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‘It’s a difficult role; I don’t wish it on anyone’: male teachers and negotiation of masculinity in primary education
Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice
Abstract
Calls to engage more men in the so-called ‘feminised’ primary school environment are omnipresent. Male teachers are expected to bring something new, different and unique to this feminised environment. The aim of this article is to explain the gendered expectations on male teachers in primary schools and describe how male teachers construct their masculinity in relation to these expectations. The article presents the results of an ethnographic research in primary schools in Czechia. The results show that there are at least three most prominent areas—authority, effeminate behaviour, and care—where male teachers search for the appropriate and very narrow concept of masculinity. Male teachers must appear sufficiently masculine, but not too masculine, because they are doing masculinity in a predominantly female environment. The article provides a novel contribution on two levels. Firstly, it examines the balancing of masculinity and conflicting expectations imposed on men in primary education. Second, it shows that despite the diversity of geographical, historical, and geopolitical school contexts, the local expectations about masculinity bear striking similarities.
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In the European context, there have been discussions for many years about how the number of female and male teachers in primary education should be more balanced. This story is also linked to the deteriorating school performance of boys, who are perceived as lacking male role models in schools. Thus, the feminization of primary education is often seen as an undesirable condition that should be rectified. This pejorative perception of feminization of education is related to the broader trends of anti-feminist politics, and this anti-feminist backlash is gradually being introduced into education as well. This article presents two case studies, Germany and Czechia. The analysis is based on data collected in 2015–2020 from ethnographic research in elementary schools, data from analysis of policy documents and media output, data from a systematic literature review, and quantitative research. In conclusion, three re-masculinization strategies used to devalue femininity in education are presented. First, ‘female climate’ as a reason for boys’ failure; second, father figures missing in education; third, promoting ‘gender diversity ‘as pretext to bring back more men and masculinity. All strategies share an antifeminist core because they all devalue women and femininity and reinforce the current gender order.
This chapter, written in 1993 provides an early introduction to the state of multicultural education for a deeper and more complex understanding the dynamics of multiculturalism by attending to the particularities of gender. I explore the damaging effects for students and for educators when the meaning of gender is reduced to the category of sex-role stereotyping and when education dissipates into an endless celebration of uniqueness. There is nothing unique about racism, sexism, heterosexism, and Eurocentrism, nor in the way that these dynamics visit identity without an invitation. My argument is that gender, as a significant category where each of us lives, needs to mean more than what Bronwyn Davies terms "category maintenance work''l or the push to fix one's identity and the identity of others in normative ways. Those sets of gendered directions can only result in the maintenance of domination and subordination. Our understanding of gender, then, needs to take into account the reality that each of us embodies a wide range of categorical commitments such as race, sexuality, generation, class, and so on; the shifting meanings of these social markers arrange the experience of gender. Consequently, in investigating the conceptual framework which multicultural education
In this chapter, then, I argue for a deeper and more complex understanding of muhicuhural education by attending to the particularities of gender. I explore the damaging effects for students and for educators when the meaning of gender is reduced to the category of sex-role stereotyping and when muhicuhural education dissipates into an endless celebration of uniqueness. There is nothing unique about racism, sexism, heterosexism, and Eurocentrism, nor in the way that these dynamics visit identity without an invitation. My argument is that gender, as a significant category where each of us lives, needs to mean more than what Bronwyn Davies terms "category maintenance work''l or the push to fix one's identity and the identity of others in normative ways. Those sets of gendered directions can only result in the maintenance of domination and subordination. Our understanding of gender, then, needs to move beyond singularity, taking into account the reality that each of us embodies a wide range of categorical commitments such as race, sexuality, generation, class, and so on; the shifting meanings of these social markers arrange the experience of gender. Consequently, in investigating the conceptual framework which multicuhural education offers to the study of gender and which feminist concepts of gender offer to muhicuhural education, I begin with the controversial.
