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Early childhood education and care (ECEC) is one of the most highly sex-segregated sectors globally. Adopting frame analysis and drawing on 96 semi-structured interviews, this study asks how female educators, who are numerically dominant, discursively construct men's reluctance to seek roles in ECEC and/or sustain participation in the sector. Three primary frames were identified: men are viewed with suspicion; men lack the capacities required for ECEC work; and ECEC does not deliver on men's career aspirations. The findings advance knowledge of how female educators make sense of socially constructed norms and expectations and the workforce and workplace dynamics that impact the recruitment and retention of men in early childhood settings. The study facilitates a deeper understanding of gendered phenomena in a highly feminized education context and informs structural and workplace initiatives which may contribute to a more gender-equitable ECEC workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Families of children with Down syndrome experience complex lives and needs, yet the few existing studies on these families are written in conventional academic prose that is not optimal for knowledge translation beyond academia, particularly for busy healthcare professionals. In this paper, we Depart Radically in Academic Writing (DRAW) (Mackinlay, 2022) and present data poetry and two case studies that draw upon semi-structured interviews with mothers, fathers, and siblings, who were interviewed separately about their experiences of having a child/sibling with Down syndrome. We introduce our interdisciplinary team that includes academics and clinicians to contextualise our focus on research translation. We demonstrate that writing with creative criticality (i.e. 'DRAWing') contributes an embodied and affective understanding of research participants' stories, which is largely lacking in the academic literature on families of children with Down syndrome and the sociology of health and illness field more broadly. Moreover, DRAWing can impact audiences emotionally as well as intellectually (Richardson, 2003, p. 924), which has important knowledge translation implications for both healthcare professionals and these families. DRAWing can capture healthcare professionals' attention, prompting them to critically reflect on their practices and opportunities for improving care and treatment for these families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retention rates for men in early childhood education and care (ECEC) are low. Exit is associated with experience of feeling 'other' perpetuated by judgements of men's sexuality, motives, and ability. In this paper, we take the unique circumstance of many men working together in ECEC to ask whether more men on staff improves experiences of inclusion. We analyse interviews with 10 men working in two Australian ECEC centres in which male educators comprise >20%, of the staff; ten times the international representation of men in the ECEC workforce. Our data identify a developmental process in which supports and mentorship, from female and male colleagues, are critical to retention early in career. Beyond, the building of a distinct male contribution underpins continuing career engagement. However, with the presence of more men new tensions emerge as the 'alien invader' becomes the face of the centre, potentially eclipsing the contribution of female colleagues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Qualitative researchers can discard data that are unsaturated or unrelated to research questions, but what do we do when these data affect us, or 'haunt' us, 'long after collecting "it"' (Taylor 2013, 691)? In this paper, we draw upon Sara Ahmed to guide our engagement with 'discarded data': young children's gendered accounts of violence that unexpectedly arose during interviews about rest-time and relaxation in childcare. We show what it feels like to be affected by children's accounts throughout the non-linear and zig-zagged 'data analysis' processes. Applying Ahmed's conceptualisation of power as 'directionality', we critique the power of qualitative research conventions to define our focus as researchers and pay attention to what children raise: how they are directed towards gendered futures. We find that, in children's accounts of violence, boys have more agency than girls as they participate in – and respond to – violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how couples negotiate and rationalise gendered divisions in infant care. We take a social constructivist approach to analysing qualitative data from 11 couples with infants (aged 6 to 8 months). We find that even where fathers are actively involved in infant care there are strong gendered divisions in the types of care that parents provide. These divisions are rationalised by gendered discourses regarding mother's superior ability to care for and nurture infants and embedded in the 'silences' or taken-for-granted gendered assumptions within couple's accounts. Dominant gendered discourses implicitly defend a father's decision to opt out of infant care tasks they find more difficult, such as soothing an irritable infant. Our study contributes to work and family policy by capturing couples' care negotiations in the early stages of the parent-child relationship. This is a critical time when gendered care patterns are established within families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]