More male teachers - doesn't that mean fewer females?

[mids2019]

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/apr/03/bridget-phillipson-education-secretary-more-male-teachers-adolescence

I don't think this was a considered statement as in world where women have had to fight hard for representation in professions it is is grange for a cabinet Secretary to advocate for more men in a professiion. We certainly wouldn't see the health Secretary advocate for male doctors in a profession historically dominated by men at least until the last few decades.

I don't think teachers are there primarily to be role models but educators. The sex of the teacher should make no difference only their overall ability to the job. To somehow suggest a male has more authority or respect from male pupils surely is just veiled sexism?

I don't personally agree......

I agree but surely the point of putting more men into teaching roles is to try to help the situation? I just don't see how that will magically happen if we can all see society is a bit broken, without some extra guidance or training.

There's a lot of women who have stood up to societal expectations about their role without needing special training. Why do you think men do?

Because, going back to the point in hand, we apparently need men to help men.
How can we tell we are getting the type of men who will help rather than perpetuate the issue?

I see the point is that men are the issue to a large extent?

As I understand it teachers (both male and female) are interviewed before they're offered a teaching position, their progress is monitored throughout their career, and complaints about them are investigated.

I could be wrong but I don't see that the kind of man who sees himself as part of the red-pilled manosphere is the kind of man who is likely to apply to be a primary school teacher.

How can we tell we are getting the type of men who will help rather than perpetuate the issue?

I presume the same way we vet for the right type of men into teaching currently - I am not in teaching so I cannot tell you what that is. As I mentioned previously, the many male teachers my DCs have had have been brilliant. No vetting process is 100%, of course, and this applies to both male and female teachers.

Misogynist men will of course flock into teaching young children if they're encouraged to. They're such a caring bunch who love to be around small children and working with women. 🙄

I really don't think we have to worry about male teachers perpetuating machismo.

You don't think if they "encourage" more men with higher pay they might like a power trip over teenaged boys? My point is about how they are attracting them and where from. We've already discussed the pay is too poor, so assuming they change this and attract more men, where are the filters or are they adapting teacher training to look out for warning signs in pupils? I saw a news report last week that 1/3 of teachers had reported misogyny. What are we doing about that, presumably connected to this hike in male teachers? It has to be joined up, surely?

I saw a news report last week that 1/3 of teachers had reported misogyny.

From the kids. Not from male teachers.

Teachers have to go through training. I've trained a bunch of male maths teachers and haven't had any concerns about misogyny in any of them despite them all being given £28k tax free to train.

I am not being clear.
I know the kids are spouting misogyny. Male teachers are being sought to somehow help with this.

My question is how? Is there any actual evidence this will help or are they getting extra training to deal/help with the issue of misogyny? Presumably from a male point of view which is the X factor here.

All teachers get various training to deal with various societal ills. The Everyone's Invited website made it so that amendments were made to mandatory safeguarding training to include various forms of sexual harassment. I'm sure that the publicity around Adolescence will put focus on the manosphere stuff (already seen consultants offering teacher training on this).

"I'm sure that the publicity around Adolescence will put focus on the manosphere stuff (already seen consultants offering teacher training on this)."

This is the point - this is the current issue and yet just "throw more men in" is the response. I take it the answer to more specified training for these men is a no then. That's all I was wondering.

They don't need any specific training to have their opinion/instructions more valued by some pupils than a female teacher's would be. That's just how it is.

But by that logic nothing will change. We know some boys don't respect female teachers as much as men, so the argument is that we now fix that by ignoring the issue?

I am just wondering if anyone can clearly explain how this is actually proven to help?

I know the kids are spouting misogyny. Male teachers are being sought to somehow help with this

Men calling out misogyny and is how you change attitudes of boys and other men. It doesn’t come from women calling it out.
Same as a white person calling out and shaming a white person that is being racist. The latter won’t listen to an ethnic minority that is the target of their racism.

Currently boys/men, for whatever reason, are feeling their masculinity or perhaps the role of men in society is being questioned and many are turning to social media and the likes of Andrew Tate and Incels to define them. When you feel isolated or marginalised then, with time, they end up brainwashing you.

The majority of the time a boy will spend outside of the home will be at school. Teachers will have a pastoral role and will have the potential to build a rapport with pupils over time.

It makes sense that men in this position will naturally form role models (as all teachers do) of good adulting (for want of a better phrase) - they work with female colleagues, majority of the senior roles in school will be held by women, by virtue of numbers (head teacher, head of year, head of dept.).
They will generally be an alternative to what boys seen on social media.

I do understand boys don't listen to women. I just hope all the new male teachers understand their role here, without having any real training or work on how they might best tackle or create solutions other than being there to "call it out".

Hard agree

its just an excuse not to have to actually tackle the problem in schools.

It IS about tackling the problem in schools. They want to tackle it by actually having some men who are five days a week role models.

Look at it from a 13 year old lad's point of view. A woman lecturing him on misogyny is basically having someone womansplain to him what it is to be a male.

Of course we need more men in teaching. Primary school kids need to see men in the place that they spend most of their daytime, because it's a really restrictive demographic to only be surrounded by female adults.

And as I explained, when they hit the secondary school, where misogyny really starts to find its audience, teenage boys need to hear and discuss the issues with someone who knows what it is to be male and who understands where the appeal might come from.

We wouldn't listen to male teachers telling us what it is to be female. Why should boys be expected to respect and listen to women telling them how to be a decent man?

You can see why people might be sceptical surely? A lot of men refuse to even agree there is an issue with misogyny, Adolescence has shown it as the wide ranging issue it is. How does anyone expect magic male teachers to suddenly have all the answers when put on the spot in a school setting when half of the country didn't even understand the issues and how wide ranging they were? I don't want to be too negative about it, but we are asking a lot of men who have grown up with porn 24/7 and are likely not equipped in relationships and family dynamics if they are newly qualified and yet are somehow being touted as the answer to the issues young boys are facing. I simply can't see how that will work just by making them wing it without any guidance.

No-oes saying they're going to wing it without any guidance, for goodness sake!

And it's not like they're going to launch into discussing misogyny straight away or even often. They're not being appointed to be lecturing on the subject. Them be aligned to be teachers. If children or if a curriculum area.

No-one's expecting a speedy resolution to this problem. But while young and teenager boys don't come across educated, professional men who work harmoniously alongside women (and even respect then as their bosses) in their schools, it's only going to get worse.

Lots of school aged boys don't actually have a decent man in their lives to look up to at all. A single mum can be the best mum in the world, yet still, her son/s need to come across role model men in their lives. Men who, they can see, get what it is to be a boy. Men that they can learn from about what it takes to be a decent man. Not through a lecture about misogyny, but just through watching, listening, and talking with them

Not necessarily. There is a critical shortage of teachers. Even the 6500 promised by Labour will not be enough to plug the gap and to stop the leakage. Right we need all the teachers we can get: male teachers, chicken teachers, blue teachers, hedgehogs, 😂😍

Why are you being so clever so late in the night (rather so early in the morning)

In a way teaching I'd a nurturing jobs. Boys seeing men in nurturing roles is important. To understand that nurturing is not unmanly. It's not the panacea. Nothing is. But we need several pieces to come together

Ha! I can't type though! SO many typos.

'Them be aligned to be teachers. If children or if a curriculum area.' should be:
They're being appointed to be teachers. Of children or of a curriculum area.

yet are somehow being touted as the answer to the issues young boys are facing.

Who exactly has said that more male teachers will solve all the issues that boys are facing? Please name some names.