Research considering men, boys, and the concept of caring masculinities has proliferated in the last five years, although attention has predominantly been given to privileged men's practices of care in the private realm. In this article, we explore caring masculinities among working‐class men in the United Kingdom employed in blue‐collar work, highlighting the possibilities for transformation and change stemming from men in the margins. Drawing on narrative biographical interviews, we analyze in‐depth case studies from two men. Their biographies illustrate practices and an ethos of care interwoven throughout both paid‐work and other aspects of their lives, drawing attention to how caring dispositions are formed through histories of care throughout the lifecourse for working‐class men. We also consider how care can circulate in workplaces that have been considered “low on care”, and how these men draw on working‐class values of care and solidarity to challenge logics of capital at work.
Gendered norms construct teaching young children in Early Childhood Education (ECE) as a ‘feminine profession’ and as ‘women’s work’. Subsequently, men whoteach young children are often scrutinised. One troubling factor confronting men entering the profession is the construction of men as potential paedophiles. Scholars in the Global North have shown how a conflation of homosexuality with paedophilia positions gay men as actual and potential paedophilic perpetrators. We present a view from the Global South which demonstrates how South African male ECE preservice teachers favour gay men as teachers of young children . Gay men were depicted as feminine and more appropriate for teaching ECE than heterosexual men. Additionally, gay men were constructed as men who did not pose a paedophilic threat in ECE. Conversely, heterosexual male power and violence were used to distance heterosexual men from ECE. These findings demonstrate the fluidity of masculinity and the paedophilic threat in ECE.
In South Africa there are few male teachers in the Foundation Phase (FP) of schooling, where children are aged between five and nine. FP teaching is traditionally considered to be a ‘woman’s job’ and essentialist gender discourses play a central role in impeding men’s participation in the profession. These discourses are based on polarised differences between men and women that reinforce notions of care work as women’s work. Challenging gender binaries is vital if work options for both men and women are to be improved. Drawing on fieldwork with a group of South African primary school teachers, we demonstrate how feminised facets of FP teaching are contested by addressing flexible notions of gender which associate men with caring and gender equitable versions of masculinity. This recognition of men is especially important within a violent South African landscape in order to improve social relations amongst men, women and children.
In recent public discussions in Europe on the advantages of mixed-gender teams, many voices have been calling for more men in primary education. The urgent need to get more male teachers into primary education exists also in the Czech Republic. In a highly feminised environment, the prevailing view is that we need more male role models and male teachers who are already in kindergartens and elementary schools are presented as unique and exceptional. Behind this idea lies the belief that female teachers need to be ‘complemented’ by male teachers, because female collectives are not that helpful – and may even be harmful – without the presence of men. The crucial question is: When we are asking for more ‘good male role models’ in primary education, what type of masculinity are we looking for? The aim of the paper is to identify the problematic assumptions underpinning the discourse on the shortage of male teachers. This paper is based on qualitative ethnographic research conducted in kindergartens and elementary schools between 2013 and 2017, which included interviews with different actors in primary education in the Czech Republic.
Feminist sociological research is well institutionalised in the Czech Republic with two major departments at the Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences. However, it would be wrong to believe that the knowledge produced by them goes uncontested. In the article, we analyse the de-legitimizing strategies used to discredit and denounce such knowledge in two particular cases that entered the media in 2015 and 2017. In the first case, feminist sociologists criticized an exhibition of photographs of nudes presented as part of an event aimed at attracting schoolchildren and youth to science. In the latter case, a Czech documentary director criticized a rhyme, which strictly delineates roles for boys and girls and appears in a Czech reading book. Both the cases were followed by several analyses and comments by Czech gender studies scholars, and articles employing different strategies to specifically denounce feminist knowledge and expertise. Using thematic analysis, we present three strategies used to denounce feminist/gender studies knowledge and to highlight both its local specificities and commonalities with the global and pan-European “alliance in spirit” identified by Sabine Hark (2017). We conclude by pointing out some local repercussions of the novel “antigenderism discourse”, its links to other critiques typically found in Central and Eastern Europe and to the pan-European trends. © 2018, Sociological Association of Serbia. All rights reserved.
