Men, Pre-service Training and the Implications for Continuing Professional Development

Abstract

Through a case study of male students undertaking primary (elementary) initial teacher education (ITE), this article explores the views and concerns of men about operating (successfully or not) within a female dominated professional field. It is a context in which the discourse of male dominance is inverted, temporarily, in order to better understand socioeconomic and cultural constraints that, for these men, contribute to gender disparity and inhibit their inclusion in the educational workplace. The article concludes with a discussion of professional development as an arena in which these constraints might usefully be addressed