Changing masculinities? Using caring masculinity to analyse social media responses to the decline of men in Australian primary school teaching

Abstract

Commentators have predicted that Australian male primary school teachers will be extinct within 50 years. Drawing upon sociological ideas about the emergence of ‘caring masculinities’, this article qualitatively examines popular Australian understandings about male primary school teachers, their importance, why they are declining and whether, and how, this gender imbalance can be addressed. The study analyses data from 541 comments posted in response to nine online media pieces on male primary school teachers in Australia. The article shows that commenters believe men teaching young children experience stigmatised masculine identities but misplace the cause of this as the result of women and anti-feminist ‘anti-male bias’ rather than the constraining impact of hegemonic masculinity. The article suggests that until more caring and progressive forms of masculinity are culturally and economically valued in Australia we will see little change in the numbers of men entering primary school teaching.