The transformation of the social institution of the family in an individualised society is tied also to other demands and expectations relating to parenthood, and fatherhood is no exception in this regard. This article focuses on fathers who have accepted the modern norm of fatherhood and have played an active role by personally caring for their children, in particular, as primary carers during their period of parental leave. The entry of fathers into a sphere our culture has traditionally defined as belonging to women necessarily raises one basic question - 'What does the experience of caring for their children mean in the minds of fathers?'- which contains an entire series of other more specific questions: How do these men interpret fatherhood? Is the experience of caring for their children reflected in how these men construct gender identities and what does this mean from the perspective of the production of gender and gender relations? Interviews based on a prepared scenario were conducted on a sample of twenty families in which the father had taken parental leave, and the resulting data was analysed with the aid of grounded theory in an effort to answer the questions outlined above. Of particular interest in the analysis are the interpretative frameworks that the actors employ in their perception of experienced reality and to what outcome or how much are common gender perceptions disrupted in their outlook. The author applies the constructivist perspective of making gender, which permits a focus on the similarities and differences between men and women and within those categories. The findings contribute to the understanding of the construction of fatherhood in this group of fathers, of gender and gender relations, and of how gender stereotypes operate on the micro level of Czech society.
The author of this article focuses on the theoretical framework of the concept of care as a critical category of social inequality in order to outline possibilities for a redefinition of the relationship between work and care. Gender inequalities as well as inequalities that are based on other social categories, such as class, ethnicity, nationality, geopolitical location, marital status, and so on are incorporated in the social organisation of care which retrospectively reinforces them. Feminist debate has thus far formulated demands for the recognition of caring persons mainly at the national level, but the author of the article, referring to Arlie Hochschild and Allison Weir, shows that the current challenges of global capitalism point to the need to articulate these demands in a transnational context and to embed care in the discourse of transnational justice. She critically addresses the challenges that efforts to attain recognition for caring persons by including care as a labour-market activity are confronted with owing to the current changes in the social organisation of care under global capitalism, which involves among others the employment of marginalised groups of women and women immigrants in the caring professions. Drawing on the work of Nancy Fraser, the author formulates two normative criteria for reconceptualising care as a social engagement without subjecting it to the logic of market valuation.
This article considers the so-called war on boys through a critical examination of the way boys and young men have been represented in what might be termed the male role model discourse in policy and media debates in the UK. Critical engagement with academic literatures that explore the male role model response to what has become known as the problem of boys, predominantly in education and in welfare settings, reveals that contemporary policy solutions continue to be premised on outdated theoretical foundations that reflect simplistic understand-ings of gender and gender relations. In this article we advocate policy solutions that acknowledge the complexity and diversity of boys' and young men's experiences and that do not simplistically reduce their problems to the notion of a crisis in masculinity.
This article focuses on the topic of men working in feminised jobs and specifically on male teachers in kindergartens, who are in a specific position given that they are relatively few in number. There are several advantages for them in this position: they are accepted with enthusiasm and with expectations of change. This treatment gives them an opportunity to construct their own and relatively 'elite' version of masculinity, which is superior just to the femininity of the female teachers, but also to other versions of masculinity. This 'elite' version of masculinity is supported by female teachers and it contributes the survival of a dichotomous and hierarchical approach to men and women in kindergartens. The purpose of this article is to identify the main strategies that male teachers use in the construction of their version of masculinity in this feminised environment. The article is based on qualitative research, which included observation in several kindergartens and conducting interviews with male and female teachers in kindergartens.
Many studies have identified the classroom as an arena for the construction of gender and sexuality. Yet there has been relatively little attention to the role of teachers here, or to the deeper dynamics of teachers' constructions of gender and sexuality in the classroom. This article attempts to address these issues, examining the perpetuation of (sexist) heterosexual norms in the classroom by male teachers. Drawing on data from fieldwork in primary and secondary schools, the article examines the various ways in which men teachers use discourses of gender and sexuality to construct their masculinity. It is argued that the construction of masculinity involves drawing on misogynist and homophobic discourses, which can manifest in sexual harassment. The article reflects on the problematic aspects of heterosexual desire, and concludes with some suggestions for policy and practice.
