Role models & career changers hold key to more male primary school teachers, new research finds

More needs to be done to target men interested in changing careers using existing role models for the profession in order to attract more men into primary school teaching, according to research undertaken by education recruitment spec
By: TLTP Education (The London Teaching Pool)
 
LONDON - April 20, 2015 - PRLog -- More needs to be done to target men interested in changing careers using existing male teachers as role models for the profession in order to attract more men into primary school teaching, according to research undertaken by education recruitment specialist TLTP Education (The London Teaching Pool).

The company surveyed 500 current and former primary school teachers and found that 45% felt more needed to be done to attract potential male career-changers and 43% felt that not enough use was being made of existing male primary teachers in order to promote the profession to men. The survey comes at a time
when just a fifth of all new primary school teachers are men. Around a third (36%) felt that pay needed to be better in order to attract more men whilst 29% said that more male students should be allowed to train directly in schools. Only a fifth suggested positive discrimination in training towards more men.

When asked why they thought it was important to attract more male teachers to primary school posts, two thirds of respondents (68%) felt both boys and girls need to be exposed to more male role models in the classroom. A third said they thought men would be more likely to bring a different skillset to the classroom,
whilst a third also said they felt that gender is irrelevant and the focus should just be on getting the best teachers. A quarter thought more male teachers would help improve behaviour among male pupils.

The survey also asked why felt there were not more male primary school teachers. Here 43% said that men have to justify becoming a primary teacher in a way that women do not and that many men view primary teaching as a “woman’s profession”; over a third (35%) felt that men are concerned that they might be falsely labelled as a paedophiles and this prevents them from entering the profession
whilst 22% said that primary teaching doesn’t offer a steep enough career progression for a man. A small number also cited female-dominated staff cultures as being off-putting for many men and the fact that men mostly train as subject specialists and therefore gravitate towards secondary school, where male teachers outnumber women, and that the primary curriculum may need to be
organised differently in order for this to change.

“This is an issue that has been around for some time but that doesn’t make it any less important to address,” explains Darryl Mydat, Managing Director of TLTP Education.

“There are vacancies out there and not enough candidates to fill them so absolutely we need to find the best teachers regardless of gender. However, schools are often a child’s first introduction to the concept of community and that’s why it remains important that their school community reflects the wider community in its gender split. We will certainly be asking the male primary teachers that we have on our books if they would be willing to help us promote the profession to career changers and the next generation of potential male primary school teachers.”

TLTP Education (The London Teaching Pool Ltd) are education specialists with more than 60 years' recruitment experience, having placed more than 5000 candidates in schools over the last ten years. And, as experts in the special needs sector, TLTP can also provide psychologists, speech and language therapists and physiotherapists for school environments.

Ends.

TLTP Education surveyed 500 primary school teachers in March 2015. 53% of respondents were men; 47% were women.

Contact
Howard Robinson
***@astutemarketeers.co.uk
End
Source:TLTP Education (The London Teaching Pool)
Email:***@astutemarketeers.co.uk Email Verified
Tags:Teachers, Teaching, Schools, Education, Recruitment
Industry:Education, Human resources
Location:London City - London, Greater - England
Subject:Surveys
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