1) Wanted: Black Male Teachers Across the Nation
2) Attracting More Men to Child Care – How to…and why you should
3) Researcher looking for male teachers
4) A man in a female dominated profession in Vietnam
5) A man teaching Kindergarten in Wisconsin
6) Male teacher ‘only planned a small stint’
7) A male teacher and his a one-room schoolhouse
Some Highlights of 2011
8) Fathers would be more involved if there were more male staff
9) Council of European Union Recommends Increasing the Percentage of Male Teachers
10) Male Teachers Get Top Marks: Children have a better perception of male teachers
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1) Wanted: Black Male Teachers Across the Nation
It’s a nationwide problem – the shortage of Black male teachers. Only two percent of the nation’s nearly five million teachers are African American. “That’s one in 50 teachers. Something is wrong with that picture,” says U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “As a country, we have a huge challenge to make sure many more of our young Black boys are successful. Our graduation rates have to go up dramatically, our dropout rates have to go down. To get there, I’m convinced we have to have more men of color teaching, being role models, being mentors and doing so not just in high school but on the elementary level.” Duncan is leading the charge to get more Black males in the classroom – either on the elementary or secondary level. But he admits that it’s a huge challenge that may be an uphill battle. Nowhere is that challenge more evident than in the Lone Star State. Read the story: /node/1814
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2) Attracting More Men to Child Care – How to…and why you should
It’s a well known fact: the vast majority of people working in child care are females. Figures from the ABS show that at least 95 per cent of the working population of child care workers are female. Attracting men to the industry is difficult and complicated: there are issues surrounding parental suspicion of men and the idea that child care is ‘women’s work’, the low pay and status of child care workers have also been identified as a deterrent. However, for an industry facing severe staff shortages and high demand it seems unsustainable to only source employees from 50 per cent of the population. Read the story: /node/1818
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3) Researcher looking for male teachers
A researcher, David Brody, is currently writing a book about male preschool teachers in different societies. He is looking for a male teacher in the Detroit or Ann Arbor area. If you live there and would be interested in participating in this important study, or if you know of someone who fits the bill, please contact David by going to the MenTeach website: /node/1819
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4) A man in a female dominated profession in Vietnam
Tran Do Hoang Anh has been teaching preschool kids at Vanh Khuyen Kindergarten in Thu Duc District, HCMC for the last 7 years. Tran Do Hoang Anh changes the common perception that only women can be preschool teachers. Hoang Anh, who has been teaching preschool kids at Vanh Khuyen Kindergarten in Thu Duc District, HCMC for the last 7 years, is indeed a rare case. In Vietnam, almost all preschool teachers are women. As the only male teacher at Vanh Khuyen, Anh proves that in no way can a man be outdone by women when it comes to looking after kids. There is nothing he can’t do, be it cleaning, sweeping or singing lullabies. Read the article: /node/1821
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5) A man teaching Kindergarten in Wisconsin
Rocco Marchionda is a bit of an oddity. At a glance, his kindergarten classroom at Merrill Elementary School in Oshkosh looks like any other song-filled, activity-oriented room of 5- and 6-year olds. The unusual part is Marchionda himself: He’s a man. Teaching kindergarten. “Pretty much everyone I’ve ever worked with is female. I can’t imagine what it would be like to teach with another male,” he said. The imbalance of men and women teachers, especially at the lower elementary grades, is well-documented and hasn’t changed much over the years, said Jean Inda, director of professional education programs in the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh’s College of Education and Human Services. Read the article: /node/1823
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6) Male teacher ‘only planned a small stint’
Peter Harper moved to Methven with the intention of only staying a couple of years. Now, 31 years later, he’s ended his career at Mount Hutt College and finds himself in a strange place – the job market. His departure isn’t retirement; it’s just a change of scenery. Mr Harper came from a teaching family – his mother taught English, his father taught mathematics. So naturally when it came time for him to leave school, he didn’t consider too many options. He went to teachers college and spent his first four years of teaching on the West Coast. He admits he didn’t even know where Methven was before coming to the small town but said he and his family fell in love with the place. Read the article: /node/1825
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7) A male teacher and his a one-room schoolhouse
On a brisk Wednesday morning on Catalina Island, teacher David Morse starts the school day by raising the flag and ringing the brass bell. First to appear are 10-year-old Malaya Barrios and her 7-year-old sister Aliah, riding their bicycles down a dirt road. The sisters park their bikes outside – there’s no need for bike locks – and head into the schoolhouse where they peel off muddy boots and wait for their four other classmates to arrive. With its colorful posters, maps and books, the classroom looks like any other classroom in the Long Beach Unified School District. But on the outside, the little red schoolhouse, complete with a tower and bell, looks like a scene from “Little House on the Prairie.” Nestled in the tiny unincorporated village of Two Harbors on an isthmus near the western end of Catalina, it is the only one-room schoolhouse in Los Angeles County and one of just a handful left in California. Read the story and watch a video: /node/1827
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8) Fathers would be more involved if there were more male staff
A survey with results from nearly 500 Minnesota fathers and 250 early childhood education professionals and practitioners reveals key findings:
– That families and children want fathers involved.
– The barriers to father involvement in Early Childhood Programs are known.
– There are successful stories and strategies to more effectively involve fathers. Father involvement in early childhood programs has increased over the past decade. But barriers that prevent their involvement still exist. Read and download the full report: /node/1778
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9) Council of European Union Recommends Increasing the Percentage of Male Teachers
The Council of European Union’s conclusions on early childhood education and care: providing all our children with the best start for the world of tomorrow: Increasing the proportion of men in ECEC is important in order to change attitudes and show that not only women can provide education and care. Having role models of both sexes is positive for children and can help to break gender-stereotyped perceptions. A workplace composed of both sexes contributes to widening children’s experience and can also help to reduce gender segregation in the labour market. Download and read the full report: /node/1697
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10) Male Teachers Get Top Marks: Children have a better perception of male teachers
In today’s world, as taxpayers everywhere are concerned over paying for schools, it comes as a shock to see that, according to new findings by Amine Ouazad, an Assistant Professor of Economics and Political Science at INSEAD, one of the most effective ways to get students to listen and work hard is to put a male teacher at the front of the classroom.
Ouazad, in collaboration with the University of Westminister, originally sought to understand whether pupils’ perceptions can explain differences in effort, motivation and educational achievement. What they found was that children have a better perception of male teachers; they try harder and think that male teachers will grade them more fairly.
“Actually, surprisingly, what we saw is that students have better perceptions of male teachers, but that male teachers are not rewarding students more than female teachers. So there is a disconnect between what students perceive and what teachers do,” says Ouazad. “We have seen that male teachers actually induce far more effort, much more investment and that is a good thing.” Go to the website: /node/1607
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