Findings
Highlights from this research:
- fathers' familiarity with the setting
- an intimidating environment
- a gendered female arena
- personal characteristics are important
- practitioners' reflective skills
- some ways forward
Familiarity
Gathering information from a range of settings in four counties in the UK East Midlands, fathers' and practitioners' voices express many thoughts and sentiments. One of these is that several factors appear to affect the encounter, such as the importance of fathers' confidence in being in the setting environment and how well they understand and know the staff.
One father commented:
"... the nurseries are stereotyped and yes they are changing but it's still myself who has to make the initial contact, it's still me who has had to try to speak to the women."
Fathers' familiarity, therefore with the setting appears to be an important factor. We conclude from this that efforts to enhance father involvement in early years settings need to increase the level and depth of contact of fathers with both the setting and the practitioners.
Ways of increasing this might include:
- Making a point not only of greeting fathers at the door of the setting every time they come, but also trying to 'engage' with them, recognising that this could play a part in helping fathers to feel more welcomed.
Intimidating environment
It was also reported by both fathers and practitioners that the environment could feel intimidating for fathers. Many of the practitioners interviewed spoke of fathers feeling somewhat unsure when they came to the door of the early years setting - this fits in with the findings of other research which has identified barriers to father inclusion in the 'female space' of the early years settings (Kahn 2005, Lloyd et al 2003).
Interestingly, as one practitioner commented:
"... you've got five or six mothers standing there and it can be quite intimidating coming into that kind of female-dominated environment ... If you go into a mixed group, you don't get the same feeling."
This view was echoed by a father who said:
"...It's dominated by ... women; it's sort of a feminine atmosphere so you're stepping into that; it's standing out in a crowd."
Female populated
Thinking more broadly, the childcare environment is overwhelmingly female which means that, inevitably, the relationship between fathers dropping off or collecting their child from a setting, is a gendered one.
Different interpretations of the same situation may arise, as illustrated by the following father's quote:
"I tried to chat to a mother, just a general chat about the kids and things like that and a couple of minutes later I heard her talking to her friend and she was saying that weird bloke over there is trying to chat me up."
A female practitioner also acknowledged tensions:
"I can't explain it, it is awkward, like you feel a bit more embarrassed and I don't know why, like you can't feel as relaxed as you would with a woman."
Personal characteristics
Age and experience of both practitioners and fathers were noted as being important. Practitioners seemed particularly confident in their discussions about the role of grandfathers in the setting and a number acknowledged they found it easier to talk to confident, older fathers. We interpreted this in part to a feeling of security and possibly an absence of 'sexual frisson' when there was a greater age difference between practitioner and father. On further investigation,
practitioners' responses ranged from agreement to denial.
Practitioners highlighted characteristics in themselves, in particular their age and experience, which enabled them to engage more easily with fathers. The greater their experience, the more effectively they felt they could relate to fathers. They also identified the personality of the father as impacting on how well they could relate to him. Confident and outgoing fathers were perceived as being more likely to engage in conversations with practitioners, and thus easier to relate to.
Reflective skills
Some practitioners offered insights based on their personal reflection, about communication with fathers, for example a practitioner said:
"If you try to act as normal as possible, like you would when the mums are around ... act as normal as possible when the dads are around then I don't think it is a problem. However if I go to the male parent and I'm completely different, then they are going to think 'why are you completely different with me than you are to a female."
Finally, some ways forward are suggested:
- Further research into the interpersonal communication skills and needs of practitioners when relating with fathers.
- Further qualitative exploration of the relationship between practitioner awareness of potential issues for fathers and how fathers respond to practitioners' efforts to engage with them.
- Increasing the recognition by practitioners of the value of initial and in-service training on engaging with fathers and not just engaging with 'parents'.
- Recognising the importance for practitioners of reflecting on the way they reach out (or do not reach out) to fathers and that this is affected by the personal 'baggage' that they, the practitioners, carry.
- Supporting practitioners in their efforts to engage with those fathers who are 'harder to reach', both in terms of the fathers' individual characteristics and the social groups they belong to.
- Examining opportunities to provide space for practitioners to reflect upon their everyday practice.
- Further practical examination of strategies to engage fathers; which ones are more 'successful'? What impact do other factors play; such as local circumstances, ethnicity and culture? What are the key barriers to, and opportunities for, increasing genuine engagement between practitioners and fathers?
