Suspicion that male teachers might be paedophiles is robbing children of vital role models
Teachers have a vital role to play in helping young boys to be emotionally intelligent and to understand what is expected of 21st-century masculinity
Here’s a question that I frequently ask my pupils: which men in the world today are excellent role models? It usually takes a little bit of head-scratching before anyone is willing to offer an answer.
Yet when I ask the same question about female role models, there are dozens that immediately spring to their minds (and one in particular – starts with S, rhymes with thrift). Identifying positive female role models is far easier than naming male ones. If you don’t believe me, try it out as an experiment the next time you meet a friend for coffee.
My (admittedly biased) answer to the male role-model question is strikingly simple: teachers. For many children in Scotland, the most positive and influential male figure in their life is a teacher.
11% of primary teachers are men
The problem we have is that there are simply not enough of them. Scotland’s teacher census shows that 66 per cent of secondary teachers are female, a figure that has been creeping up since 2010 when it was 61 per cent. In England and Wales, the imbalance in secondary education is even greater, with only a quarter of teachers being male in 2025.
In Scotland’s primary schools, it’s even more pronounced. Just 11 per cent are men – yet that’s actually an improvement on 2010, when it was 8 per cent. Sinking even further, in early learning and childcare settings, only 7.2 per cent of practitioners are male. We frequently hear about challenges in teacher recruitment and retention, but what we don’t talk about nearly enough is that the main group we really need to appeal to is men.
We not only have a dire shortage of men in our nurseries and primary schools, but also in a vitally important secondary subject. You might wonder which subject that is, and I suspect you could make several guesses before landing on the right one.
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The answer is: English. Surprised? After all, almost every adult I speak to will say that they had a male English teacher, some of whom are remembered fondly, others not so much.
Yet a parliamentary question submitted to the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills before Christmas, asking for the gender breakdown of English teachers in each local authority in Scotland, revealed that just 25.9 per cent of all English teachers are male.
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Exploring human emotions
Does this matter? I firmly believe that it does. We have an urgent societal problem of how to raise young boys to be emotionally intelligent, giving them a clear sense of what should be expected of 21st-century masculinity. Teachers have a vital role to play here, because they do so much to shape intelligence, values, behaviour and character.
English is a hugely influential subject in this regard, because it’s where you get to explore the full range of human emotions through language and literature.
There is a powerful connection between being able to articulate our feelings and having positive mental health; men account for just a quarter of all English teachers, but three quarters of all suicides. I can’t prove that these issues are directly linked, but my professional experience tells me that teenage boys who are struggling with relationships and self-esteem would benefit hugely from having a male English teacher who can help them navigate these incredibly difficult years.
All of this does beg the question as to why men are less likely to become teachers now, and there are some uncomfortable truths here. Societal bias is a massive problem.
Men who want to work with young children are often treated with suspicion. The Jeffrey Epsteins of this world are pushing us down a road of unfairly stigmatising men who work with young children.
Last year, a nursery chain in the state of Victoria in Australia responded to a sexual abuse case by banning all of its male staff across its 16 nurseries from being able to change nappies or take children to the toilet. It’s no wonder that policies such as this drive men out of careers in childcare.
An unmanly profession?
The other societal bias that we need to challenge is the idea that teaching isn’t, well, manly enough. A question for parents of teenage boys: if your son told you that his big ambition in life is to be a primary school teacher, or an early years practitioner, how would you feel?
Would you immediately take to the family WhatsApp group to share your profound sense of pride? Or would you try to dissuade him and hope that he chooses a different path in life?
Academics such as Richard Reeves have highlighted the problem of getting boys to choose careers in the HEAL professions (health, education, administration and literacy). As well as teaching, we need more men to choose careers in nursing, social work, and creative fields like marketing.
The good news for young men anxious about their future options is that there are many professions just crying out for gender balance, and what you need for success is emotional intelligence. Imagine the positive impact across society if more men took up jobs that rely on EQ more than IQ.
If we want boys to grow up into men who are gentle, kind and empathetic, and who treat women with respect, we need more male teachers in our classrooms. You can pin your hopes about tackling misogyny on a social media ban for under-16s if you like, but I’d rather see the government make a big push to encourage men to step into our nurseries, primary schools and English classrooms.
What does a good male role look like? A man who shares his love of literature and poetry in a classroom would be right at the top of my list.
Robin Macpherson is head of college at Robert Gordon’s College
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