Male teaching in Early Childhood Education: perceptions of educators who graduated from the Pedagogy Degree course at the Federal University of Amazonas

Abstract

It is noticeable that the teaching staff of Early Childhood Education in Brazil is composed - mostly - by female professionals. Based on this premise, the present manuscript aims to identify and analyze the challenges and possibilities encountered by male graduates of the Pedagogy Degree course at the Federal University of Amazonas (FUA) in their insertion in the professional field in relation to teaching in Early Childhood Education. In order to achieve the proposed objectives, we seek to use bibliographic research, documentary and field research, of an exploratory and qualitative nature. It had a sample of twelve alumni, in which they recognized the role of men in Early Childhood Education, however, due to the lack of opportunities, with a strong predominance of prejudice, the professional performance of men in this stage has been minimal. Even though there are no specific laws that guarantee that only women have priority in teaching in Early Childhood Education, in the selection processes there is a preference for them. Therefore, the perceptions of the graduates of the Pedagogy course converge to the fact that they had difficulty in entering the professional field, making many not even try to act, due to the built culture, which mixes prejudice, distrust and reinforces the naturalization of the role female professional in this stage of Basic Education.