Male Teachers at Primary Level

[Cb21]

Hi Folks,

I am just enquiring and interested in Public opinion on this matter. I am a guy who is currently looking at doing my PGCE and QTS in September. As a guy I am wondering what your opinions are of having male teachers in the classroom. Do you have experience of such? Do you have male primary teachers in your DD'S school?
Most of what I have read from such related articles is from many years ago and I'm just looking for an upto date and current opinion. I would appreciate all views positive and negative (as I know there may be some) but I want a rounded view of public opinion. Thanks a lot.

Anduins - yet we see it time and time again. Primary school management is disproportionately male compared to ratio male/female teachers...

My DS has had four male teachers at primary school and wants to be a teacher when he's older.

2 of my dc favourite teachers have been male. Neither is still in teaching sadly. I think it is really important for children to have good male role models

And you'll see it from the parents...

Good male teachers are good role models for kids. I don't care what sex a teacher is so long as they are capable and competent and caring. Go for it.

There are 4 male teachers at my DC’s primary school. I like 3 of them, am not keen on the 4th. Nothing to do with sex, 3 are good teachers and the 4th isn’t (in my opinion). That’s all that matters.

Makes no difference to me, my dc favourite teacher was a bloke, he was great.

At one time my old school had 4 male teachers including one in the Nursery.

It's great to have a diverse staffroom in all sorts of ways. It'd be great to have more male teachers particularly in eyfs and ks1. More balanced staffrooms are much better too. More ethnic minorities would be good too.

You will only need to be vaguely competent to have parents fawning all over you about how amazing you are

100% spot on, I’m sad to say.

There are loads of male teachers in primary schools. I'm surprised that you think it unusual enough to ask about it .

In an ideal world you'll be respected for the teacher you are and the relationships with the children. It's nice to have more male teachers because it shows children that teaching isn't a woman's profession.

In the real world, as above, but also people will probably give you tricky classes because you're a man (usually hedged as needing a firm teacher), there's claims that the boys will be better with a male teacher, you risk getting kept long term in UKS2 because for some reason men seem to almost always have KS2 roles. You're more likely to get promoted than a female colleague as long as you're vaguely competent, and most parents / society will fawn over how awesome you are.

My DC1 has had 3 male teachers in primary school so far and she's responded well to them. It seems to be quite unusual and my DM (an ex primary head) always says that primary schools welcome male teachers for a few reasons, including - because they provide male role models for kids without dads, they seem to be less involved in cliques and bitchiness and they don't dither around in the background with new ideas. (Of course, these are sweeping generalisations!!)

You will get favourable treatment over women, you will have an easier progression to promotion.

None of this will be your fault, but please make sure you're a good enough teacher to deserve it.

Maybe I have been fortunate then, in that the schools where I have been involved in the recruitment process, (Teachers, TAs, Heads) the panel have never brought a candidate's sex into the deliberation. Not once. I take on board from the responses to my post that this is possibly not the norm. How disappointing.

About 25% of teacher's in DS' primary are male. They're all brilliant. I was really hoping DS would have a male teacher this year (Y1) but sadly not. Hopefully next year. I want him to be familiar with males in caring/nurturing roles in his daily life and not grow up with the assumption or experience that it's a female role.

I would agree that male primary teachers are no longer seen as unusual. I don't know any local school that don't have at least a couple of male teachers and PSAs. School my DCs went to now has 50/50 at least (one male teacher is off at moment otherwise would be more like 70/30 for teachers although PSAs puts ratio slightly more in favour of women).

(Ps all the teachers in his school are brilliant - male and female)

DS is at a non selective independent primary.
The head is a man. He’s good but a bit wet IMO.
DS favourite teacher who has year 4 and also is the specialist PE teacher for the whole school is a man. He’s also rewards and sanctions- he’s so lovely that just being told he’s disappointed in them keeps them in line. The terror he instils if he uses his “big voice” is great!
He’s fab, I adore him!

We need more good role models for Primary. You could also offer to do sports clubs boys might enjoy. In schools where there are no male teachers I have noticed the sports they do are often rounders, dance, but no tag rugby or cricket. I know many girls would like to do these activities too but for some reason there are not too many female teachers who offer these at Primary. As a teacher I can tell you will find you will get promotion faster than your female colleagues and frequently males in Primary go on to become Headteacher. In some single Mum families there are no male role models for the male children so please go for it. The down side is you may be called up on to do the discipline for challenging children.

Who cares whether the teacher is male, female or non-binary? Only idiots.

Male teachers are great for all ages - children need great male and female role models.
Ds1 never had a male teacher until secondary school he has asd and this totally freaked him out. Hes y11 now and it's normal for him now and both teachers I feel have made a lasting impression on him are male.
Dt have had two male teachers one was the worst of all my kids one was the best ever.
Kids need good teachers it doesn't matter the gender. Although I think Ds1 would have coped better with the transition to secondary had he had a male teacher in primary school.
Best of luck with the training.

Yes my son had one in reception and in year 3. They were both excellent

You will only need to be vaguely competent to have parents fawning all over you about how amazing you are

@PurpleDaisies’ comment above is proved nicely by many of the comments on this thread.

Being a man in primary basically guarantees this, and women working with them will often subconsciously take up the slack and support male teachers, especially young ones.

Too many children have absent fathers. A decent male teacher is a good thing. The boys definitely react differently to a male teacher.