Key Articles

Research Articles: Early childhood textbook images reflect "rules" for male teachers

Bryan G Nelson — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0600

Author:

Early Childhood Research and Practice

Body:

Men represent roughly 2% of all teachers in preschool and kindergarten classrooms in the United States, and that number may be declining. Researchers have argued that the dearth of male teachers is related in multiple complex ways to the feminized nature of ECED teaching.

Men in early childhood classrooms encounter implicit rules for engaging with children that are different from those encountered by female teachers. An article in the Fall 2008 issue of Early Childhood Research and Practice examines how these implicit rules are reflected in images depicting touch in early childhood education textbooks. The authors note that, although the images of male teachers are positive, the texts provide clear messages to beginning teachers that acceptable types of touch differ by gender. Read more at http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v10n2/gilbert.html

The second article, by a member of that 2% (that is, a male EC teacher), is a description of a Project undertaken in his preschool classroom.

The URL: http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v10n2/brouette.html

Boys want male teachers

Bryan G Nelson — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0600

Author:

Maine Boys Network

Body:

Jack Kammer, who created The Center for Men and Boys in Social Policy forwarded a new study that comes from the Maine Boys Network has come out with The Gender Divide in Academic Achievement (2008) that interviewed boys about their attitude about schools.

In one part boys said what type of teachers they want: "Just over one-third of the groups discussed desire for either more male teachers of teachers with whom they have something in common. Younger boys used this very language: teachers were more effective if students 'have a lot in common with them.'" (p. 7).

It's an interesting report to read and the MBN has done some great work looking objectively at the challenges facing both boys and girls in schools. Unfortunately, they do not cite demographic information and the sample was only from the state of Maine so findings may not be applicable to other regions of the United States.

See other Maine Boys Network resources.

Where Are the Men? Promoting Gender Diversity in the Massachusetts Early Childhood Workforce

Bryan G Nelson — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Author:

2008 CAYL Schott Fellows

Body:

A group from the 2008 Community Advocates for Young Learners (CAYL) has developed a policy brief about men teachers. It is the first of it's kind in Massachusett's and offers ideas about the importance of gender diversity in education.

CAYL is directed by Valora Washington, PhD.

You can download the document as a PDF file at the CAYL website.

You can also see another policy statement for the state of Indiana by going here.

October 18, 2008

Go to website.

MenTeach appears on ABC News Good Morning America

Bryan G Nelson — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 21:32:54 -0500

Body:

MenTeach (represented by Jonathan Maiden and Bryan G. Nelson) appeared on ABC New Good Morning America Story Monday, October 20th, 2008 on a brief segment about the rewards and challenges that men face working with young children.

Jonathan Maiden was interviewed at his program in Kentucky, he has worked with children for many years and has presented with Bryan Nelson at the National Head Start Association national conference. Bryan G. Nelson was interviewed for this report in Appleton, WI at the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association while he was doing a workshop called: Making Your Program Boy-Friendly, Father-Friendly and Family Friendly
(That's For Girls, Too!)

MenTeach has appeared on a variety of national and international shows (Today Show, CNN, NBC Nightly News, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) about the importance of men teachers.

Male teachers 'vital role models'

Bryan G Nelson — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 06:25:37 -0500

Author:

Training and Development Agency (TDA) of England

Body:

Male primary school teachers are vital role models for boys, new research suggests.

Almost half of men say that a male teacher has been a fundamental role model in their life, a survey commissioned by the Training and Development Agency (TDA) found.

The poll of more than 800 men looked at the impact of male primary teachers in boys' development. It found that more than a third (35%) felt that having a male primary teacher challenged them to work harder at school.

Those questioned also said that male teachers were more approachable. Half (50%) were more likely to approach a male teacher about bullying, a similar proportion (49%) were more likely to approach them about problems with school work, 29% went to them with problems at home and 24% were more likely to ask them questions about puberty.

The survey was commissioned to tie in with a new TDA campaign urging men to consider teaching.

Potential primary teacher trainees have less than nine weeks left to apply for postgraduate training courses next year.

Figures recently released by the General Teaching Council for England show that men currently account for just 13% of registered primary school teachers.

And data published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency last week showed a widening gulf between the numbers of men and women gaining teaching qualifications from higher education institutions.

In 2006-07, men accounted for less than a quarter of teaching qualifications obtained, the statistics revealed.

The ICM survey questioned 1,032 men between September 19 and 21. Of those 837 had a male teacher when they were at primary school.

September 29, 2008

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The Mistrusted Male Teacher - Male Elementary School Teachers Face Low Ranks and Sometimes Parent Bias

Bryan G Nelson — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Author:

By Lauren Cox - ABC News

Body:

[MenTeach - This article generated hundreds of comments from readers at the ABCnews.com website. After reading the article, there is a link at the end. Go read a few to see whether you agree.]

Of all the historical gender disparities in the American classroom, one has quietly stagnated for the last 20 years. Men still account for 16 percent of all elementary school teachers, according to a 2003 National Schools and Staffing Survey.

Advocates like the National Education Association have called for efforts to support young men interested in teaching, but sometimes it's the parents who carry on mistrust and sexual stereotypes.

On the popular Colorado parent blog hosted by the Denver Post, Milehighmamas, contributor Annie Payne recently wrote:

"…I was okay with our teacher assignment until I realized that not only is my son's new teacher a man, (wait for it Mitch McDad, don't get your boxers in a bunch just yet), he is also young and single! What's a young single dude doing teaching fourth grade anyway?!""

A similar discussion erupted on a Detroit's parent blog called Momslikeme earlier this month. A slew of self-conscious but clearly prejudiced posts responded to the question: "Do you think it is appropriate or inappropriate for young men to be teaching the little ones?"

Opinions ranged from "personally I think it's a little weird," to men are too rough and "if I had a male teacher in my K-3rd grades I would have freaked," to support for male teachers as strong mentors for fatherless children.

But Bryan G. Nelson, a teacher with 30 years of experience, has heard these inaccurate assumptions, and worse.

"Most people really want men teaching their children, but it does happen occasionally," said Nelson, who is the founding director of MenTeach, a support and recruitment organization for male teachers.

"I had a parent who was complaining and concerned about me working with her daughter," Nelson said. "The kid really liked me a lot, and because the child was liking me so much the mother got worried and suspicious."

A Career Path With High Stakes
Nelson said the mother's suspicion of a perverted relationship was quickly resolved within the school's staff and the mother eventually opened up about being strained and flustered by a divorce.

But Nelson, who took a graduate fellowship at Harvard to study men in education, found that overzealous suspicions of sexual abuse are one of the top three reasons why the teaching profession doesn't draw more men. From his research, the other two reasons are perceptions about men's nurturing abilities and low social status combined with low pay.

Male and Female Stereotypes
"People don't think of men as caretaking or nurturing, which many of the young grades require," Nelson said. "And if you're a single man and you're going out to date somebody, when they ask you 'what do you do?' it just doesn't have the same cache as saying I'm an engineer or a scientist."

Anecdotes of such stereotypes and biases pepper the positive personal stories sent into the MenTeach organization. Across the country men get weird looks, to assumptions that the teachers can't handle potty issues, to reactions form fellow teachers.

"I was about to graduate and was applying to schools hoping to find a teaching job. The teacher asked what grade I would like to teach and I was surprised that she kind of laughed when I told her I wanted to teach in the primary grades," wrote Mark D. Hedger, now a principal in Holden, Mo.

"Even though I had volunteered in her classroom, she acted as though it would be very strange for me to actually be a teacher at this level," he said.

Nelson said his research and experience as a male teacher led him to start working as a consultant to school districts that are trying to restructure the curriculums for male teachers. He believes the identity of children's teachers should reflect the child's larger community, including a 50-50 ratio of men to women.