In this paper, we interrogate the call for more male role models within the context of boys' education debates in Australia and North America. We explicate links between failing masculinities and this call for more male teachers, arguing that the debate is driven by a "recuperative masculinity politics" committed to addressing the perceived feminization of schooling and its detrimental effect on boys' education.
Given that women continue to be underrepresented in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) and that scientific innovations are increasingly produced by team collaborations, we reviewed the existing literature regarding the effects of gender diversity on team processes and performance. Recent evidence strongly suggests that team collaboration is greatly improved by the presence of women in the group, and this effect is primarily explained by benefits to group processes. The evidence concerning the effect of gender diversity on team performance is more equivocal and contingent upon a variety of contextual factors. In light of the importance of collaboration in science, promoting the role of women in the field can have positive practical consequences for science and technology.
The transformation of the social institution of the family in an individualised society is tied also to other demands and expectations relating to parenthood, and fatherhood is no exception in this regard. This article focuses on fathers who have accepted the modern norm of fatherhood and have played an active role by personally caring for their children, in particular, as primary carers during their period of parental leave. The entry of fathers into a sphere our culture has traditionally defined as belonging to women necessarily raises one basic question – ‘What does the experience of caring for their children mean in the minds of fathers?’ – which contains an entire series of other more specific questions: How do these men interpret fatherhood? Is the experience of caring for their children reflected in how these men construct gender identities and what does this mean from the perspective of the production of gender and gender relations? Interviews based on a prepared scenario were conducted on a sample of twenty families in which the father had taken parental leave, and the resulting data was analysed with the aid of grounded theory in an effort to answer the questions outlined above. Of particular interest in the analysis are the interpretative frameworks that the actors employ in their perception of experienced reality and to what outcome or how much applies the constructivist perspective of making gender, which permits a focus on the similarities and differences between men and women and within those categories. The findings contribute to the understanding of the construction of fatherhood in this group of fathers, of gender and gender relations, and of how gender stereotypes operate on the micro level of Czech society.
In Germany, there has been an ongoing discussion about the boys’ crisis in education, which is linked to the call for more masculinity through male role models so as to positively influence boys. In this article, I explore the conceptions of masculinity of young people in Germany and elaborate on the influence of education and educational institutions on notions of masculinity. To do this, I focus on two in-depth case studies, a boy and a girl who are both aged 16, which I analyze using the documentary method. The cases show that education is to be understood as a gender regime that takes an active part in the production of a binary masculinity. At the same time, they also show that education has the potential to transform masculinity.
This article intends to stimulate conversation and critical thinking about the concept of ‘caring masculinities’ and its ongoing relevance to the field of critical studies of men and masculinities (CSMM). Caring masculinities is subject to debate around its theoretical premises, its potential as a feminist concept, and the limits of the empirical evidence base that underpins the concept and its associated implications. We respond to some of these ongoing critical conversations, in part by suggesting that the concept is sometimes deployed in ways that depart from or even possibly misconstrue the concept. Highlighting the nuance, capaciousness, and clarity of the concept, as theorised by Karla Elliott, we substantiate the argument by drawing on emerging data from our ongoing research with men in front-line, low paid care-work in Australia, thus, including men who have so far largely been excluded from studies on caring masculinities.
Recent research in the social sciences suggests a methodological paradox as scholars work to make sense of the contemporary relationship between masculinity and homophobia. Representative surveys consistently find dramatically decreasing levels of sexual prejudice among all groups, among men and young men in particular. Qualitative scholarship, however, continues to find that enactments of homophobia remain integral components of contemporary masculine identities. In this article, we make sense of this shift and apparent methodological inconsistency. We do not question which measure is best. Instead, we argue for a need to understand the ways that gendered sexual prejudice transforms in ways that allow the relationship between masculinity and homophobia to endure—sometimes even when it appears to be in decline.
“Dad bloggers” are an emerging community of fathers in North America. These men use social media to document and discuss their experiences as parents and gather annually at the Dad 2.0 Summit. A central topic of discussion both online and offline is how involved fathers negotiate and rework gender roles and expectations. This study examines how dad bloggers create and engage with discourse about masculinities. Using blog posts, fieldwork observations, and interviews as data, I present qualitative findings illustrating the ways in which dad bloggers challenge traditional notions of masculinity, construct “caring masculinities,” and adopt a pro-feminist perspective. Despite certain tensions and contradictions within the community, I argue that dad bloggers are reconstructing fatherhood and masculinities in ways that promote care and equality overall.
Since the 1990s there has been some considerable discussion in English education policy of boys' underachievement and of male teachers serving as ‘role models’. Drawing on two separate research projects, this article explores the diverse ways in which individual teachers negotiate discourses of role modelling, while also considering the performative nature of these discourses and some of their effects on teachers. The article shows that discourses of role modelling retain some currency among teachers and highlights the need for contemporary research on equality issues to inform the work of both policy-makers and teachers.
Qualitative Data is meant for the novice researcher who needs guidance on what specifically to do when faced with a sea of information. It takes readers through the qualitative research process, beginning with an examination of the basic philosophy of qualitative research, and ending with planning and carrying out a qualitative research study. It provides an explicit, step-by-step procedure that will take the researcher from the raw text of interview data through data analysis and theory construction to the creation of a publishable work. The volume provides actual examples based on the authors' own work, including two published pieces in the appendix, so that readers can follow examples for each step of the process, from the project's inception to its finished product. The volume also includes an appendix explaining how to implement these data analysis procedures using NVIVO, a qualitative data analysis program.
This book provides an illuminating account of teachers' own reflections on their experiences of teaching in urban schools. It was conceived as a direct response to policy-related and media-generated concerns about male teacher shortage and offers a critique of the call for more male role models in elementary schools to address important issues regarding gender, race and the politics of representation. By including the perspectives of minority teachers and students, and by drawing on feminist, queer and anti-racist frameworks, this book rejects the familiar tendency to resort to role modelling as a basis for explaining or addressing boys' disaffection with schooling. Indeed, the authors argue, on the basis of their research in urban schools in Canada and Australia, that educational policy concerned with male teacher shortage and the plight of disadvantaged minority boys would benefit from engaging with analytic perspectives and empirical literature that takes readers beyond hegemonic discourses of role modelling. A compelling case is presented for the need to disarticulate discourses about role modelling from a politics of representation that is committed to addressing the reality of the impact of racial and structural inequalities on both minority teachers and students' participation in the education system. The book also provides insight into the persistence of gender inequality as it relates to the status of elementary school teaching as women's work.
Drawing on qualitative studies of teamsport athletes and fraternity members, this book describes the rapidly changing world of masculinities among men in both the United States and Great Britain. As cultural homophobia decreases, university-aged men are influenced to construct a softer version of masculinity - one that is not predicated in homophobia. Inclusive Masculinity shows that today's youth express decreased sexism, racism and masculine bullying. As Eric Anderson demonstrates, men who value inclusive masculinities are also shown to be more likely to bond in emotional relationships with other men and to embrace a variety of behaviors once coded as feminine, including certain same-sex sexual behaviors. Now available in paperback, this groundbreaking analysis of masculinity and young men will be of interest to students and faculty members within Sociology, Gender Studies, and Sport Studies.
A space has emerged for theorizing “caring masculinities,” as the concept has increasingly become a focus of European critical studies on men and masculinities (CSMM). In this article, I present a practice-based framework of the concept. I propose that caring masculinities are masculine identities that reject domination and its associated traits and embrace values of care such as positive emotion, interdependence, and relationality. I suggest that these caring masculinities constitute a critical form of men’s engagement and involvement in gender equality and offer the potential of sustained social change for men and gender relations. I draw on CSMM and feminist care theory to construct the framework proposed here. In doing so, I offer a feminist exploration of how masculinities might be reworked into identities of care rather than domination.
In Germany about 3%–5% of kindergarten teachers11. They are not usually referred to as teachers in Germany because no academic/university education is required of people wanting to work in kindergartens. The German word used to describe caregivers in kindergartens is Erzieher, which could be translated as ‘educator’.View all notes (for children aged 3–6) are men (BMFSFJ 2010). In this qualitative research on men as kindergarten teachers I analyzed how men in this profession construct masculinity while working with children and during interaction with (mostly female) colleagues, parents, and in the interview situation. Therefore, 10 men teachers were observed for one day in their working environment and interviewed in qualitative interviews. One main theoretical implication was the concept of ‘doing gender’ (e.g. West and Zimmerman 1987, Gildemeister 2004), which was adopted to understand the ‘doing masculinity’ of these men. Another theoretical basis is the concept of hegemonic masculinities by Raewyn Connell (1987, 2006), which was used, critically discussed, and as a result re-conceptualized. The discussion of the theoretical implications and the analysis of the empirical material showed that Connell's theory misses a type of masculinity that opposes hegemonic masculinity, just as her type of ‘complicit masculinities’ supports it. From the interviews and observations a type of ‘alternative masculinity’ was developed.
The concept of hegemonic masculinity has influenced gender studies across many academic fields but has also attracted serious criticism. The authors trace the origin of the concept in a convergence of ideas in the early 1980s and map the ways it was applied when research on men and masculinities expanded. Evaluating the principal criticisms, the authors defend the underlying concept of masculinity, which in most research use is neither reified nor essentialist. However, the criticism of trait models of gender and rigid typologies is sound. The treatment of the subject in research on hegemonic masculinity can be improved with the aid of recent psychological models, although limits to discursive flexibility must be recognized. The concept of hegemonic masculinity does not equate to a model of social reproduction; we need to recognize social struggles in which subordinated masculinities influence dominant forms. Finally, the authors review what has been confirmed from early formulations (the idea of multiple masculinities, the concept of hegemony, and the emphasis on change) and what needs to be discarded (onedimensional treatment of hierarchy and trait conceptions of gender). The authors suggest reformulation of the concept in four areas: a more complex model of gender hierarchy, emphasizing the agency of women; explicit recognition of the geography of masculinities, emphasizing the interplay among local, regional, and global levels; a more specific treatment of embodiment in contexts of privilege and power; and a stronger emphasis on the dynamics of hegemonic masculinity, recognizing internal contradictions and the possibilities of movement toward gender democracy.
In the decade since the First Edition of this critical and provocative text, many aspects of gender have changed, and many have stayed the same. While the gendered study of organizations is a growing field in its own right, in many real-life organizations gaps in gendered job roles and pay are as entrenched as they were. This new edition is a long-awaited update to an essential text in this dynamic and expanding field of inquiry, incorporating new, international perspectives that incorporate recent theory and debate, and a new chapter on gender and identity. Understanding Gender and Organizations is essential reading for students and academics in management, organization studies, gender studies, social psychology and sociology of work.
The move in the United Kingdom to recruit more men into primary teaching is to tackle boys under-achievement. One explanation that has been offered as to why boys' are under-achieving is the 'feminisation of primary schooling'. This article begins by exploring the findings of a national survey of student primary teachers towards gender roles and schooling. The views of the students indicated accordance with the idea that primary schools are feminised and feminising environments. The discussion here critiques these notions and argues that current educational policy is not moving forward in a direction that will actively challenge conventional stereotyping. Rather, the move is towards one where notions of masculinity and femininity will be reinforced through a 're-masculinisation' of primary schooling.[1] The research drawn upon in this article was undertaken collaboratively with Bruce Carrington and Ian Hall (University of Newcastle), and Becky Francis (University of North London). I would like to record my thanks to them all, particularly Bruce for his contribution to this article. He provided the analysis of the quantitative data and commentary on the outline of the research project. His analysis of the qualitative data on men student teachers can be found in Carrington (forthcoming). I would also like to thank colleagues at the International Sociology of Education Conference for their comments and observations, in particular Meg Maguire, and two anonymous referees of this article.
