Male primary school teachers: Helping or hindering a move to gender equity?

Cushman, Penni

doi:10.1016/j.tate.2010.01.002

Cited by 42 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Becoming and being a 'breaker' There appears to be a tendency for individuals who have made non-gender-stereotyped choices, often referred to as 'breakers' in the literature, to be somewhat older and to have 'broken off' from another career path (Cushman, 2010). This is consistent with the results of this study even if it is talked of as negotiating masculinities.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 86%

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Male preschool teacher students negotiating masculinities: a qualitative study with men who are studying to become preschool teachers

Heikkilä

Hellman

2016

Early Child Development and Care

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Male preschool teacher students negotiating masculinities: a qualitative study with men who are studying to become preschool teachers.Early Child Development and Care, 187 (7) AbstractThe overall interest is to understand how men who study preschool teaching negotiate masculinities. Earlier research shows how male teachers negotiate masculinities when being in and entering a predominantly feminine work area, such as early childhood education (see for example Simpson 2014, Brody 2015, Pirard, Schoenmaeckers & Camus 2015. It this article Connell's notion on hegemonic masculinity is reflected on in terms of negotiation. Semi-structured interviews with three main questions were conducted with 38 men attending the preschool teacher training programmes at three Swedish universities/university colleges. The result show two main themes for negotiation that were called 'Becoming and being a 'breaker'' and 'Coping with sticking out'. These themes and their content are presented and discussed in the article.Keywords: masculinities, male student, negotiation, preschool, early childhood education, gender IntroductionThe overall interest is to understand how men who study preschool teaching negotiate masculinities. Specifically, our aim is to analyse and explore how this negotiation is expressed through how the challenges male preschool teacher students express concerning their studies and their future profession. We will argue that these challenges relate to the conflict between how to display critical hegemonic masculinity while simultaneously being a professional preschool teacher. Further, we will argue that this conflict is demonstrated by the way these men express their position as a minority group and the expectations associated with that, while at the same time they 'break' certain male norms or notions how to be real men. These statements are discussed in this article.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 86%

“…Cushman, 2010;Cameron, Moss, & Owen, 1999). Their findings indicate that men who study to become preschool teachers are somewhat older when they study, that they have work experience, they do different things in preschool than women, and that they want to be needed and experience personal development.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Male preschool teacher students negotiating masculinities: a qualitative study with men who are studying to become preschool teachers

Heikkilä

Hellman

2016

Early Child Development and Care

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“…Therefore, it is widely believed that male teachers could inspire and handle boys better. Although this latter idea has been decidedly criticized as an oversimplification of gender theory (Cushman, 2010;Skelton, 2003), it is a common assumption that boys do worse in primary school because the workforce is predominantly female. Policy makers worldwide have expressed concerns about the feminization of education (cf.…”

Section: Theoretical Notions About Gender Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Policy makers worldwide have expressed concerns about the feminization of education (cf. Cushman, 2010;Driessen, 2007;Francis et al, 2006). They advocate the need to increase the number of male teachers in primary schools to counteract the educational delay of boys (for an overview, see Cushman, 2007).…”

Section: Theoretical Notions About Gender Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are boys better off with male and girls with female teachers? A multilevel investigation of measurement invariance and gender match in teacher–student relationship quality

Spilt¹,

Koomen

Jak

2012

Journal of School Psychology

144

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Although research consistently points to poorer teacher-student relationships for boys than girls, there are no studies that take into account the effects of teacher gender and control for possible measurement non-invariance across student and teacher gender. This study addressed both issues. The sample included 649 primary school teachers (182 men) and 1493 students (685 boys). Teachers completed a slightly adapted version of the Student-Teacher Relationship Scale. The results indicated limited measurement non-invariance in teacher reports. Female teachers reported better (i.e., more close, less conflictual, and less dependent) relationships with students than male teachers. In addition, both male and female teachers reported more conflictual relationships with boys than with girls, and female teachers also reported less close relationships with boys than with girls. The findings challenge society's presumption that male teachers have better relationships with boys than women teachers.

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“…Feminist theorists such as Segal (1990) also argued over twenty years ago that such theoretical perspectives were limited in their capacity to account for the 'complex dynamics of gender identity': "Sex role theory fails to explain either the passion or the pain of rigid adherence to dominant gender stereotypes of some, resilient resistance to them on the part of others, or confused or contradictory combinations of the two in yet others" (p. 69). There is evidence that such concerns about role modeling extend across the globe and have emerged as global phenomenon, with nations such as Australia, Korea, Germany, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the United Kingdom also targeting male teachers as a central policy concern (Carrington & McPhee, 2008;Da Sol, 2014;Cushman, 2007Cushman, , 2010Driessen, 2007;Faulstich-Wieland, 2013;Hoque et al, 2010;Hutchins et al, 2008;Jones, 2014;Martino, 2013;Maylor, 2009;Neugebauer et al, 2011;Thronton & Bricheno, 2006). There is evidence that such concerns about role modeling extend across the globe and have emerged as global phenomenon, with nations such as Australia, Korea, Germany, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the United Kingdom also targeting male teachers as a central policy concern (Carrington & McPhee, 2008;Da Sol, 2014;Cushman, 2007Cushman, , 2010Driessen, 2007;Faulstich-Wieland, 2013;Hoque et al, 2010;Hutchins et al, 2008;Jones, 2014;Martino, 2013;Maylor, 2009;Neugebauer et al, 2011;Thronton & Bricheno, 2006).…”

Section: The Limits Of Role Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The limits of role modeling as a basis for critical multicultural education: the case of Black male teachers in urban schools

Martino

2015

Multicultural Education Review

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This article provides a critical analysis of the political significance of role modelling as it relates to envisaging a critical multicultural approach to educational reform. While not rejecting role modelling outright, it calls for a commitment to questioning the limits of common sense understandings that underpin the logic of gender and racial affiliation and homogeneity upon which it is based. The focus is on Black male teachers, given the attention that has been paid to their role in field of boys' and multicultural education. The article draws on theoretical and intersectional frameworks that raise some epistemological concerns about the logics of racial and gender affiliation that lie at the heart of role modelling discourses. While stressing the limitations of role modelling as a basis for a critical multicultural pedagogic reform project, particularly as it pertains to the role of Black male teachers in the schooling of disadvantaged Black male students, it does not reject the political and transformative potentialities of their embodied presence in urban schools. By drawing on case study narrative accounts of two Black male teachers, the article presents an intersectional analysis that attends to the organizational, intersubjective, representational and experiential dimensions of race, gender and sexuality that are implicated in these men's everyday understandings of their pedagogical actions and identities in particular urban school contexts in Toronto. While pointing to the limits of role modelling, the cases are employed to draw attention to the crucial significance of the embodied presence of these Black male' teachers as transformative intellectuals with regards to their self-reflexive articulated activism in the urban school classroom. The article concludes with an exhortation to rejecting the master narratives of racial and gender homogeneity that lie at the heart of a politics of role modeling, but does not reject the political significance of and need for the representation of Black male teachers in urban schools.

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Male primary school teachers: Helping or hindering a move to gender equity?

Cited by 42 publications

References 16 publications

Male preschool teacher students negotiating masculinities: a qualitative study with men who are studying to become preschool teachers

Male preschool teacher students negotiating masculinities: a qualitative study with men who are studying to become preschool teachers

Are boys better off with male and girls with female teachers? A multilevel investigation of measurement invariance and gender match in teacher–student relationship quality

The limits of role modeling as a basis for critical multicultural education: the case of Black male teachers in urban schools

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