Performing discipline in UK primary school classrooms. Challenging essentialist beliefs about teacher gender

‘If you're a male primary teacher, there's a big “why are you doing that? What is wrong with you?”’ Gendered expectations of male primary teachers: The ‘double bind’

“…As previously mentioned, U.K Government initiatives and polices have attempted to tackle the lack of men by emphasising seemingly masculine elements of the role, and masculinising the classroom to defeminise teaching (McDowell, 2022). The common rhetoric that more men are needed to be a role model, and to discipline and manage male pupils in particular, all fuel this gendered belief system.…”

“…Or more specifically, men in a 'woman's' role. These men are thought to be working in an occupation unsuitable for (and beneath) 'real' men's abilities (McDowell, 2018(McDowell, , 2022. As a result, they often face suspicion not just from parents and strangers but reported that this rhetoric was also explicitly or implicitly embedded in the expectations held by the school in which they worked.…”

“…The well‐documented lack of male primary school teachers is a worldwide phenomenon (e.g., in Australia, see McGrath & Van Bergen, 2017; South Africa, Bhana & Moosa, 2016; Germany, McDowell, Klattenberg, & Lenz, 2021; Vietnam, Nguyen, 2020; United Kingdom, McDowell, 2022, 2019, Iceland, Johannesson et al., 2022). Moreover, teacher attrition rates, especially male teacher drop‐out, is also an issue (see Amitai & Van Houtte, 2022).…”

“…However, this ‘male‐role model’ rhetoric is also dominant in many countries that do not have a high proportion of single parents (see Cruickshank et al., 2020; McDowell & Klattenberg, 2019). But such recruitment attempts have only reinforced stereotypes by creating a gendered response that seeks to carve a masculine niche into primary teaching to make it more ‘suitable’ for men (see McDowell, 2022). By promoting supposedly ‘masculine’ characteristics of the occupation, damaging stereotypes are advocated and perpetuated.…”

“…Secondly, this belief perpetuates stereotypical thinking about discipline, suggesting that it must be direct and aggressive (indexically masculine) to be effective. However, research has shown that such discipline strategies can damage positive teacher‐learner relationships (Carrington, Tymms & Merrell, 2008; McDowell, 2022). Thirdly, the view that men are better at discipline and classroom management solely because of their biology often leads to their attrition from the profession.…”