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.

@LoveWine123
You misunderstand me if you think that I don’t want there to be an even spread of men and women in primary teaching. Of course I do. What I dislike is the fawning and the skewed statistics of men in the classroom and men in senior roles.

It’s almost as though there a subconscious gratitude towards men that have made the sacrifice and become teachers. Like it’s somehow more worthy, more noble than a woman doing it.

It’s rife and not just with parents. Lunchtime staff serving at the hatch will serve a female teacher a standard portion then serve a male teacher a double portion. Sadly, they fo the same to Y6 girls and boys. It reinforces their ‘higher being’ status and it’s not healthy and ironically, I think it counters the whole argument if what you want us to show your child that men and women are on an equal footing.

It annoys me to say it, but most of the best teachers DC have had have been map.

Dd had 2 male teachers at primary school. One was excellent and one was quite poor. At secondary school there isn't one sex of teacher that's better than the other either, it varies.

@neednewwellies

Wow that is shocking to read. I never thought this is what is happening in this day and age. I clearly don't have enough experience with the school system here, but what you are describing is really unfortunate. I do understand where you are coming from.

The head teacher, reading lead and p.e teacher in my ds's school are all men and all thoroughly lovely.

I see no reason to why anyone would have a problem with it?

They are all very capable and roundly well liked (with the exception of the head who is not universally well liked, for reasons which are not relevant to this thread, but who is in fact very capable, and who I actually have a lot of time for)

Id have a problem worh it Billy as like many it demonstartes that although there are less men they disproportionately end up with management roles. Your school is yet another example of that!

I see no reason to why anyone would have a problem with it?

Nobody has a problem with there being male teachers, even equal amounts of male teachers, on staff. The problem is the fawning and unnecessary reverence over such a thing.

We have a few, one of whom especially is excellent in Foundation stage. You'll have to be happy working in very very female dominated workplaces.

There is not one male teacher in the whole of dds primary school. The only male on site is the caretaker. There has never been a make headteacher either. I attended the same school myself years ago and there was only one male teacher, he was great.

*male headteacher

Lunchtime staff serving at the hatch will serve a female teacher a standard portion then serve a male teacher a double portion. Sadly, they fo the same to Y6 girls and boys

Yes! I see this happening in my school! The two (overweight) male members of staff who eat school lunches are given huge portions by the cook yet if a female orders a lunch she’s given the same stingy child-size meal.

This is a few years back now (DS now 18) but I think that just under half the teachers in DS school were male. I always thought that was great as a role model for boys who often become disengaged in education, particularly by Y6. DS originally planned to be a teacher, inspired by some of the teachers at his primary school.

The Head Teacher and Assistant Head were both female.

We definitely need more male teachers, there are non in my school!

I would advise specialising in the early years/ks1 as would make a huge difference having a male role model with the little ones!

I have two boys and I really love them having male teachers.

I would advise specialising in the early years/ks1 as would make a huge difference having a male role model with the little ones

Doesn’t happen often because upper key stage 2 is seen as higher status (although it’s clearly not) and funnily enough, men keep being promoted into ‘higher status’ roles in teaching. Find me a male primary teaching deputy with a KS1 class. Rarer than hens’ teeth.

Not sure if DD's school makes a point of hiring male teachers (or once you have a couple others feel less unusual) but today at teacher consultations I counted 6 male class teachers, two form entry. There's also a male nursery keyworker and one of the teachers is a Reception class teacher so I'm pretty sure there will be some bum wiping going on. A Reception boy with continence issues may well feel more comfortable with a male teacher helping him.

A Reception boy with continence issues may well feel more comfortable with a male teacher helping him.

That’s not a teacher job.

We definitely need more male teachers, there are non in my school!

We definitely need more teachers. Of any type.

I would advise specialising in the early years/ks1 as would make a huge difference having a male role model with the little ones!

You'll try it in your training and decide where you feel most comfortable- it takes a particular type of person to teach the tinies. Personally, I'm not cut out for it.

I can’t link to Twitter but if you search for a teacher called Mr E (@MrE1604) he’s had a bit of a paddy about children ‘behaving because he is a man’ on 10/2/20. The comments are interesting.

Hi. I’m currently doing my QTS (3rd year). I have around 10 males on my course out of a year of 80 students. I actually find that some of them seem to be better suited than some of the females! They definitely bring a level of authority into the classroom which is obviously good for behaviour management. In Primary School I never personally had a male teacher but there was two or three in the school. They are definitely respected by the students! It’s a shame there are not more men in primary school setting - they are usually brilliant. They usually gravitate towards secondary.

However, a male on my course found on his first placement that obviously the boys in his class gravitated towards him and thought they could get away with more as he was around 21/22 and they would chat about football. This meant they mucked him around a bit more during lessons.

Guess it just depends on your particular behaviour management as it could happen the same to women.

They definitely bring a level of authority into the classroom which is obviously good for behaviour management.

That is everything to do with classroom presence and behaviour management. I’m a woman and I’ve never struggled with that.

it’s a shame there are not more men in primary school setting - they are usually brilliant

I give up.

Mummaintraining19 I thought QTS only took 1 year?

It would be nice if there was more of a balance of the sexes in teaching. That's about my only opinion on male teachers.

My children's infants school had no male teachers. Their primary school (a large one, I think 14 classes), has 4 male teachers. 1 is head, 1 is deputy and the other 2 teach year 6. So it took a while for my kids to have a male teacher and then they think that men run the school, are more clever, better teachers etc. Which is not what I want them to think.

I taught in secondary for 20 years. I've never had a female headteacher or deputy head. I've also mentored, trained, inducted, interviewed, hired scores of student teachers, NQTs and experienced teachers. Their ability as a teacher was never determined by their sex. So there's another reason why women aren't getting the lead jobs in schools. Not exactly what you asked for OP, sorry.

I meant their junior school, not primary.