Current educational reform efforts have called attention to the need for more male teachers, primarily in elementary education. Recent scholarship, however, has highlighted significant problems with some of the assumptions underlying these calls, arguing that if we are to incorporate male teachers in ways that truly challenge dominant discourses of masculinity, we must address questions such as why we need more male teachers and what masculinities these teachers will model. Importantly, research has shown that men do not question what it means to be a male teacher or a male role model. The authors seek to extend this research by inquiring into the confusion surrounding the concept and consequences of this confusion. The authors contend that the idea of a male role model needs questioning, the illusion of clarity it offers is potentially dangerous, and disrupting this idea could potentially rearticulate male participation in elementary teaching in more liberating ways.
In this study, the author used ethnographic and focus group interviews to examine the lived experiences of men who teach in the primary grades. Several themes arose from the men's narratives. First, the men are under closer scrutiny than their women peers regarding contact with the children. Second, there is considerable ambiguity regarding the kind of “male role model” the men feel they are expected to portray. Third, there is a sexual division of labor that reinforces the image of men as having different teaching styles than women teachers. In response to the cumulative effects of these phenomena, the men must adopt compensatory behaviors causing them to unintentionally reproduce traditional forms of masculinity.
Sixteen male student primary teachers on a primary Initial Teacher Education course were interviewed and their understanding of 'care' explored. Analysis of the data suggests that male student primary teachers have specific gendered understandings of 'care'. Teacher educators need to take account of this in primary Initial Teacher Education courses and to provide students with opportunities to reflect on their understanding of 'care' in relation to their work as primary teachers, and the part gender plays in shaping that understanding.
Men who choose to do ‘women’s work’ and enter the female culture of the primary school can often initially face a range of stereotyped responses to their choice. Drawing on stories from a small sample of trainee and serving male teachers, we adopt the term ‘identity bruising’ to describe the ‘knock backs’ that occur to them in primary schools. How the men react to ‘bruising’ is of considerable interest, given the current concern in the UK to improve the recruitment and retention of men in primary training and teaching. An inductive and reflexive methodology is used whereby we work with the men to explore how they become aware of, understand and negotiate the problematic nature and gendered assumptions of masculinities that underpin the restrictions that they encounter.
The present article reports on a research project investigating the experiences of male primary teachers in Queensland, Australia. While its findings cannot be presented as indicative of all male teachers in all contexts, it does, however, send a warning to policy‐makers that the employment of more male teachers may not be in the best interests of gender justice unless such strategies designed to attract more male teachers are informed by sophisticated understandings of gender and social power. Utilising a (pro) feminist post‐structuralist theoretical perspective, it is demonstrated how some male teachers contribute to the maintenance of segregated work roles, which is of central importance to the continuance of gender power differentials in a patriarchal society. The research method focused on social relationships and involved a series of semi‐structured/life history interviews with 11 male teachers, six female teachers, two male principals and two female principals. An important implication from this research is that the employment of male teachers must be accompanied by an awareness of how teacher practice impacts upon the socialisation of students and how such practice reinforces or contributes to change in the broader gender system.
Since 1997, the Blair administration has taken various steps to make school teaching a more inclusive occupation. For example, in England and Wales it has introduced measures to increase levels of male recruitment to primary teaching and attract more ethnic minority entrants to the profession. This paper shows how these policies have been legitimated by an appeal to commonsense notions about the salience of ‘role models’ in socialization. Underlying official discourse in this sphere is the assumption that the ‘targeted recruitment’ of male or ethnic minority teachers will provide much-needed ‘role models’ in schools for those groups most likely to experience educational failure and disaffection. Thus, matching teachers and children by gender or ethnicity is seen as a panacea for male or Black ‘underachievement’. This paper begins by weighing the strengths and weaknesses of current policies on gender, ethnicity, and teaching. Having subjected the ‘role model’ argument to critical scrutiny, it moves on to discuss the dilemmas encountered by male entrants to primary teaching during the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) and ethnic minority students preparing to teach in either the primary or secondary sectors. Drawing upon the findings of two recently completed studies, the students' responses to the policies under consideration and their lived experiences during school placement are considered. The paper concludes by exploring the implications of the discussion for policy.
