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.

Did the OP ever come back and engage with the replies or has his ego been sufficiently massaged? He's going to think he's God's gift to education when he gets his first job

This is an off the wall observation....

My Dd had one male teacher once. He was fab. She had a fab year. She'd list him as her favourite ever teacher. Her main reason... because the boys behaved better.

DS. He got lucky. Male teacher y2 and y3.
Both told me he was a remarkable mathematician. Enthused over his maths. (I dunno, I'm typical girl and maths is meh to me).

Then had female teachers Y4 & Y5. No one is now remarking at all about his maths ability. Admittedly, he probably is good at maths but no one seems to comment or remark upon it anymore.

For me - the male typical math mind suited him, understood him, invigorated him and inspired him which the female teachers don't seem to have. He is impeccably well behaved but utterly bored.

Please do this thing - whether you're good at maths or not. You will enhance the life of many

This thread is grim. 🙄

I'm typical girl and maths is meh to me

Oh dear god ...

^ I agree!!

I do think a lot of primary schools would like to see balance in their staffing profile but there are huge numbers of women only schools. They are probably there because they were the best candidates but I can see why a balance is better in many ways. We tend not to choose single sex schools at primary age but single sex teaching staff is ok? Parents often say single sex doesn’t reflect the real world. But single sex teachers does? How does that work?

I'm typical girl and maths is meh to me

Please!! Listen to yourself! Do you actually believe this garbage? I bet you’ve passed it on to your son as well - he probably thinks most women aren’t good at maths now. Great. Thanks for that.

I think it would definitely be good for primary schools to have a better balance of male teachers. It's also great for the children too.
Chose DDs Pre school because there was a bloke working there and thought it would be a really positive role model for her.

The worst teacher my son ever had was male, he was awful at his job.

If you go to interview as a good male teacher and you are up against an outstanding female teacher, the man wont get the job.

Ha. Wish I had your optimism. In my experience, male primary teachers tend to be rated more highly than their actual ability warrants. If you're a half-decent male teacher you'll move up the ranks much faster- there are far fewer of them, people want to employ men and parents love male teachers, as this thread demonstrates (although the existence of a penis shouldn't matter, really. And if your son responds better to male authority figures, maybe you ought to examine where he's learned that from).

I think there's an unconscious (for most people) bias that means they tend to trust men more and rate them as more competent. People like positions of authority to be filled by men.

It’s all to do with the fact men are rarer in primary education/schools. Men should meet the criteria for selection or schools can be challenged by the teachers who didn’t get the job if they meet the criteria in more ways. All selection processes are open to scrutiny and schools would be stupid to be overtly biased. However sometimes a man might actually present at interview with better skills. It’s a fact. There are also some men who don’t want to work in an all female environment.

I fully support someone who says they don’t feel confident at maths. Why do we have to lie about our feelings? Only around 60% of the nation have GCSE maths. I didn’t pass O level maths. I consider myself much poorer at maths than English or humanities subjects. I did expect my DC to do their best at maths but don’t call out people like me who don’t feel well educated at maths and lack confidence. Women are not pleasant to each other at times, are they?

For me - the male typical math mind suited him, understood him, invigorated him and inspired him which the female teachers don't seem to have.

It’s utterly depressing that you’ve linked that teacher’s maths ability to his penis.

I did expect my DC to do their best at maths but don’t call out people like me who don’t feel well educated at maths and lack confidence.

I don’t think anyone has said anything like that. People are calling out posters saying your innate ability at maths is determined by your genitals.

When I was educated In Ireland EVERYONE who went to university/third level must have passed ordinary level maths at leaving certificate level (age 18) if you didn’t pass maths, English and Irish then you didn’t get in. They have changed it slightly now, all courses require you to have English and another language and most require you to have maths. We do a minimum of 6 subjects so students here do maths right until they leave school. I find it strange that someone in the uk can stop their maths education at age 15/16!!

I'm typical girl and maths is meh to me

WTAF? I’m a ‘typical girl’ (I have a vagina after all, so pretty typical), and I loved maths. Was excellent at it. DH is a ‘typical man’ (he has a penis) and generally brighter than me, but needed tutoring for maths.
Do people genuinely believe this shit? That man have an innate maths ability that women don’t? And pass this absolute dross down to their children?

