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The decline of male teachers in the national and Queensland state education systems has rarely been as keenly debated and contested within the public domain and popular media as it has in the last twelve to eighteen months. ... During the research of this topic it was found that many of the online articles were duplicate copies of previously published print media sources from leading Australian newspapers such as The Age, The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald. ... Firstly, attention will be given to the general issues surrounding the public discussion of male teachers and the decline of their numbers. ... The final stage of the paper will discuss the implementation of national and state programs such as Education Queensland’s Male Teacher Strategy and the social implications and educational futures associated with such programs, according to the current criticisms of educational theorists.
Throughout the majority of the articles examined, a wide coverage of opinions and issues surrounding the decline in male teacher numbers is expressed. ... These issues and opinions include that the teaching profession has become too feminised ; teaching is not an attractive profession for men financially ; the general public does not appreciate its teachers ; society puts too much responsibility on teachers ; despite education being a supposedly feminised profession women are still disadvantaged in comparison to their male counterparts ; there are a lack of male role models in teaching ; boys’ recent educational performance is linked to lack of male teachers ; men are scared to enter the profession because of being labelled paedophiles , types of desirable masculinities in schools ; that there needs to be attention given to quality pedagogy rather than ‘quality gender’ and that the female contribution to the profession is being devalued. Although there is certainly a broad coverage of the issues and contentions surrounding the debate, what seems to be lacking is a more nuanced analysis of the issues in the majority of the reports. ... Despite many articles having clever headlines like ‘Classy Blokes Needed’ and ‘Roll Call for Male Teachers’ , their insights into the current issue are less clever. ... Gender stereotypes such as these are comparable to mythopoetic commentaries and words in Joanna Murray-Smith’s ‘Nice Little learners, But the Check is in the Male’. ... Male teachers are fundamental assets in redressing this imbalance, with a much more intuitive sense of what interests males.” As italicised above, Murray-Smith’s article demonstrates how many cultural generalisations and gender stereotypical attitudes have effected our society’s perspective of male teachers and the boys they teach.
Approximate Word count = 1962
Approximate Pages = 7.8
(250 words per page double spaced)
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