Boys can like pink, girls can be firefighters: Male preschool teachers challenge gender stereotypes

Muhammad Aliff Mohamed Murat, lead teacher at My First Skool in Rivervale Crescent, during a musical activity on Oct 27.

Vanessa Paige Chelvan

Published Oct 31, 2026, 09:00 AM

Updated Oct 31, 2026, 09:00 AM

SINGAPORE – When some children in his class insisted that pink was a colour for girls, preschool teacher Muhammad Aliff Mohamed Murat decided to prove them wrong.

The next day, he turned up in a pink shirt, much to their surprise. “I love pink,” he said, before reading them a book about how colours are for everyone.

For the 33-year-old lead teacher at My First Skool in Rivervale Crescent, it was a chance to challenge what children think boys and girls can – or cannot – do.

Some children have even asked him: Can boys be teachers?

“Why not? I’m very excited (to be your teacher) and I’m here to help and teach you,” said Aliff, who has taught for eight years.

The number of male preschool teachers in Singapore grew from about 190 in 2021 to 300 in 2025 – an increase of nearly 60% in four years, said the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA).

However, they remain a rarity, accounting for only about 1% of the sector’s 28,000 educators across 1,800 preschools.

When Aliff first entered the profession in 2018, his career choice raised eyebrows among his family and friends. Some worried about the challenges he would face in a female-dominated profession.

The doubts did not stop there. Some parents were hesitant about having a man teach their children. “It’s a very bitter pill to swallow,” Aliff said.

Over the years, he has learnt that the best way to overcome such reservations is to earn the parents’ trust.

“First and foremost, I’m an educator,” he said. “Gender shouldn’t come into play here.”

Parent Tee Qiu Feng, 33, has seen the influence Aliff had on her son, Anderson. The six-year-old looks up to him and hopes to become a teacher one day.

“Having a male educator also allows children to see that men can be caring, patient, nurturing and responsible,” she said.

For Aliff, who is single and hopes to start a family of his own one day, the job is as much about nurturing children as teaching them their ABCs.

He recalled a six-year-old girl who struggled to make friends and often kept to herself. Rather than focusing only on the girl, he encouraged her classmates to look out for anyone left out and include them in their games.

One day, the girl told him: “When I came to your class, nobody wanted to play with me. Now, everybody wants to play!”

In September 2026, he received a commendation award from ECDA, a milestone in his career as a preschool educator.

Muhammad Aliff Mohamed Murat says the job is as much about nurturing children as teaching them their ABCs. ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM

Muhammad Aliff Mohamed Murat says the job is as much about nurturing children as teaching them their ABCs.

Beyond challenging stereotypes on what boys and girls can wear or become, male preschool teachers can also show children that caring for others is not just women’s work.

Jeannie Ng, campus director of the National Institute of Early Childhood Development’s Temasek Polytechnic campus, said children learn about gender roles through everyday interactions.

Watching a male teacher comfort an upset child or patiently help them settle into an activity shows the children that men can be gentle and nurturing too.

“A male preschool educator can provide a familiar, everyday example that caregiving is a shared human responsibility,” Ng said.

But the roles teachers take on also matter. If men are always assigned physical activities while women handle caregiving, children may associate certain responsibilities with each gender.

At My First Skool in Tampines, teacher Toh Kiat Boon, 39, regularly pushes back against such assumptions.

When a girl told her classmates she wanted to become a firefighter like her father, some boys insisted that girls could not do the job.

Toh asked them: Why couldn’t a girl become a firefighter? And if only women could teach or nurse, where would that leave him?

He also steps in when some boys are teased for liking pink. “Oh, what a coincidence! My favourite colour is pink too,” he tells them.

Teacher Toh Kiat Boon believes it is important to correct children’s misconceptions about gender before such beliefs become entrenched. PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO

Teacher Toh Kiat Boon believes it is important to correct children’s misconceptions about gender before such beliefs become entrenched.

PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO

The father of a two-year-old girl spent more than a decade working in his family’s mechanical engineering business, before making the switch to preschool education nearly three years ago.

