Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Education, Cleveland State University, 2016, College of Education and Human Services

Men teachers are not present in early childhood classrooms for many reasons, despite recruitment efforts. Many men who do choose to follow this feminized career path find themselves positioned as tokens and often quickly leave for administration. Informed by a three-dimensional narrative inquiry approach this research utilized identity and masculinities paradigms to investigate the experiences of veteran men teaching young children. A series of four interviews was used to explore and describe the individual professional life history of participants. The narratives of Frank, Jerry, and George provide a deeper understanding of how men negotiate identity and construct masculinities over time in early childhood education. Findings suggest a critical mass of men teachers can lead to their acceptance in early childhood education while augmenting the male privilege they receive. Themes emerging from the study offer paths for improving the recruitment and retention of men in early childhood education and continuing the discussion of gender and power in the workplace.

Committee: Dinah Volk Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Anne Galletta Ph.D. (Committee Member); Brian Harper Ph.D. (Committee Member); Karl Wheatley Ph.D. (Committee Member); Megan Hatch Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Early Childhood Education; Gender; Sociology

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2007, Popular Culture

The very nature of a hero is to stand as a cultural ideal. The heroes we produce for our children are meant to function as their idealized cultural models, teaching them the positive value of specific embodied traits. This extends to gender: the gendered ideological statements made by these heroic characters promote a gendered cultural ideal. Traditionally, academics interested in female gender representation and children's television have focused on shows targeting young girls. However, it is just as important to examine the representation of the heroic women in television shows aimed at young boys. Young boys grow into adult men and, in our patriarchal society, male expectations of women play largely into their expectations of themselves. Therefore, the heroines of series marketed at young boys represent the ideal cultural models of empowered femininity, influencing the expectations and criteria these boys will have for “strong” women as they grow into politically powerful men. With all this in mind, it then becomes important to examine these models of ideal empowered femininity. By examining the token females in American animated action/adventure team-based television series marketed toward young boys over the past 30 years (starting with Super Friends in the late 70s, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, ThunderCats, and G.I. Joe in the 80s, Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?, Gargoyles, and X-Men in the 90s, and Justice League and Teen Titans in the 00s), this study examines a string of token females, teasing out the ideologies of ideal empowered femininity each promotes and discussing it within the cultural context of the time period in which it was produced. By utilizing textual analysis, gender studies, and psychoanalysis, this study shows a movement from flat, two-dimensional characters restricted to traditionally feminine encoded powers and overshadowed by hypermasculine heroic leaders to complex, powerful, highly masculinized women often reigned in by (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jeffrey Brown (Advisor) Subjects: