The Gender Balance of the Teaching Workforce in Scotland: What’s the Problem?

Abstract

Historically, formal barriers to gender equality in teaching were justified on the grounds that a predominance of women within the profession would be detrimental to the social and emotional development of male pupils, who needed male teachers as role models. Such arguments continue to be voiced in debates about what should be done to tackle the declining proportion of men in the teaching profession in Scotland. The research reported in this paper investigated the nature of the gender balance amongst teachers in Scottish publicly funded schools, undergraduate students’ attitudes to teaching as a career and policy-makers’ and practitioners’ accounts of the underlying reasons for the growing gender imbalance in teaching. Practical suggestions were sought for possible courses of action to ensure greater diversity amongst the teaching workforce. In this paper it is argued that, whilst there is consensus on the need for a teaching workforce which reflects social diversity, recruiting reluctant men into teaching would be counter-productive. Rather, ways have to be found of promoting the positive aspects of teaching to both men and women, and, at a more general level, encouraging men to place greater value on the caring and empathic qualities which are increasingly required in teaching.