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Hybridized agency among male early childhood workers as a factor in their career decisions

ABSTRACT This article examines men’s career decisions in Early ChildhoodEducation and Care (ECEC) using feminist post-structural agency theory that postulates a hybridization of ‘male’ and ‘female’ agentic factors. Anzaldúa’s concept of new mestiza provides a theoretical foundation. The research focuses on the careers of three veteran male ECEC workers from different countries who participated in a 5-year longitudinal study using narrative interviews and story line depictions. A hermeneutic model of data analysis revealed participants’ unique blend of ‘male’ and ‘female’ agentic styles responding to challenges of a gender-normed female profession. Cultural context was considered in the analysis. For these men, the status incongruity resulting from their choice of ‘women’s work’ framed career decision-making and led to the construction of particular agentic behaviors. These findings contest gender binary agency paradigms and reconceptualize agency among male ECEC workers as balancing the seeming contradiction between masculinity and a commitment to the ethos of caring.