The thesis The Gender Construction of the Role of Male Teachers in Kindergarten from the Perspective of Pedagogical Professionals deals with gender construction of the role of male teachers in kindergartens, from the perspective of the male teachers themselves and from the perspective of female teachers and female directors who teach with male teachers in kindergartens. For this purpose I conducted nonparticipant observation, which was complemented by semistructured interviews. The thesis consists of two parts - theoretical and empirical part. Theoretical part deals with fundamental concepts which are related to the research question and empirical part consists of methodical procedures and analysis of interviews with male teachers, female teachers and female directors as well as analysis of fieldnotes from nonparticipant observation. Key words: gender role construction, male teachers, pedagogical professionals, educators, kindergarten, early childhood education, nonparticipant observation, semistructured interviews

The researcher became interested in the topic regarding job satisfaction amongst male teachers when he attended his university reunion, more than 40% of the male teachers who graduated with a degree in education left the education system within 5 years. After making contact with some of the graduates, the researcher found that all of them left the education system because they were not satisfied within their work environment; hence, the researcher became interested in the topic. The most rewarding aspect of being a teacher is the joy of being in the classroom with learners and seeing them progress. However, what if there is no progression, but only statistics indicating failure to educate learners, an education system in crisis and educators without proper qualifications? A shortage of teachers, increasing learner enrolment and work overload are enough to create a highly stressful profession. The learning environment of a school depends on teachers, because they are in the frontline and directly involved with the transfer of knowledge. Teachers have a direct impact on a school’s success. Therefore, it is important that principals identify ways to support their staff in order to promote job satisfaction and motivation. The aim of this study is to investigate, from an educational management perspective, the factors that influence job satisfaction amongst male teachers in schools in the Ehlanzeni school district, Mpumalanga. The sequential explanatory mixed-method approach is used during this study; the quantitative phase investigated factors affecting job satisfaction amongst male teachers by means of distributing 200 Likert-scale questionnaires amongst male teachers in the Ehlanzeni school district. Structured interviews is being scheduled with twelve school principals (three rural primary school principals, three former Model-C primary school principals, three rural secondary school principals and three former Model-c secondary school principals) in the Ehlanzeni school district in order to determine the cause and effect of factors affecting the job satisfaction amongst male teachers. / Educational Leadership and Management / M. Ed. (Education Management)