The Alberta Teachers’ Association

Garry Jones

August 1999: I'm sitting in a Grade 1 classroom on the first day of school. The children enter the room and sit quietly on the carpet as their teacher, Peter, calls their names. After taking attendance, Peter reads the students a story. A new school year has begun.

Peter (all names in this article have been changed) welcomed me into his classroom during the 1999–2000 school year. I observed his work in the classroom, wrote pages of notes and taped conversations with Peter, parents, teaching staff and students. My visits and field notes formed the basis of my PhD dissertation entitled A Narrative Inquiry of a Male Elementary Teacher and the Shaping of His Identities (Jones, 2001).

During the year I spent in Peter's classroom, I thought about how his identity as a teacher was shaped and concluded that Peter lived a tension-filled life negotiating contradictory expectations. This article describes those contradictions.

Little has changed

There is little doubt that teaching in North America is divided along gender lines (Allan, 1993; Boyle, 1997; Coulter and McNay, 1998; King 1998; Williams, 1993; Sargent, 2000). Allan (1997, p. 1) notes that the "fewness of men elementary teachers has persisted despite nearly a 100-year campaign to increase their numbers."

In the course of my reading for this study, I was surprised to learn that the issue of men teaching in elementary schools is not new to Canada. Wilson (1970, p. 317) states that by 1915, "eighty-three percent of all Canadian elementary teachers were women. As men were attracted to other professions, and as the demand for teachers increased, school boards turned more and more to women, who were often willing to work for a lower salary."

Opposing points of view about the appropriateness of male and female teachers are not new either. Wilson (1970) writes that in 1903, the Victoria School Board "decided that €˜in the interests of tactful discipline and the cultivation of strength and character in boys' there must be more male teachers." He reports that a "public school inspector in London, Ontario, J.B. Boyle, noted in his 1886 report that €˜experience has proved that the character and disposition of the female fit her better for dealing with youthful minds . . . The little one turns trustingly and fondly to the female teacher'" (p. 317).

While at first this quote seems to represent antiquated notions about male and female roles, I learned that little has changed. Male teachers are still seen as different from female teachers.

Superhero and the Big Bad Wolf

Two images help me to explain this contradiction. In our society, men are often portrayed as either superheroes or as a character from a fairy tale; namely, the Big Bad Wolf. As a teacher of young children, Peter was regarded as something of a superhero, but he was aware that others were always on the lookout for the emergence of the Big Bad Wolf.

Men are the main perpetrators of violent acts. The media has reported extensively on crimes against children occurring in residential schools, churches, sports arenas and in homes. The consequence is that the public is wary of men who work with young children.

Sargent's (2000) study found that men who teach young children feel that others view them with suspicion. As one man in the study observed, "Nurturing children is judged very close to molesting them" (p. 10). These concerns are powerful. Allan (1993) writes in his study of male teachers: "Men were fearful about demonstrating caring" (p. 125). King (2000) puts it even more strongly: A "public perception is that men who teach primary grades are often homosexuals, pedophiles or principals (in training)" (p. 3).

Peter was fearful of demonstrating caring and, consequently, learned to be careful about touching his students. He never met with students alone, did not take students to storage rooms for help in carrying supplies and only hugged children in public areas of the school that were in full view of others. He told me: "You get the message in your mind, it doesn't go away and you can't get rid of it. No one says that if you are tall you better be careful about scaring kids. But when you're a man . . . ." (Jones, 2001, p. 201)

Although Peter lived with the awareness of the Big Bad Wolf, he was highly regarded by parents, staff and students. The following comments from taped conversations confirm this view:

"I just love him. I'll tell you lots of good things."

"He is the most amazing man."

"He did wonders for my son."

"Men who work with young children seem to know they should be there . . . It takes courage, and the men have to really love and have passion to be here."

"He's not just here for the job—he puts himself in his work. We look at our children as our greatest treasures, and we feel completely comfortable when they are with this teacher."

"I wanted Donny in his class because [Peter] was a man, and I wanted Ellen in his class because I know he's an excellent teacher."

While his maleness was the source of Peter's special status, it was also the source of his weakness. When six-year-old Mandy wet her pants in class, Peter discovered that he was unable to help her. He brought Mandy to the nurse's room where she could change her clothes. He asked the secretary to help her, waited uncomfortably outside the nurse's room, then made sure that the principal and secretaries knew what had happened.

He was forced into a traditional male role; he kept his distance and limited the ways he showed his concern. When Mandy needed him, he found a secretary—a woman—to take over. He could not risk his career by helping a little girl change her underwear. She had the power to disrupt his career. She could turn the superhero into the Big Bad Wolf.

