Failing to get men into primary teaching: a feminist critique

Abstract

For several years now a number of countries have been attempting to increase their numbers of male primary teachers, yet have met with little success. Feminists/pro‐feminists have challenged the intentions of these male teacher recruitment drives but failed to offer any interventions that might contribute to a broadening of the primary teacher population. This article seeks to redress this by identifying specific reasons why policy initiatives have failed. Through a review of the literature on teacher identities and analysis of the responses of 20 primary teachers, from a range of backgrounds, to the question ‘Has your gender had any impact on your experiences and/or career as a teacher?’, it emerged that teacher recruitment campaigns that focus on aspects of personal identity fail to resonate with the motivations of those who are attracted to teaching. Gender is not regarded by primary teachers as of having any particular significance to their careers, whilst minority ethnic and sexuality status are both regarded as having an impact. The conclusions drawn are that policies on teacher recruitment drives need to focus less evidently on gender and more on broader constructions and understandings of what it means to be a ‘primary teacher’.

Keywords:

• gender equity
• social justice
• masculinities
• men teachers
• initial teacher education

Notes

1. The term the ‘feminisation of teaching’ is most frequently used to refer to the numerical domination of women teachers. It might also be used to infer that the greater number of women teachers has ensured that the climate of schools has become too ‘feminine’ or ‘girl‐friendly’ (where classroom organisation and management, assessment practices, curriculum content are all sympathetic to girls and alienating for boys). As such, the ‘feminisation of teaching’ has negative connotations. Importantly, the presumption that schools are ‘feminised’ in the sense they are ‘girl‐friendly’ is in contradiction to the literature that indicates girls – and indeed boys – continue to be treated in gender stereotypical ways (Paechter 2007; Forde 2008; see Skelton 2002 for further discussion of the term ‘feminisation of teaching’).

2. The term ‘pro‐feminist’ is used to refer to the work of men gender theorists who acknowledge and utilise feminist theory in their research and analysis.

3. Importantly, the evidence indicates that the gender of the teacher does not impact on the academic attainments of boys (and girls) (Martin and Marsh 2005; Carrington, Tymms, and Merrell 2008), nor do boys regard or desire male teachers in order to provide them with ‘role models’ (Lahelma 2000; Bricheno and Thornton 2003; Hutchings et al. 2007).

4. The concept of ‘teacher identity’ is used here to refer to how teachers see and understand themselves and how they explain themselves to others (Ball and Goodson 1985; Woods 1990; Acker 1999; Day et al. 2007).

5. The project is titled ‘Investigating the Influence of Men Teachers as Role Models in Primary Schools’, Principal Investigator, Professor Wayne Martino (University of Western Ontario, Canada); Co‐investigators, Dr Goli Rezai Rashti (University of Western Ontario, Canada); Professor Martin Mills (University of Queensland, Australia); Professor Becky Francis (Roehampton University, UK) and the author. The project has been funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The research involves interviews with 120 teachers in total across all three countries. Of the 20 teachers taking part in the UK branch of the project 11 were women and nine men, aged between 26 and 48 with the majority located in the South East of England. Of these, 13 were white but of these just eight described themselves as being born in Britain of white British parents. Of the other five, there was a white South African, two were born and spent early years in Canada/Nigeria, one person was British born of immigrant Polish parents, and another participant described themselves as ‘mixed parentage’, having an Italian mother and a white British father. There were seven minority ethnic participants: three black, two mixed race, two South Asian. The 20 participants were predominantly heterosexual (11) with nine lesbian, gay and/or bi‐sexual (LGBS). Teaching experience ranged from a trainee in his second year to a teacher with 18 years experience.