Male teachers in primary school

[anawee23]

Hi Ladies,
Just wondering if you would like to give me your opinions on male teachers in primary schools and whether you think there are enough of them, feel free to be honest and straightforward.

I am currently training to be a teacher and have the task of researching and discovering what parents and adults in general think about Male primary school teachers and whether there is a connection to the bad publicity and the fact that there are less than female teachers?

I have done all my research regarding statistics and facts and figures, but would love to know how the general public and parents feel about this matter/topic.

Thank you for participating, I look forward to reading your replies.

It is well known there are not enough male teachers in Primary schools. My sons' school has no male teachers at all. The country needs more male Primary school teachers.

SEA - I could not agree more. My DS has come on soooo much this year (yr1) tbh I don't think he would have done so well with a female teacher but that is more due to family situation ie not seeing his dad anymore etc.

His male teacher could not have come at a better time tbh

The best two teachers I ever had were male, one was at primary school. He was truly inspirational. I didn't realize there was such a dearth of male primary school teachers .

We are so lucky at our school in that 5 out of 14 teachers are men. Not enough IMO, but there are some schools in the local area that have maybe one only, or none.

THe school has arranged them so that each KS2 year has one male and one female teacher, so every other year in KS2 the children will ideally have a male teacher. Of course, it may all change - staff moving on and so on. We did have 7, but 2 left. However our woman head teacher is retiring and being replaced by a man.

I think that there is a different dynamic in dd's class this year, with a male teacher. It doesn't necessarily suit DD to be honest - but the boys in her class are having a better year in terms of enthusiasm and behaviour.

I do think though that all the men at school are very different themselves - so there's another male teacher that I think will suit her better later on. Not all teachers are the same and not all male teachers are the same either, of course!

Quite a few male teachers at our school, though the head and deputy are both female. All of the teachers - male and female - seem to be very good! I'm glad we have a reasonable gender balance, but to be honest, I don't care that much. I just want good teachers!

It's really nice to hear the positive comments on here regarding male primary teachers.
My son (24) is currently a teaching assistant in a primary school and loves it...all the children adore him and the staff do too. He has become passionate about the idea of training to become a primary teacher. He'll be an asset to any primary school. I'm all in favour of it, although I do worry a little about any negative ideas some people might have about why males would want to teach young children.

selks - it sounds like he will be an asset in any school he goes to

DS's teacher is not much older but is sadly leaving at the end of this yr as he is going back to the country he comes from (Australia)

But I cannot emphasise enough how much Ds has benefited from him and sadly he was ill on the day of the class photo (teacher not DS) luckily school have understood and are doing photo again

surely male teachers don't suffer too much from negative perceptions, as male primary teachers tend to be promoted ahead of their female colleagues and get headships much sooner in their careers?

I am perfectly happy with male teachers for my DD, I m not happy about the sexism that views male teachers as better.

My DD's school has 2 male teachers - the Head and his Deputy. I wonder what that tells her.

Today's newsletter said there was a new male teacher arriving and I commented to DH that that was a good thing (whilst wondering to myself whether being male is helpful in the interview process).

DD has had 2 male primary teachers and they have both been fab. She has really loved them. Infact when we were thinking about moving schools it was the fact that if we did move school that DD would have a male teacher that swung it for us and we moved her - I knew she'd love him and she did.

I think if I had a DS I'd be really pleased for him to have a male teacher as well = good positive role models, etc. I think there is research that boys respond better to male teachers.?????

We have a high ratio and it is great. All the kids want the male teachers! They focus more on physical activities, teach through materials rather than form filling, focus more on what interests the children and teaches through that, ie rugby, football, cricket etc.

I never believed it would make a difference but having experienced children taught by male teachers, they have been amazing,and helped my children develop their self esteem to a far greater level than their female peers.

IMHO it would be great if there were more male teachers, I think its particularly important for boys to have male role models at school. As a girl in primary school (and high school) I always got on better with and performed better for male teachers - not sure whether this was a gender issue or whether it was just that the male teachers I had were more engaging than the female ones. Though, in both of my high schools there was one male teacher who got branded as a 'perv' because female pupils felt the teacher looked/behaved inappropriately around them - but that may have all been playground myth rather than reality.

My DS and DD are lucky enough to go to a nursery where there are 6 male members of staff - one in each of the 6 rooms there (which span 3 age groups) and both love them. They love the female helpers too, but it is really good for kids to interact with adults of both genders.

BTW - are you doing 'formal research' that is going to be written up (and are you going to use quotes from the this website) - or is it just for your own interest? Think it would be helpful for people to know what they are contributing to.

dd had school shoes fitted by a young man who was exceptionally good with kids yesterday - I told him I thought he was skilled with kids, he said he really wanted to teach primary kids (was inspired by a male teacher at his own school) but had to wait to afford to train and couldn't see a way forward at the moment.

