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‘I mean, why wouldn’t men be involved?’ The life histories of six male practitioners working within early childhood education and care in England

Many surveys and interviews have elicited male practitioners’ views about gender balance in the early childhood education and care workforce, and few have explored in depth the context to such work choices, whether economic, cultural, social or personal. A life history approach was employed to provide a retrospective account by six early childhood education and care professionals of their lives and some of the influences on these. They varied in job role, in organisation that employed them and in their ages ranging from 20 to 60 years. Being at different stages of their life course, some had lived through considerable societal change in education, job choice, attitudes and values. The life history approach also offered a means to explore broader questions about their professional development, links between life and work that rose above the individual voice to represent the profession that participants had chosen.