Abstract:

The majority of preschool teachers are female, in Turkey and all over the world. Recently, however, the number of male teachers in this historically female-dominated occupation has increased. This qualitative study is a comparative examination of the perspectives about their teachers that are held by two groups of preschool children: one being educated by male teachers (n=21), and the other by female ones (n=24). These children were drawn from the classrooms of two male and two female teachers. A semi-structured interview protocol developed by the researchers was used as a data collection tool. Four main themes were determined based on data analysis: (1) children's awareness related to the teacher's gender, (2) their preferences related to their teachers' gender (3) their emotions about the teacher, (4) the relationships between their parents and the teacher. The findings indicate that preschool children were aware of the gender of their male teachers, and that male teachers elicited a sense of fear and threat in the children's minds but children embraced their teachers. The parents of these children also developed good relationships with the male teachers. Lastly, regardless of teachers' gender, children adapted to their own teachers, and developed positive feelings about them that were linked to particular classroom activities.

Keywords: