MenTeach E-News
October 2015
1) Estonia has the lowest share of male teachers in European Union
2) Wanted: male teachers in the Philippines
3) 2014 Bureau of Labor Statistics data about male teachers in the United States
4) When men are given a hard time for being teachers it’s no wonder there are so few of them in the profession
5) Where are all the male teachers in our schools?
6) Ohio school looking at plan to attract male African-American teachers
7) Editorial: My Journey to the Teaching Profession
8) Primary school children need male teachers too
9) Forget women in boardrooms — we need more men in classrooms
10) Men teaching meeting at National Early Education Conference in Orlando, FL
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1) Estonia has the lowest share of male teachers in European Union
According to Eurostat, in Estonia is just every eighth schoolteacher is male, which is the EU’s lowest indicator, LETA/Public Broadcasting reports.
Based on the data of 2013, the share of female teachers is high besides Estonia (88.2%) in the other two Baltic States too. In Latvia the proportion of female teachers is 83.2% and in Lithuania 81.2%.
In Greece, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, however, every third teacher is male and the proportion of female teachers in these countries is around 65%. Read the article: /node/2724
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2) Wanted: male teachers in the Philippines
My daughter was clearly excited when she came home from her first day at school last June. In between giggles, she blurted out, in Filipino, what seemed almost like a secret: “Our teacher is male.”
I thought it was a breakthrough that her school had hired a male to handle the main teaching tasks for a Grade 1 class. Before that, for all my kids in their preschools and kindergartens, I’d hear of male teachers only as “coaches” handling sports, but it’s different having a male teacher handling the three Rs and other academic subjects.
My daughter said she and her classmates had mixed feelings when they first met their teacher. They were initially anxious, thinking that a male teacher would be “matapang” (fierce), but they quickly realized he was as “mabait” as their women teachers, mabait here being a combination of kindness and nurturance. She was quick to add though that when needed, he could be quite strict with them, but even when he was strict he was mabait. Read the article: /node/2726
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3) 2014 Bureau of Labor Statistics data about male teachers in the United States
You can see the most recent data about male teachers including race from 2014 Bureau of Labor Statistics. Look it over and then compare it to previous years: /node/34
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4) When men are given a hard time for being teachers it’s no wonder there are so few of them in the profession
Picture this: you’re at a barbecue and introduced to some new people. One young guy tells you he’s a teacher. Are you impressed?
You should be.
But perhaps you’re thinking: ah, so he couldn’t get into what he really wanted to do at university; he lacks ambition; doesn’t earn much; is a bit of a lightweight; and can he be trusted around children?
It’s harsh to write these words, especially as I know some brilliant male teachers.
However, this common perception, coupled with the demands of the modern classroom, goes a long way in explaining why young men would rather take up crocheting than teach.
So it’s moot for the Queensland College of Teachers to launch an inquiry into why blokes are bypassing the profession. Isn’t it obvious?
We live in a society that prizes success – as defined by status and money – above all else and men, despite advances in equality, are the ones expected to hunger most for it. Read the article: /node/2729
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5) Where are all the male teachers in our schools?
The Queensland College of Teachers has commissioned a review into the factors which influence people when choosing teaching as a first career.
It comes as recent figures show the number of male teachers in Queensland state primary schools falling to just 16% of the workforce.
According to Kevin Bates, President of the Queensland Teachers Union, perceptions of teaching being a ‘feminised profession’ or elements of unjustified suspicion being levelled at male teachers, contributes to this low figure.
“I think it’s an element that certainly does impact some people’s choices in relation to our profession but it’s one of a number.”
Speaking to Clare Blake on 4BC, Mr. Bates also pointed to issues of low pay and the level of respect afforded to teachers in the community. Listen to the report: /node/2730
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6) Ohio school looking at plan to attract male African-American teachers
Shaker Heights Schools, working together with the U.S. Department of Education and Howard University is looking to launch a program to attract African-American male teachers to the district.
The African-American Male Teacher Initiative was discussed Tuesday night while the Shaker Heights Board of Education and school administrators reviewed the progress of the district’s strategic master plan in the second-floor cafeteria at Shaker Heights High School.
Assistant Superintendent of Business and Operations Stephen Wilkins mentioned the program, which seeks to solve the problem of a shortage of teachers of color, while going over progress made on goals pertaining to the Human Resources and Facilities portion of the strategic plan.
Wilkins said the district’s human resources department filled more than 100 positions before the current school year, but said the hiring of African-American teachers remains a challenge for Shaker Heights and other school districts.
“We are working with the U.S. Department of Education and Howard University to develop a plan to target the recruitment of African-American teachers to work in Shaker Heights,” Wilkins said. Read the article: /node/2734
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7) Editorial: My Journey to the Teaching Profession
It wasn’t until my sophomore year of college when I decided that a teaching career was the right career choice for me. Before then, I went to UW Stout after my senior year of high school as a kid who wasn’t ready decide what to do with the rest of my life. At Stout, I went in undeclared, took some general education courses and tried to decide what I wanted to do. As my first semester was coming to a close I either wasn’t ready to decide or I didn’t find anything that seemed right for me. Read his story: /node/2735
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8) Primary school children need male teachers too
My form teacher during my final year of primary school was called Dr Knight. A brilliant man who remained stoic when my friend tried to glue him to a chair, his specialism was maths. Twenty years later I can still recite the “fractions rap” he taught us: “If you’re adding or subtracting then sooner or later/ You gotta change to the same denominator (let’s get to the bottom of this baby…)” Dr Knight was one of three men who taught me in primary school: the others taught the “manliest” subjects — PE and design technology. We did, however, have a male headmaster — in teaching, as almost everywhere, men are over-represented at the top.
Compared with many primaries today, four male teachers is pretty good going. Although the latest data from the Teaching Agency showed that men now make up nearly a fifth of trainees, the last stats from the General Teaching Council for England — before it was closed three years ago — showed a quarter of primaries had no male teachers at all. Read the article: /node/2738
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9) Forget women in boardrooms — we need more men in classrooms
Women, know your place. And that place is in the boardrooms of Britain’s biggest companies.
A new Government-backed report from Lord Mervyn Davies has called for a target of at least a third of boardroom positions at FTSE 350 companies to be held by women by the end of the decade.
Lord Davies, who has been championing gender equality in the boardroom, stopped short of calling for quotas for the number of women in directorships but he hailed the “near revolution which has taken place in the boardroom and profound culture change at the heart of British business”.
And it is indeed nothing short of a revolution, with 26 per cent of board members at leading companies now being of the female persuasion – more than double the figure just four years ago.
This is, undoubtedly, a good thing for women and a good thing for business too, since companies with women on their boards apparently perform better than those which don’t.
This, we are told, is not so much down to the idea that women are better at business than men but that having a variety of people from different backgrounds tends to inform better decision making, with less group-think and more originality, honesty and willingness to face awkward truths.
What a shame, then, that we only seem to care about gender imbalance in certain jobs. Read this editorial: /node/2739
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10) Men teaching meeting at National Early Education Conference in Orlando, FL
The National Association for the Education conference is an annual conference with over 20,000 attendees and the largest early education gathering in the world.
There are several events that men and women who want more men teaching will meet.
Men in Education (M.E.N.) Network Interest Forum invites men AND women to its annual meeting on Friday, November 9, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. at the Orange County Convention Center – Room W304C/D. Take the time to learn and share information on a variety of activities for men, fathers, and others who have an impact on the lives of young children. Learn about what’s happening in the USA, and internationally (particularly Germany and Norway).
Find out how to recruit more men to your program, and how to support and retain men you already have. Help set the future agenda for the interest forum, have fun, and make new friends! Go to website: /node/2742
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