Lack of male teachers
...ner in which teachers keep control of their classrooms. Female teachers are regarded as more conscientious, thorough, and accurate, but likely to be divereted by unimportant things. Contrary, male teachers are seen as running a more relaxed atmosphere. Some times it is argued that male teachers are needed in situations of conflict with students (Lahelma, 2000, p.175-176). A third difference is that male are perceived as seen as more lenient graders and less focused on grades than their female counterparts. Throughout our experiences, grades in classes in which we have had a male teachers have been much higher than in other similar classes. A much higher ratio of male educators coach a sport as well as teach a class than female educators. These educators are perceived to place more emphasis on their coaching than on teaching. Do these perceived roles have an effect on the preferred gender of teachers by students. In Swedish study students were asked for their preference, most students did not list gender as a main factor in weather or not the liked a teacher. One exception was a boy who communicated that his ideal teacher is male: ‘…they are kind and more free, nicer and …I don’t know’, but he continued the more general perceptions and added that the teacher should teach and it should not be one ‘mere having fun for the whole lesson’ (Lahelma, 2000, p.175). In the first set of interviews boys often picked out the male teachers of non-academic subjects as teachers that they liked. Being relaxed or easy going was an attribute often attached to male, but not so often to female teachers. An example of this is a male teacher whom several boys called ‘relaxed’ and was regarded as one of the nicest teachers is Antti, who taught a non-academic subject. He was one of the teachers that students generally called by his first name (Lahelma, 2000, p.178) Female teachers were mentioned more often as popular as well as unpopular teachers largely because there were so few males in the schools. However, boys mentioned male teachers as their favorites more often than girls, because male teachers often teach popular ‘male’ subjects that only boys study. Consequently, girls had fewer experiences of male teachers than boys. Yet for young girls, a male teacher can act as a father substitute, but according to some interviewed teachers, also as a safe object of sexual desire or curiosity (Lahelma, 2000, p.181) With this information, it is hard to assume that there is a preference for male or female teachers. So what is another reason why there is such an absence of male teachers? Perhaps the answer to this question is shown through societies stereotypes of the teaching profession and male teachers specifically. First of all, men who want to teach, especially in the lower grades are often looked at with suspicion to their motives. It is accepted in society for a woman to hug a child but it is questioned for a male educator to make physical contact with a female student. Also, male teachers must be careful in what they say because it may have harmful repercussions. For these reasons, “Male teachers are more expensive to insure with liability insurance because of the instances of false claims of sexual abuse or contact, schools don’t like to hire male teachers. Rodriguez, 1977, p. 6)” Therefore it is technically harder for males to get hired over females due to the expenses and liability. Also, the field of education is female dominated. Men might feel isolated or underappreciated since they are so outnumbered. Younger male students are pushed away from the thought of becoming a teacher from a very young age. This is due to a domino effect with a lack of male teachers in elementary schools. Since they don’t see males early on in their classrooms, they have a hard time connecting being a male and teaching as a career. It is easier to look toward a predominetly male profession such as a police officer, fireman, doctor, etc. Some also believe that a male teacher is not a respectable career. The largest factor which draws men away from teac...