I did expect my DC to do their best at maths but don’t call out people like me who don’t feel well educated at maths and lack confidence

Absolutely no one is calling out people who aren’t confident in maths. We’re calling out people who believe men have an innate ability in maths, just by virtue of being male. It’s bullshit.

I’ve just stepped back in to the thread only to read that men have maths brains. There’s a reason girls at all girls schools do significantly better at stem subjects that their equally bright peers in co-ed and that’s it right there.

You should go for it. They need more male role models in primary schools, and have done for years.

My son's school had one male teacher last year and he moved abroad. He was very well liked and I was looking forward to him teaching my son's class. I would love for my boys to have more male role models in their lives outside of the family. In our school only the headteacher and the SENco are male.

@LoveWine123,
Nobody ever says, ‘I want my children to have more female role models outside the family.’ Why is that?

@Neednewwellies

I can't speak for everybody, but I can speak for our specific situation. Both my boys already have a good number of fantastic female role models outside of the family. Both at nursery and at school we have been blessed with some great female teachers. There have not been ANY male teachers so far, but my older son has extra curricular activities this year and has male coaches. One of them in particular has been really inspiring for him. In our case we seem to easily be able to get access to lots of great female role models for the boys, but not many male ones which is why I made the comment.

Not sure if you are trying to imply that people only look for male role models but not for female ones. If that's the case then I don't think this is true. It's certainly not true in our case. It's just that schools and nurseries in particular are full of female teachers and staff hence finding somebody female to look up to is much easier.

@LoveWine123, it wasn’t particularly directed at you. I tagged you as you were last in a long line to say it.

My point was that nobody ever says, ‘oh where are all the female football/cricket coaches to show my boys that women play these too. Yet mothers, many of whom have good husbands, fathers and brothers and whose boys and girls attend sports coaching with a man will still lament the lack of men reaching in primary school. This despite the fact that where there are male teachers in their school they are disproportionately represented in senior roles. So where they do see men, they see them in authority or playing football etc. Then in all likelihood they’ll encounter quite a few at senior school but still see fewer women in male dominated professions and never seem to worry about that.

@neednewwellies

You may be right, but as I said I can only speak for our situation. My boys are quite young, one still at nursery and perhaps this will change when they get to secondary school, but at this stage in nursery and Year 1 they are mainly surrounded by females. And yes we have husbands, fathers and hopefully other males in the family, but unfortunately you don't get to spend every day with them. Some children only see their grandfathers and uncles (if they have any) once or twice a year so in this case no it doesn't help.

And this is a forum for primary education so it's understandable why the main topic is around male/female teachers in primary education...not in secondary and not in the world at large. And it's simply a fact that at primary level there are not enough male teachers.

I have sons, but I think more men in primary schools would be a really positive thing. There is one at my son’s school and he is well liked and respected. The children also really like the man who runs breakfast club, and he’s a great positive role model for the boys.

Not sure that a penis is an automatic ticket to being a good teacher. DD1's school has a couple of male teachers - the kids like them but I think one in particular is a bit of an arselicking his way up the management pole and swayed by if it's new, technological and has lots of flashy lights and buttons and a big price tag and doesn't always think things through properly (particularly in terms of e-safety and the kids' future digital footprints). No idea what the other male teacher at the school is like but he'd better bloody be good cos he's SENCO so he's going to be having a lot of dealings with me when DD2 starts in September!

I've lost out on jobs before because the governors wanted to recruit a man (that was told me on the quiet after the recruitment process by a very frustrated Head), the man was so awesome at the job he bailed after a term as they were a "lively" class and needed someone on the ball with behaviour management.

For bigging up female teachers though - the year 2 team in DD2's school are absolutely superb - make it fun as anything for the kids, the quality of the teaching is absolutely jawdroppingly good (I've been in their classes and I've told them I'm flipping jealous of how good they are) and they really do "get" some very complicated little personalities... and they're both female. The infant school head is also bloody superwoman in terms of how hard and well she works too.

In short - I wouldn't be overjoyed or distraught if my kids got a male teacher - I'd just want to know they were good at what they were doing and the rest is irrelevant really.