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......

@mids2019 I don’t think you can separate the job of teaching away from the personality of the teacher and what they bring to the role. They aren’t just automatons. Teachers bring their personality into the classroom and when men do this it does give different dynamic. Therefore having a mix is good for all dc.

Firstly the term is mansplaining, even the woman that made the term up says that women do it too. But that it has found its way in to schools is part of the problem.

Having men explain misogyny is still telling boys that they are the problem, and doesn't address any of the problems that the boys themselves may have. Whether that is from social media, cultural issues or other influences.

It won't stop parents that undermine teachers and it doesn't stop the fact that tate and co are a couple of button pushes away, and as I overheard a pupil say when walking away from a DHT (male) assembly, Who I am going listen to him or some one with over a million followers?

I have spent hours (more than hours) discussing issues, consent and sport (women's) with boys, but in the end it has to be remembered that we only have them for a limited time each day and they go home to the same problems that caused the issues in the first place.

@mids2019

Tiger

I agree teachers aren't animations and personality is important but sex doesn't necessarily need to feature in this. Both men and women can display a huge range of personality and attributes and your could be problematic to say one sex displays more of a certain quality e.g. authority.

I just think it is a political throw away remark that doesnt address a difficult societal problem. Also in subjects like STEm I think the need for great female teachers and role models actually may be of more importance of the more nebulous concept of the make teacher as a role model.

Also in subjects like STEm I think the need for great female teachers and role models actually may be of more importance of the more nebulous concept of the make teacher as a role model.

So you're saying that it's more important for girls to have role models, than boys?

I disagree. I'm a mother of daughters and the grandmother of granddaughters. So I'm absolutely with you on girls needing role models in all areas. But my daughters are partnered with men and one day my granddaughters might well be choosing male partners. So I'm also invested in what's happening with men and boys.

Additionally, while nearly all girls will live with mothers who are role models, a significant number of boys are being raised without a father figure. I'd say that that makes them in more need of a role model than girls. It's not all about careers, it's about how to live. How to interact with others. How to approach life's events. How to have purpose .

Being a feminist doesn't mean (for me at least) that boys and men don't matter. In fact it's thinking and being told that they don't, that may well be driving boys into the hands of misogynists.

I have worked with excellent male teachers and also some who were lazy, cut corners, undermined colleagues and used weaponised incompetence to get out of anything they didn’t fancy doing. Not sure if being a man automatically makes you a great role model

I've worked with some crappy female teachers too. Never had a male one undermine me, but several women have.

Saying we don't need men in teaching because some of them might be lazy, isn't exactly a well-reasoned argument.

I think in a sense role models are at least as important for girls as historically there have been massive imbalances in sex through the vast majority of careers. We still do promote 'girls in physics' events etc. as there is still work to be done addressing gender imbalance in scientific roles and teachers form an important part of this process. I think a female physics teacher of we wish to talk about role models is a more concrete example than a male art teacher say as an example of the empathetic nale.

I just don't see what people want from the men. We have had men teach boys PE to boys for many years and is that not enough as it is a role that doesn't allow enough empathy to be shown? What 'sort' of man should be recruited?

I also think that brining teachers into this is a diversion from the problem that absent or abusive fathers are the primary cause for lack of role models. The education secretaries view didn't refer to boys with stable two parent families but families where the father figure either was out of the picture or exhibited poor behaviour. It would be politically incorrect probably quite rightly to talk about single parent households so it is a soft solution to simply suggest more men in teaching to tackle a deep rooted social problem, one the state would find it difficult to handle.

I appreciate the comment about historically having male teachers dominate the industry, but do we not all fundamentally agree that both genders should have role models to look up to in their formative years. Whilst children shouldn't believe that all industries are 50/50, I think that the lack of males in primary might give boys a sense that males aren't suited to caregiving, or providing the same nurturing to young children, which I don't feel is the truth.

I also think that by increasing visibility/representation of male teachers, it helps to end the cycle of males not training to enter the teaching sector?

This reminds me of Mr Poppy from the nativity haha! But totally agree with this... it's about the right character for the job, regardless of gender. On a wider level, perhaps it's because of stigmas around what a 'man' is i.e. the breadwinner not caregiver etc. but that's a topic for another day!

In primary, schools may well have curriculum gaps they would love to fill and if a male teacher is the best for the vacancy, then so be it. It’s far better, in nearly every workforce, to have a mix of genders. Teaching should not be different. I don’t really see ks2 as a care giving role either. If men bring skills and attributes not available in other candidates that meet what the school needs, they stand a good chance of being hired. As would a women.

My kids primary school has a high proportion of male teachers - nearly 50% male - and I’m very happy about that as a mother of boys.
I have seen what happens when a disillusioned boy cannot connect with his female teachers and the damage that can be done (not just by this but for some boys, perhaps those most at risk, it is crucial to have positive male role models in the place where they spend the majority of their waking time. Many boys don’t have that at home)
I am a full on feminist and I don’t think it’s in any way comparable to doctors since doctors are there to heal people, not to guide them as they grow up. Teachers have a massive influence on kids and good male teachers are very important for girls as well as boys. Good female teachers are too - but there is not the same crisis with so many mothers being absent from their kids lives as with fathers.
I can see from the boys in my own family the difference between those who have had this positive male influence from a young age and those who have missed out on it, and the difference is immense and frankly tragic in one case.