

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