The most sought-after minority group? The first months of four newly-graduated male teachers

Abstract

The possible shortage of teachers at compulsory school level in Iceland, and the decreasing proportion of male teachers at the same school level has been discussed in recent years. These discussions, especially on the status of male teachers, have sparked our interest in performing this study. This is also an international debate concerning the notion that male teachers might become “extinct” at primary level (e.g., McGrath and Van Bergen, 2017).The background of the study constitutes two often separate bodies of research. On the one hand research on novices in teaching and, on the other, studies focusing on male teachers. The article reports a study where we interviewed four newly-graduated male teachers three times during their first six months: First in August 2017 before teaching commenced, then in late October or November the same year, and, lastly, at the end of January or in early February 2018. They taught in four schools in different parts of the country. We asked them how they felt they were doing in their practice and whether they had experienced anything that could be related to their gender. Our main research question was twofold: How do newly-graduated male teachers adjust to their new field of practice, and do they need specific support measures because of their gender?

In the article, we report three prominent themes in the interview data: Firstly, the experience of the new field of practice and the working environment. The interviewees emphasized that they had not encountered any serious obstacles and were pleased with the work, although they did at times have long working hours under some amount of stress. They said it had been rather easy to get to know the students; however, parent cooperation was the area they were most insecure about, especially in the beginning.The second theme is the novice male teachers’ experience of the mentoring and supervision they received. None of them had a specially assigned mentor, apart from school administration members, but all had been told that they could ask if they needed something. They said they would have preferred a formal structure around the mentoring as recommended in the theoretical and research literature.

And thirdly, whether and how gender appeared in their discussion. One of the themes concerns separation between the professional and social in such a way they reported good professional relationships with both women and men teachers – but said they had in general stronger social relationships with the other men teachers, for instance in the male-only “clubs” that functioned in three of the four schools where our interviewees taught, clubs that had lunches together one day in the week or had other social agenda.To sum up and return to the research questions, the newly-graduated male teachers said they had adjusted well to their new field of practice. The answer to the second part of the question – whether they need specific support measures because of their gender – is not a consistent because they felt sought-after, but they also felt, at times, that they were a minority. The male-only groups are of special interest; they argued that these had been important in adjusting to the school culture. This may merit further research as to whether such arrangements are feasible to keep novice male teachers on the job. 

We suggest further exploring whether gender-divided groups can assist in the task of supporting novices so they keep teaching rather than leaving the job. However, the importance of well-organized supervision and mentoring of novices must not be underestimated, and all new teachers, irrespective of gender, need quality supervision in their first steps of teaching. Gendered supervision and, in particular, gender-divided support and study groups would, then, only be one aspect of a holistic and state-of-the-art system of novice training.