Be different but not too different

In many of the conversations I heard one word again and again: "different." Men bring a "different" perspective, a "different" approach and a "different" kind of humour to situations. I heard that the men on staff were "different" from other men.

"The children get a different perspective."

"I like having the men around because it's another point of view."

"It's fun, and you can joke; you get a different level of humour."

The notion of the "typical" man or stereotypical man, entered several conversations and was a device used to describe Peter by describing what he was not.

One teacher commented, "He's not the typical macho male. He shows his emotions and some men don't—they keep it bottled up. The little boys in this school need to know it's okay to be boys as well as to be upset and not bottle [their feelings] up. If they come from a bad home where men are sort of dirt, they need somebody to see men are not like that—they are good people."

Another teacher said, "I want the children to see that a male doesn't have to be loud, yell, scream, not pay attention, cuff you on the head. He can be a really warm, caring person."

Peter was valued for portraying a different kind of man, one who reads, sings and plays games with children—a man who is kind.

While these statements represent a positive view of Peter, they provide a negative view of typical men. What does this mean exactly? How different can Peter be from typical men? What are typical men like? Aren't there many ways to be a man, just like there are many ways to be a woman? Are there commonly held negative views of men among teachers? If so, how might these views influence the behaviour of teachers towards fathers and boys? How many good men do children need to know? Is one male teacher in an elementary school enough?

While parents and teachers admired Peter's way with children, he was also valued for doing things such as bringing insects into the classroom. In ways like this, he was a typical man.

Being a male role model seems to be an unwritten expectation of the teaching position, yet no one tells a man how to become a role model, or what kind of role he should model.

The men in Allan's (1993) study "were at a loss to identify exactly what this work (role modeling) consisted of" (p. 122) or "how to do it, beyond €˜doing what men do.' They sensed others' conflicting definitions of the male role itself: the disciplinarian surrogate father engaged only in €˜unfeminine' activities or the feminine, nurturing, empathic companion to children" (p. 126). Men are placed in a paradoxical position, he continues, for "even as they were expected to be a male role model, they were simultaneously stereotyped as feminine—because of the work that they do."

Peggy, whose son and daughter were in Peter's class, described this dilemma perfectly: "I don't think my son needs to see the macho role model to teach him how to be a man. I think he needs to see how to be a good person, and Peter is a good example of that. He's a man who plays basketball and ties kids' shoes" (Jones, 2001, p.132).

At the same time, she added, "[this] might sound contradictory, but I don't want Donny to be feminine. I want him to have those nurturing qualities but I want Donny to be in some ways like my dad. I want him to be a Renaissance man, and I want him to know how to fix cars" (Jones, 2001, p. 139).

Perhaps it is not just elementary teachers who live with contradictory roles; perhaps so do our children.

Be firm but supportive

Another contradiction revolved around discipline. Peter felt that others wanted him to be "firm, strict, unwavering, commanding of respect, tough" and at the same time "caring, loving, supportive and empathetic" (Jones, 2001, p. 202). This is tricky. One reason Peter chose to teach elementary is because he wanted to be a nurturing teacher. Indeed, parents and staff valued him because he was not like other men, not typical. Yet when he was expected to be a disciplinarian, he was pushed into that traditional role that men play with children.

While Peggy was thrilled that Peter was firm with her son and daughter, another mother complained to the principal that Peter was "too strict" and was scaring her child.

A father figure? Or a mother figure?

Many described Peter as having developed a feminine side because of his way with kids. Why must we label care shown for young children as "feminine" or "mothering"? When teaching is viewed as "mothering," then men are placed on the other side of a border.

The few men who teach young children are often called father figures. When a male teacher is called a father figure, no one asks what kind of father figure is being presented. Only good fathers are imagined. I wonder how schools and teachers decided we had the right to declare which fathers are deficient. How do schools know which role model is good and which one is bad?

During some conversations, staff referred to a family model and viewed teachers as parents. By calling a teacher a father figure, we invoke the traditional heterosexual model of maleness. Men who want to be close to young children must be regarded as father-like; otherwise, they might be dangerous.

Furthermore, I did not hear any comments about women teachers being good mother figures to compensate for women in the neighborhood who might be regarded as poor mothers, and I don't think I have ever heard the term mother figure used to describe an elementary teacher.

Indeed, many would express outrage if we called a teacher a mother figure. But it is taken for granted that the men represent father figures.

