"I had to be a mother": foundation phase male teachers negotiating masculinity in the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa

This paper draws on a wider study that sought to explore the constructions of masculinity and professional identities of nine foundation-phase male educators teaching in rural contexts of the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa. Using case study methodology, we interviewed each of the teachers twice. We use Connell's theory of masculinity alongside Crenshaw's intersectionality theory to showcase the complex ways in which the local context, together with its racialised and patriarchal history, produces a particular position of ambivalence in how the nine male teachers constitute their masculinities. Some of the male teachers exhibit a caring masculinity that challenges the hegemonic, toxic masculinities of the context, while simultaneously enjoying and claiming male privilege - a form that supports patriarchy and undermines women teachers. We argue that this ambivalent position does little to bring about transformed gender relations in the foundation phase. We therefore call for teacher training programmes to address male privilege and patriarchy to assist men to unlearn their socially assumed position of authority.