In this article, we examine how prevailing and alternative conceptions of masculinity framed the ways in which 40 White, male, elementary preservice teachers constructed the meaning of teaching. The imperatives associated with maleness were recognizable through four metaphors frequently used to define teaching and themselves as teachers; to teach is as follows: (a) to be a male role model, (b) to be a sports coach, (c) to appeal to reason, and (d) to prepare oneself for occupations within the field of education that carry more status. These metaphors illustrate which forms of teaching are made possible and which are foreclosed when teaching is constructed through the prism of an hegemonic conception of masculinity. If we expect that increasing the representation of men in kindergarten through sixth-grade teaching will contribute to advancements in the construction of gender-fair schools, then multicultural teacher education needs to help male and female preservice teachers seehow they “do gender” in their teaching.
