In the beginning (before there was a MenTeach.org website) there was an ece-men listserv. A true listserv is an email program where you send an email to a central site and it gets distributes to everyone who has subscribed to this program. Answers to this email also gets sent out to everyone on the subscription list, which stands now at about 90 email addresses. The ece-men listserv was launched in January 2001 and has served the men and women who support men in early childhood education quite well since then.
With the success of the MenTeach.org website, many of the original functions of the ece-men listserv have been better served by this website. We are not ready to end the listserv but plan to have it serve a new function – as a leadership forum for men and women who support the issue of men in early childhood education. Here is a brief history of the listserv.
Beginning with David Giveans in the 1960’s through the 1980’s and picked up by Bryan Nelson from the 1980’s until the present time, there has been a strong and active caucus/interest forum for men within the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). Outside of David Giveans’ magazine, “Nurturing News”, most of the support and communication about men in ece that occurred through NAEYC happened at the annual conference. In between conference there were a few phone calls and letters and in the 1990’s some emails, but little activity otherwise.
By the end of the 1990’s the men and women of the men in ece community became dissatisfied with how little interaction occurred among everyone between the conferences. It was decided that this community of practice should create its own listserv, modeled after the ece listserv at the University of New Hampshire. The ERIC Clearinghouse at the University of Illinois stepped up to sponsor the listserv for men in ece. At the 2000 NAEYC annual conference an email list of those people interested in participating in this new listserv was gathered and the “ece-men” listserv was launched in January 2001. Bernard Cesarone for the University of Illinois and Bruce Sheppard for the men in early childhood education community became the moderators and continue to serve in this capacity.
In the beginning, activity on this listserv was quite heavy but has tapered off in the last few years. Other excellent web programs such as MenTeach.org and the M.E.N Interest Forum bulletin board have better served some of the information functions that the ece-men listserv originally met. With that said, the new proposal is to retain the listserv as a “leadership” forum. We expect that the traffic may be light at times but we think there is still a place for this communication vehicle. Many subscribers have said they like the idea of this communication and information arriving in their email mailbox automatically. When times get busy it is helpful to receive these messages so easily rather than go looking for it on a website.
So, if you want to communicate with other men and women who are engaged in or plan to engage in leadership activities concerning men in early childhood education, this is the place for you. If you are not already enrolled, just follow the directions on the following website:
http://ecap.crc.uiuc.edu/listserv/ecemen.html
Welcome!