But for all the enthusiasm over recruiting male teachers, media representatives from the National Education Association and the National Parent Teachers Association say there aren't notable studies or research about the real influence of a teacher's identity and gender.

The Real Importance of Gender
"I really think it has a lot to do with the personality of the teacher," said Dr. Caryl Oris, a consulting psychiatrist for the Sewanhaka Central High School District on Long Island, N.Y. "What matters more than anything is that it's a good teacher and the teacher loves to teach."

"Could you say it would be great if they had this caring male teacher? Yes, but it could be other adults in their lives," Oris said. "Children have many adults in their lives."

Oris said what worries her more than whether there are enough male teachers in elementary schools are parents who actually express their unease with male teachers.

Student and Teacher Relationship
"Children have their own anxieties about going to school. They shouldn't have the burden of the parents' anxieties as well," Oris said. "If the parent is concerned, I think that it is something the parent is reacting to from their own life or their own experiences and projecting that onto the child."

That's precisely what Payne, the author of the milehighmamas blog post, admits to doing.

"A couple of the commenters were put off about my opinion of young male teachers," Payne said. "I won't apologize for it. That was my experience, although I admit it was narrow, from working in the Los Angeles County Unified School District."

However Payne did exactly what Oris would recommend: She met with the teacher.

"I was a little nervous about what to expect with this teacher," Payne said. "But I knew immediately that he did mean business."

August 28, 2008

Go to the website and read the hundreds of comments

Education Policy Brief: The Status of Male Teachers in Public Education Today

Bryan G Nelson — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 22:00:22 -0500

Author:

Shaun P. Johnson - Center for Evaluation & Education Policy

Body:

[MenTeach: This is a Policy Brief out of the University of Indiana written by Shaun P. Johnson who taught the first graduate course with a focus on men in education. Bryan G. Nelson of MenTeach provides a commentary at the end of the policy brief.]

Current statistics show that roughly one quarter of all classroom teachers are male and the proportion plummets to approximately ten percent in the elementary grades. A paucity of men in teaching is certainly not a new phenomenon and has remained relatively constant despite a century or more of various educational reforms. Before presenting current statistics on the lack of male teachers, this brief will establish the necessary historical context of the issue so that teaching’s dubious classification as ‘women’s work’ is adequately understood. Many men cite several common reasons why they do not choose teaching as a career, and several empirical studies will be reviewed in this report outlining the unique experiences of male teachers.

Read the entire article.

Female like me

Bryan G Nelson — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0600

Author:

by Lynn E. Nielsen

Body:

[MenTeach: Dr. Lynn E. Nielsen" focuses his work on recruiting male teachers. Here is one article about his teaching. You can another article about diversity here. And his story here.]

Following graduation, from the University of Iowa with a Ph.D. in elementary education, I clearly remember my aunt asking me very kindly but cautiously if when I completed my graduate work, could I get a "better job." Of course I knew what she meant and I also understood where the question originated. Who ever heard of a man with a terminal degree teaching second-graders? Wasn't that illegal or something. Wasn't that "women's work?" Wouldn't i at least teach high school? Wouldn't I take an administrative postion or find a job teaching "bigger students." Teh answer was a definitive NO. I was not going to work with larger students despite the fact that I recently earned a larger degree. I was heading back to the classroom to teach second- and third- graders.

As I moved into the job with my shiny new title, "Dr. Lynn E. Nielsen," I was eager to extend the writing I had completed for my dissertation research. As I began to look closely at aspects of my experience as an elementary teacher in a pre/K-12 setting, I soon discovered a series of institutionalized partitions which separated me as a primary teacher from my K-12 collegues. What I discovered was unsettling. At least five areas categorically rendered me second class by virture of my association with elementary education, an occupation socially and organizationally designated "female."

Download the PDF file to read the entire story.