His wife, also a preschool teacher, encouraged him to try teaching because he had always enjoyed interacting with children.

But being a teacher in a female-dominated workplace comes with certain challenges. Toh said the centre’s restrictions on physical contact mean he cannot comfort children with hugs the way female teachers can.

“So I have to go about getting into their good books in a different way,” he said. He finds out what interests them – from Pokémon cards to stickers – and uses these to build rapport.

He believes it is important to correct children’s misconceptions about gender before such beliefs become entrenched.

He also sees his role as reflecting a broader shift in society, where fathers are increasingly involved in raising their children.

But attitudes have not always kept pace. For Muhamad Shahril Samri, 38, the doubts came from his own friends.

When he joined the preschool teaching sector nearly a decade ago, some questioned why he wanted a job they considered suitable only for women. “Go and get a real job,” they told him.

The father of a two-month-old girl entered early childhood education by chance. A principal had spotted him conducting workshops on traditional Malay music and instruments and encouraged him to become a teacher.

Shahril will mark 10 years as a preschool teacher in February 2027. He takes pride in the trust he has earned from parents, some of whom have become advocates for male teachers.

Shahril, who teaches at PCF Sparkletots in Marsiling, hopes the children he teaches will not grow up feeling limited by their gender.

Aliff, too, hopes children will understand that caring for others is not something only women can do.

“Nurturing is a characteristic, it’s a quality that anybody can have,” he said. “It’s like a skill. You need to have it. You need to train it.”

Vanessa Paige Chelvan is an education correspondent at The Straits Times. She also writes the occasional commentary on parenthood, work and family life.

Education and schools

10 月 27 日，Rivervale Crescent 的 My First Skool 的首席教师 Muhammad Aliff Mohamed Murat 在一次音乐活动中。

凡妮莎·佩奇·切尔万

发布于2026年10月31日上午9:00

更新于2026年10月31日上午9:00

新加坡——当班上一些孩子坚持认为粉色是女孩的颜色时，幼儿园老师穆罕默德·阿里夫·穆罕默德·穆拉特决定证明他们错了。

第二天，他穿着一件粉色衬衫出现了，这让他们大吃一惊。“我喜欢粉色，”他说，然后给他们读了一本书，讲述颜色对每个人来说都很重要。

对于 Rivervale Crescent 的 My First Skool 的 33 岁主班老师来说，这是一个挑战孩子们对男孩和女孩能做什么或不能做什么的看法的机会。

有些孩子甚至问他：男孩可以当老师吗？

“为什么不呢？我非常兴奋（能成为你们的老师），我在这里是为了帮助和教导你们，”有八年教龄的阿里夫说道。

新加坡幼儿培育署 (ECDA) 表示，新加坡男性学前教师的数量从 2021 年的约 190 人增加到 2025 年的 300 人，四年内增长了近 60%。

然而，他们仍然很少见，仅占该行业 1800 所幼儿园 28000 名教育工作者的约 1%。

2018年，阿利夫初入行时，他的职业选择引起了家人和朋友的质疑。有些人担心，在这个女性主导的行业里，他会面临哪些挑战。

疑虑并未就此止步。一些家长不愿让男性来教他们的孩子。“这真让人难以接受，”阿利夫说道。

多年来，他逐渐明白，克服这种顾虑的最好方法是赢得父母的信任。

“首先，我是一名教育工作者，”他说。“性别在这里不应该成为考量因素。”

33岁的家长郑秋凤(Tee Qiu Feng)亲眼见证了阿里夫对她儿子安德森的影响。六岁的安德森非常崇拜阿里夫，并希望将来成为一名教师。

“由男性教师授课也能让孩子们看到，男性也可以是充满爱心、耐心、体贴和负责任的，”她说。

对于单身并希望有一天能组建自己家庭的阿里夫来说，这份工作既是教孩子认字母，也是培养孩子。

他回忆起一个六岁的小女孩，她很难交到朋友，常常独来独往。他没有只关注这个小女孩，而是鼓励她的同学们去关心那些被冷落的孩子，并邀请他们一起玩游戏。

有一天，女孩对他说：“我刚来你们班的时候，没有人愿意和我玩。现在，每个人都想和我玩！”

