O'Keeffe, Suzanne
(2018)
Experiences of care labour, gender and work for
men who teach young children.
Palgrave Communications, 44 (4).
pp. 1-8.
ISSN 2055-1045
Abstract
This paper explores five Irish male primary teachers’ daily experiences of care
labour and gender in contemporary Irish schools. Taking a feminist poststructural approach,
the study employs three data-collection phases using the interview as the primary method of
enquiry. It employs a voice-centred relational method of data analysis, which involves four
readings of data with each reading troubling the data in different ways. This paper places
specific focus on three everyday phenomena: care, emotions and the body. The evolving
dynamic between gender and work is discussed in terms of a socio-cultural tension that
informs the experiences of men who work with young children. Overall, two major challenges
are identified. First, emotions are considered as individual, internal and private responses to
situations. Yet, we absorb the norms and values of our society in the form of social and
cultural practices that preserve society, which bring emotions into line with the rules proposed
by society. Second, teaching is considered a soft option career for men and an
essentially feminised occupation rather than a masculine one. As softness is very often
associated with weakness, primary teaching does not align with traditional views of masculinities
that are built on rationality, individualisation and heroism. This is a further challenge
for male teachers to care in schools. Overall, male teachers are required to reproduce
accounts of themselves in terms of valued masculine attributes due to the historical association
between women, emotionality and care.
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