Shortage of male primary school teachers

  • Leads to a lack of male role models in the classroom

    • 13% of primary school teachers are male

  • There is already a lack of male role models at home

    • 1.5 million boys are brought up in matrifocal single families in the UK

YouGov (2007)

Discipline for boys

  • 39% of 8-11-year-old boys had no lessons with a male teacher

    • Most said having a male teacher would make them behave better

    • 42% said having a male teacher would make them work harder

Gender of staff and discipline

  • Primary school feminised due to gender of staff

  • Female teachers are unable to control boys’ behaviour

  • Male teachers are better able to impose the strict discipline that boys need to concentrate

CRITICISMS:

Francis (2006)

  • 2/3 of 7-8-year-olds believe the gender of teachers doesn’t matter

Read (2008)

Types of discourse

  • Study of 51 teachers (25 male, 26 female)

  • There are two types of language/discourse:

Disciplinarian

Liberal

Associated with masculinity

Associated with femininity

Explicit/visible authority

  • Shouting

  • Sarcasm

  • Exasperated tone of voice

Implicit/invisible authority

  • Child-centered

  • Pseudo-adultification

Teachers speak to children as if adults and expect children to be kind/sensible/respectful

  • Most teachers use a disciplinarian approach, therefore disproving feminisation theory and showing that female teachers can equally provide a stricter classroom culture for boys to thrive in

Haase (2008)

  • Primary schools are a masculinised educational structure, numerically dominated by women

Jones (2006)

Headship chances by gender

  • Male teachers have a 1 in 4 chance of gaining headship, while women have a 1 in 13 chance.