2026 年 9 月，他获得了幼儿培育署的嘉奖，这是他作为学前教育工作者职业生涯中的一个里程碑。

穆罕默德·阿里夫·穆罕默德·穆拉特表示，这份工作既包括教孩子识字，也包括培养他们。海峡时报摄影：凯文·林

穆罕默德·阿里夫·穆罕默德·穆拉特说，这份工作既包括培养孩子，也包括教他们字母表。

除了挑战关于男孩和女孩可以穿什么衣服或成为什么样的人的刻板印象之外，男学前教师还可以向孩子们展示，照顾他人不仅仅是女性的工作。

新加坡国立幼儿发展学院淡马锡理工学院校区主任 Jeannie Ng 表示，儿童通过日常互动了解性别角色。

看到男老师安慰难过的孩子，或者耐心地帮助他们融入活动，会让孩子们看到男人也可以温柔体贴。

“男性学前教育工作者可以提供一个熟悉的、日常的例子，说明照顾他人是人类共同的责任，”吴说。

但教师扮演的角色也很重要。如果总是安排男性教师从事体力劳动，而女性教师负责照护工作，孩子们可能会将某些责任与特定性别联系起来。

在淡滨尼的“我的第一所学校”，39岁的教师杜杰文经常反驳这种假设。

当一个女孩告诉她的同学她想和她父亲一样成为一名消防员时，一些男孩坚持认为女孩不能胜任这份工作。

Toh问他们：为什么女孩不能当消防员？如果只有女性才能当老师或护士，那他又该做什么呢？

当一些男孩因为喜欢粉色而被嘲笑时，他也会挺身而出。“哦，真巧！我最喜欢的颜色也是粉色，”他会这样告诉他们。

教师杜杰文认为，在儿童对性别的错误观念根深蒂固之前进行纠正至关重要。（图片来源：联合早报）

杜杰文老师认为，在儿童对性别的错误观念根深蒂固之前，纠正这些观念非常重要。

图片来源：联合早报

一位两岁女孩的父亲，在家族的机械工程公司工作了十多年后，于近三年前转行从事学前教育。

他的妻子也是一名幼儿园老师，她鼓励他尝试教书，因为他一直很喜欢和孩子们互动。

但在一个以女性为主的工作场所当老师也面临着一些挑战。Toh表示，中心对身体接触的限制意味着他无法像女老师那样用拥抱来安慰孩子们。

“所以我得换个方式来讨好他们，”他说。他会找出他们的兴趣爱好——从宝可梦卡片到贴纸——并利用这些来建立融洽的关系。

他认为，在儿童对性别的错误观念根深蒂固之前，纠正这些观念非常重要。

他还认为自己的角色反映了社会更广泛的转变，即父亲越来越多地参与到子女的养育中来。

但人们的态度并非总是与时俱进。对于38岁的穆罕默德·沙赫里尔·萨姆里来说，疑虑就来自他自己的朋友。

大约十年前，当他进入幼儿教育行业时，有些人质疑他为什么会选择这份他们认为只适合女性的工作。“去找份正经工作吧，”他们对他说。

一位两个月大女婴的父亲进入幼儿教育行业纯属偶然。一位校长偶然发现他正在举办马来传统音乐和乐器的工作坊，便鼓励他成为一名教师。

沙里尔将于 2027 年 2 月迎来他担任幼儿园教师的第十个年头。他为自己赢得的家长信任感到自豪，其中一些家长甚至成为了男教师的拥护者。

在马西岭 PCF Sparkletots 任教的 Shahril 希望他教的孩子们长大后不会因为性别而感到受限。

阿利夫也希望孩子们能够明白，照顾他人并不是只有女性才能做的事情。

“关爱是一种特质，一种任何人都可以拥有的品质，”他说。“它就像一种技能。你需要具备它，也需要培养它。”

Vanessa Paige Chelvan是《海峡时报》的教育记者。她偶尔也会撰写一些关于育儿、工作和家庭生活的评论文章。

教育和学校