I began to see contradictions underlying the term father figure. Perhaps educators could call a teacher a parent figure. Perhaps we can look for other terminology, rather than family terminology, to describe teachers.

Closing thoughts about shaping the male elementary teacher

Although we all notice gender, I discovered that we are often unaware of its implications until we see something taken out of context, for example, Peter teaching in a Grade 1 classroom.

Kimmel and Messer (1989) tell us that "our identity as men is developed through a complex process of interaction with the culture in which we both learn the gender scripts appropriate to our culture and attempt to modify those scripts to make them more palatable" (p. 10). I believe Peter modified the scripts as he negotiated these contradictory expectations about his work with young children.

Kimmel and Messer go on to say that "the experience of masculinity is not uniform and universally generalized to all men in our society" (p. 10). To me this means that there are many ways to be a man. Though Peter was described as different from other men, the reality is, all men are different from other men. Furthermore, Peter showed me that even within one man's life, the experience of masculinity changes from moment to moment, with context and the relationships. As Peter said, "it's dynamic, it's shifting" (Jones, 2002, p. 210). He is a different man with his wife and children than he is with students at school.

In school, children are taught mainly by female teachers, therefore the lone male teacher takes on a strong identity. This fact helped to shape Peter because he was always special and always noticed. However, over time, he found it increasingly difficult to live up to the conflicting expectations. It wasn't the work of teaching that he found so difficult, but the issues around caregiving.

Kimmel (2000) writes that it is only in the context of equality that "the assumed differences between men and women will be revealed as stereotypes that help neither women or men nor the institutions in which we find ourselves. We are neither Martians nor Venutians but Earthlings" (p. 514). Yet in schools we perpetuate many stereotypes about men and women, and boys and girls.

Schools demonstrate daily that child care is women's work. Female teachers, by their very presence, demonstrate that caring is what women do. The men are "out there." As I sat in Peter's Grade 1 classroom, I began to think that the absence of men shows that children are not valued in our culture. It seems to me that in our patriarchal society, if children were highly valued, men would be present. Men would regard this as men's work. Why else is Peter in such a minority?

If children represent the future, then perhaps the future is not valued. Perhaps our society's lack of interest in raising our children shows that we are truly living only for today.

Bibliography

Allan, J. "Male Elementary Teachers: Experiences and Perspectives." In C.L. Williams, (Ed.) Doing "Women's Work": Men in Nontraditional Occupations. Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage, 1993.

———Anomaly as Exemplar: The Meanings of Role Modeling. East Lansing, Mich.: National Centre for Research on Teacher Learning. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 378 190), 1994.

———The Persistent Fewness of Men Elementary Teachers: Hypotheses from Their Experiences. Paper presented at Annual Meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society. East Lansing, Mich.: National Centre for Research on Teacher Learning. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 418 064), 1997.

Boyle, P. Gender Issues: An Annual Report of the Advisor on Gender Issues. Calgary: Calgary Board of Education, 1997.

Coulter, R.P. and M. McNay. "Exploring Men's Experiences as Elementary Teachers." Canadian Journal of Education 18 no. 4 (1993): 398–411.

———"Are More Men in Elementary School Necessary?" The Canadian School Executive.April 1995: 13–17.

Jones G.R. A Narrative Inquiry of a Male Elementary Teacher and the Shaping of His Identities. PhD dissertation. University of Alberta, 2001.

Kimmel, M.S. and M.A. Messner. (Eds.) Men's Lives. New York, NY: Macmillan, 1989.

———"Saving the Males: The Sociological Implications of the Virginia Military Institute and the Citadel." Gender and Society 14 no. 4 (2000): 494–516.

King, J. R. Uncommon Caring: Learning From Men Who Teach Young Children. New York, NY: Teachers College Press, 1998.

———"The Problem(s) of Men in Early Education." In Masculinities at School, edited by N. Lesko. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2000.

Messner, M.A. "Barbie Girls Versus Sea Monsters: Children Constructing Gender." Gender and Society 14 no. 6 (2000): 765–84.

Sargent, P. "Real Men or Real Teachers?: Contradictions in the Lives of Men Elementary Teachers." Men and Masculinities 2 no. 14 (2000): 410–33.

Williams, C.L. (Ed.) Doing "Women's Work": Men in Nontraditional Occupations. Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage 1993.

Garry Jones has taught elementary school for the Calgary Board of Education for almost 25 years. He is the author of two books of short stories about teaching published by Althous: Crocus Hill Notebook and Crocus Hill Reunion.