Despite research linking dominant masculinities to the disengagement of some boys from schooling, men teachers appear to be either unaware of the related literature, or reluctant to engage in behaviours that have increased their vulnerability to accusations of sexual abuse or homosexuality. A small study of men teachers in England, Sweden and New Zealand investigated the extent to which the men believed their teacher education had prepared them to teach in the gendered environment of the primary school. Teachers were also questioned about their views on gender differences in students and in the teaching practices of male and female teachers. Although the size of the study restricts the validity of data, the differences between the teachers in England and New Zealand, and those interviewed in Sweden, suggest that further research is warranted. A societal emphasis on gender equity in Sweden was reflected in the commentaries of Swedish men teachers on their pedagogical attitudes and actions relative to gender-based issues in schools. This emphasis was not evident to the same extent in England and New Zealand.
Those who teach, or intend to teach, young children undergo careful
scrutiny as to their suitability for the role of teacher. In general,
professional monitoring of teaching standards and teacher qualities are
reasonable expectations. However, a set of related cultural practices
embedded in such monitoring purposefully and unjustly impact men who wish
to teach young children. The underlying issues of this injustice are:
(a) social expectations for female and male teachers when teaching is
construed as caring; (b) the inferred sexual orientations for suitable
and unsuitable teachers; and (c) the accusation of pedophilia used
as a gatekeeper. Yet these socially constructed categories and their
interrelationships are sufficiently ambiguous that each has been deployed
in the extortion of male teachers. This article examines the dynamics
of unreasonable monitoring of male teachers who either teach or want to
teach young children.
The paper presents findings from research aimed at identifying effective approaches to the recruitment and retention of child care workers, conducted to assist the UK Government's Childcare Strategy. The paper explores the practices and views of child care employers, Early Years Development and Childcare Partnerships (EYDCPs) and child care workers in a range of settings (including day nurseries, playgroups and out-of-school care). Two key issues explored in the paper are the need for greater employer responsibility for increasing diversity in the child care workforce; and for a stronger emphasis on staff retention, through improved human resource practices in parts of the child care sector.
Few men care for, or teach, young children. The 1991 UK census found that less than 1% of nursery nurses were male, while 14% of nursery/primary teachers were male. A similarly gendered picture can be found across European, North American and Australian studies of early childhood services, such as childcare centres and early education. The practice and prospect of men early childhood workers are both encouraged and resisted. The aim of this article is to review the international literature relevant to men working in early childhood services with pre-school-aged children. The case for male early childhood workers is reviewed: two pertinent themes from the related field of men working in non-traditional occupations are highlighted. The review considers how these are applied to the specific context of men and early childhood services. Four aspects of the debate about men and early childhood work are examined: gender stereotypes; senior positions; gendered motives; and risks, allegations and protection. The literature suggests that men's careers have much to gain from working in early childhood services, but that, certainly in the Anglo-American literature, a recurring theme is the representation of men early childhood workers as a source of suspicion.
This article focuses on the call for more male teachers as role models in elementary schools and treats it as a manifestation of “recuperative masculinity politics” (Lingard & Douglas, 1999). Attention is drawn to the problematic gap between neo-liberal educational policy–related discussions about male teacher shortage in elementary schools and research-based literature which provides a more nuanced analysis of the impact of gender relations on male teachers' lives and developing professional identities. In this sense, the article achieves three objectives: (1) it provides a context and historical overview of the emergence and re-emergence of the male role model rhetoric as a necessary basis for understanding the politics of “doing women's work” and the anxieties about the status of masculinity that this incites for male elementary school teachers; (2) it contributes to existing literature which traces the manifestation of these anxieties in current concerns expressed in the popular media about the dearth of male teachers; (3) it provides a focus on research-based literature to highlight the political significance of denying knowledge about the role that homophobia, compulsory heterosexuality and hegemonic masculinity play in “doing women's work.” Thus the article provides a much-needed interrogation of the failure of educational policy and policy-related discourse to address the significance of male teachers “doing women's work” through employing an analytic framework that refutes discourses about the supposed detrimental influences of the feminization of elementary schooling.
Making a place for pleasure in early childhood education
- J G Silin
Silin, J. G. (1997). The pervert in the classroom. In J. Tobin (Ed.), Making a place for pleasure in
early childhood education (pp. 214-234). Yale University Press.