A University Course: Men in Education and the Male Teacher

Bryan G Nelson — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0600

Author:

by Shaun Johnson - Indiana University

Body:

[MenTeach: Shaun Johnson has been working for many years on the topic of men teaching. He has offered a course about men teaching and continues to research and write about this topic. We've posted the introduction to his syllabus and have also attached the entire course outline.]

This course will investigate the lack of male teachers in the United States, especially in the elementary grades. A number of common issues emerge within the existing literature on men in education, which will divide the course into four major themes. Both instructor and participants will explore the following issues collaboratively with regard to the male teacher dilemma:

Historical contributions and large-scale social changes

Gender roles and the concept of masculinity

Current status and experiences of male teachers

Potential courses of action

Ultimately, we will not be focused on achieving a specific mastery of content, per se. The instructor and course participants will be engaged in a collaborative process where we attempt to define the issues ourselves based on the relevant literature. There are several major claims about men in education that we will take into consideration. However, it will be up to us to decide if those particular issues affecting the lack of male teachers contribute to development of our own courses of action.

The course will be organized in a very collaborative and participatory fashion. Assignments will focus on our collective interpretations of the dearth of male teachers, which will result in written reflections and a final inquiry project. Throughout our group understanding of the significant themes of the course, it will be up to each individual student to decide if any issue is actionable enough to warrant social change. Do we need more male teachers and on what grounds? If so, how can we achieve that goal?

Download the PDF attachment to see the entire Syllabus.

How to protect your school from sexual harassment cases

Bryan G Nelson — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0600

Author:

by Martha Irvine - Associated Press

Body:

Arthur Brokop, a young substitute teacher, shut the windowless door of the first-grade classroom he'd been called in to oversee.

He dimmed the lights while showing a video and, one by one, put three young girls on his lap so he could fondle them through their clothing.

The crime still haunts the school superintendent in this town surrounded by oil fields and the rugged high desert of northwestern New Mexico.

"We were negligent," superintendent Janel Ryan says, pointedly repeating a word used in a multimillion dollar civil judgment in favor of one of the victims. "It just ate me up."

Her candor is rare. So is the strength of her resolve to make sure a case like this never occurs again.

An AP investigation this fall found 2,570 educators whose teaching credentials were revoked, denied, surrendered or sanctioned from 2001 through 2005 following allegations of sexual misconduct. The AP also found that many other educators accused of sexual wrongdoing were able to make secret deals with a promise to their districts to leave quietly, some with letters of recommendation.

Even in the most public of sexual misconduct cases, school administrators are often reluctant to talk about it. Among other things, they fear embarrassment, blame and anger from parents.

But that shouldn't stop them from dealing with the issue head-on, says one expert who helps schools deal with and prevent teacher misconduct.

"The 'let-sleeping-dogs-lie' mentality is counterproductive," says Robert Shoop, a Kansas State University professor who's written a book for school administrators called "Sexual Exploitation in Schools: How to Spot It and Stop It."

"My suggestion is to admit mistakes, to apologize for mistakes and to make a pledge that you're not going to let this happen again," he says. "There's no guarantee that bad stuff won't happen. But you can certainly reduce the likelihood."

Ryan, who was promoted to the district's head job after the 2002 incident with Brokop, has followed that advice.

She recalls how, during a meeting about the civil lawsuit, a lawyer for one of the victims brusquely threw a copy of Shoop's book to her.

"She told me I'd do well to read it," Ryan recalls.

And she did, inviting Shoop to come and give a full-day training to principals in her district. In doing so, she also vowed to make substantial changes in screening and training for employees -- and in the way the district handles sexual misconduct allegations.

Some districts are ordered by the court to take such action. But that wasn't the case in Farmington. Ryan says she did so because it was the right thing.

"I had to do something," says the longtime educator and Roman Catholic, who was partly inspired to act by the clergy sex abuse scandal in her own church. "If it's taught me anything, it's if there's an element of suspicion, you investigate."