I told him to come and apply at dd's school when he qualified

Seriously though, it was good to hear a bright, skilled young man longing to teach and very sad to hear he may not be able to because of the costs.

My DDs infant school (P1-3) has only 1 male teacher in amongst about 13 females including head and deputy. He is an NQT and we might lose him next year due to funding. I think it's bad that there aren't more male primary teachers as it means that the children are missing out on male role models in the school setting. I think more should be done to encourage males into early years setttings - our private nursery had a male carer for a little while and I thought it was brilliant to have a less female oriented environment. And step off soap box ........

Both the schools (inner London schools, 2 form entry) I've taught at have had at least 3 male teachers at any one time. In each school at least one of the male teachers has been in KS1 (or Foundation).

From my experience I would say that parents always seem to be delighted when their child is given the male teacher and that the KS1 male teachers remain popular throughout the year. The children are excited to be with the male teacher too as they are perceived as being more fun than the females.

The perception of being fun may well be a good thing at the start of the year but I wouldn't particularly rate the behaviour management of the male KS2 teachers I've worked closely with; sometimes I wonder if there's an underlying expectation that, simply by virtue of their chromosomes, they are inherently better at managing behaviour! IME classrooms of male teachers tend to be more chaotic, the children louder and the 'little things' are often not noticed or left to slide so there are more behaviour problems than in the classes with 'less fun' teachers.

DD1 has a female teacher this year, the parallel class has a male teacher. Both teachers are fantastic and are incredibly different. It honestly didn't matter to me which of the teachers she had as I knew she'd thrive with either one. She is, however, in Y1 where fun and jokey works well. I'm not sure I'd particularly want her with a fun and jokey male teacher in Y6 if that meant that behaviour in the class was problematic and her experience of school suffered as a result.

It's about so much more than gender, obviously.

ds1 has had 1 male TA (he's now 10) and there are a couple of teachers in the upper school who are male, but he won't get them til year after next. oh and there's 3 male PE teachers but i'm sort of discounting them.

one of my local primary schools happened to have a high proportion of male teachers in early years and that was one of the reasons it was my 1st choice for ds1 (he didn't get it!)... I think he would have responded well to a male teacher, and it would be a factor when i come to choosing a primary school for ds2.

Male primary teachers are gold dust. Are so few of them, and they are so important for the boys (girls too I imagine, but I have boys!). My eldest is 8 and it is starting to be key for him to have male teachers - he responds so differently, and I think it can help them not to pigeon-hole activities (eg art is for girls etc). When looking for schools in London, the number of male teachers seems to be viewed by most parents as a key selling point - I think there is huge unmet market demand for them.

DD is in Yr 3 and has a male teacher. She gets on great with him and he seems to been an excellent teacher both academically and pastorally. He also manages to keep the cheekier boys in check which is good for them and their classmates. We are very pleased with the situation.

In honesty I'm glad, however, that she had female teachers in Kingergarten and Yr 1 when I think their mummsyness helped her settle in.

Of course it would be lovely to have more men in primary. Unusually at the moment, in a 2 form entry school, we have 3 male class teachers, 1 TA and a fair few regular male supplies.
P**s me off, however, to hear parents say they're glad their DC'c class are getting a man "because of the discipline." That is NOT a given. Over the years, (not recently, I'll admit) I've seen some shite male disciplinarians. Females also, but I hate this assumption that they'll "keep the boys in check." Not necessarily true.

Ours has several male teachers - my son has had one recently and liked it. He also had a great young male nursery nurse. The more the better.

Every school I've worked in has had a male teacher. They are usually very popular with the children and climb the career ladder very fast ... think about it - how many female primary school teacher are there? And how many male? How many male primary school heads are there? And how many female?!

Not sure what you mean about bad publicity though?

Our one-form entry state primary has 3 male teachers. One of them, the deputy head (the head is female), teaches half the week in the nursery. The male teachers are fab, but so are the female ones!

I am a male primary school teacher, and have to say that the 'role model' bullshit annoys me a great deal. If I am a role model to the kids I work with, and I hope I am, I really hope the boys (at YR1) are not yet so narrow minded as to need 'men' to relate to rather than just teachers with particular characters. I certainly don't think there's much stereotypically 'male' about how I act. If my presence in the classroom does anything to their ideas of gender, i hope it breaks rather than reinforces that crude binary.

To my mind saying how male teachers are ace and bring something different is just the other side of the coin of being a minority-and just as irritating as accusing us all of less pleasant things.

The statistics show that although there are far fewer male teachers they are far more likely to get promoted to senior positions.

I think that there are major problems in any occupation that is dominated by men or women, and action is needed to get a more representative gender split. Normally, it is low-status, low-paid occupations that are female-dominated, sadly.

Thank you for your sensible contribution, adela. Pretty much how I feel too.

There's something about women gushing about fabulous male teachers - as if just by being male they are far more marvellous than female ones - that is intensely irritating.