Among the changes she and her staff have put into place:

_Local and federal background checks, using fingerprints, are done on every new employee. So far, random checks on existing employees are not legal, but she hopes that will change.

_Principals and new employees, from teachers and administrators to janitors and cooks, go through extensive training on sexual misconduct -- what it is, how to avoid it, and what to do if they notice something suspicious.

_Employees also must sign a code of ethics, which includes language on sexual misconduct.

_Even when police are called in, administrators not involved with the incident do their own internal investigation. Ryan says every allegation, even if it is a concern based on rumor, is looked into. The district and three others in the county of roughly 125,000 people now use a standard procedure for investigating sexual misconduct allegations.

_All classroom doors now have windows. And substitutes are instructed to keep their doors open and are supposed to be monitored by neighboring teachers.

Many states, New Mexico included, require teachers and administrators to report suspicious behavior. The AP investigation found that, in some states, enforcement is lax. Some teachers also say they don't feel comfortable making reports to their principals -- or don't think they will be taken seriously.

New Mexico legislators took steps to address those concerns with a law that took effect last summer. It requires districts to investigate alleged misconduct by school workers who are fired or quit, and to report their findings to the Public Education Department, which can revoke or suspend licenses.

In an attempt to stop the "passing the trash" phenomenon -- when disciplined teachers hop from district to district -- the New Mexico law also bans administrators from making confidential agreements with those teachers who've gotten in trouble.

Ryan says the law gives her much-needed back up in dealing with rogue teachers. But she also says it's up to her to set the tone in her district.

"What is the element of trust between the employees in a building and their administrators that things go unreported or undetected? What do I need to do as their leader to ensure that that happens?" she asks. "I need to model the behaviors that I expect."

Her "zero tolerance" stance on sexual misconduct might make some teachers nervous. But, so far, union representative Nancy Sheehan says Ryan has given her employees due process on these and other sensitive matters.

"She really does walk the talk," says Sheehan, a field representative for the National Education Association-New Mexico. "Things are handled evenly and fairly. And that's all we ask."

Ryan concedes that some cases are not so clear-cut as the Brokop case.

That happened recently when a female high school student accused a male teacher of inappropriate behavior. He was put on administrative leave for six weeks while she and her staff investigated.

"You talk about agonizing!" Ryan says. She and her staff ultimately decided that while the employee's behavior wasn't professional, it didn't warrant dismissal. She also questioned the student's motives in making the accusations.

"When it was all said and done, I put him back at work with a severe reprimand, making reference to our code of ethics," she says.

Other times, Farmington administrators intervene on behavior that might escalate into something inappropriate. In one case, a school employee was using her cell phone to text message seemingly harmless jokes to a student. She was told to stop immediately, and did.

"The principal drew the line and said, 'You don't do that,'" says Mary Lou Sheppeck, Farmington's assistant superintendent of human resources.

All of it is done in hopes that there will never be another case like the one involving Arthur Brokop, who served three years in prison after pleading guilty to molesting the three first-graders. Two of the girls' families settled their lawsuits with the district out of court for about $300,000 apiece. The other, whose family took the case to trial, was awarded $2.65 million.

One of the girl's grandfathers says he's trusting the Farmington schools to do their part in preventing more teacher sexual misconduct. And if they don't, "then shame on them," he says.

But he also believes it's up to the community to take a stand.

Last year, he picketed at a doughnut shop where Brokop was working and carried a sign that read "CHILD MOLESTER WORKS HERE." The grandfather, a former police officer and magistrate judge, worried that the shop was near an elementary school.

Brokop, who left the job when the shop closed, could not be reached for comment.

"It falls all the way back down to those of us on the front line," says the grandfather. "And if the parents don't do it and they don't hold those elected officials that we have on the school board accountable, then they deserve exactly what they get."

Visit the Superintendent's website about preventing sexual exploitation.

December 27, 2007

Go to website.