The lack of male teachers in primary schools in Malta is an established fact. Although female teachers’ contribution towards the education of our young students is essential, it is also important to have more male teachers in primary education. This would create an ideal gender balance in the teaching workforce and would also enable our young students’ learning to come from both women’s and men’s perspectives.
For my dissertation I conducted an exploratory, qualitative case study to analyse participants’ opinions on the lack of male primary teachers in Malta. Working on the participants’ responses, I analysed the effectiveness of the current management of gender balance in Maltese primary schools, the factors leading to this situation and how, in the respondents’ opinion, the central authorities could better manage this situation.
In Malta, female teachers’ contribution to the education of children in primary schools is highly valued. Since society is satisfied with female teachers’ work in this sector, it does not feel the need to balance the genders of the teaching workforce. This in turn is keeping the central authorities from stressing the importance of having a gender balance in the teaching workforce and coming forward with plans on how to change this situation.
Male teachers are still mostly assigned to the higher grades. If head teachers are not going to challenge this practice, society’s perceptions will not change
Students are therefore missing male teachers’ contribution. Through a gender balance in the teaching workforce, students could be helped to widen their perspective and break gender-stereotyped perceptions. By increasing the male primary teaching staff, the feeling of isolation experienced by the relatively few male teachers in this sector would be slowly eliminated.
The fact that our society tends to associate teaching at primary level with female teachers is preventing head teachers from distributing male and female teachers more evenly across all primary grades. Male teachers are still mostly assigned to the higher grades. If head teachers are not going to challenge this practice, society’s perceptions will not change.
Male teachers need to be given the opportunity to prove themselves as being capable even in the early years’ classes so that parents’ negative attitudes towards male teachers in the primary sector may start to change. If this is not tried out, male teachers will continue to find it more comfortable to teach in the other education sectors and their fear or lack of confidence to teach the early years will not be overcome.
Male teachers should therefore receive the right training and mentoring to help them build their self-confidence to teach the early years. This also means that the central authorities should let teachers choose the professional development training course that they feel is most appropriate to their needs.
The central authorities should also introduce mentoring not only for newly qualified teachers but also for any teachers who may require help to overcome difficulties they may experience.
As all the male teachers who I interviewed feel that they are sought over problems of discipline, male teachers who experience class control difficulties suffer more stress. Therefore the central authorities should promote training in how to control a class, and head teachers should support and even provide assistance to male teachers who may be experiencing such difficulties as, if they do not, their discouragement could lead to them leaving the profession.
As primary teaching is regarded by ambitious male teachers as a less intellectually challenging career, it is important to introduce subject teaching in primary schools. Subject specialisation would relieve teachers of the stress of having to perform in areas where they still feel lack of confidence.
Teachers’ valid contributions on how to improve our primary education system should be implemented. Bureaucracy and lack of control over important issues that affect teachers in their daily teaching is making them feel lack of empowerment. The opening up of more career opportunities in the teaching sector would help to strengthen teachers’ motivation and aspirations.
The lack of satisfaction that teachers in the primary sector are currently experiencing is not helping to attract others to the profession. The central authorities should therefore consult teachers so that they start seeing the possibility of making valid contributions to put change into practice. This would make teachers feel empowered and motivated.
Teachers’ hard work, even after school hours, and their inadequate pay, are making primary teaching appear unattractive, especially to men. The central authorities should therefore improve teachers’ conditions of work so that more men are attracted to join the profession.
Publicity is an effective means of promoting the primary teaching profession. However, as this is not yet being done, society is insufficiently aware of the positive work being done in schools. By promoting primary teaching as a valuable career for both men and women, wrong cultural perceptions may start changing and the strong link of primary teaching to women may start weakening.
The Faculty of Education has an important part to play to help increase the number of male teachers in the primary sector. Participants’ critical feedback on the actual Bachelor of Education course must be evaluated as this would lead to more satisfied students.
Since there are more job opportunities in the primary sector than in secondary schools, students should be offered training in both primary and secondary teaching so that after graduation they would be qualified to teach in both sectors.
As part-time university courses in primary education are not available, the Faculty is still unable to help mature male students to choose primary teaching. With the introduction of part-time courses in primary education more men could be attracted to this profession.
Some recommendations resulting from this research may take a long time to implement, especially the need for a culture change. Notwithstanding this, it is hoped that collaboration between the Faculty of Education and the central authorities at the Education Department will be strengthened so that together they may plan how to better manage this situation, as male primary teachers have a valid contribution to offer, which would also enrich students’ learning experience.
Antoinette Galea’s dissertation was supported by a Steps scholarship, part-financed by the European Union – European Social Fund under Operational Programme II – Cohesion Policy 2007-2013, Empowering People for More Jobs and a Better Quality of Life, which also made it possible for her to start an MSc degree in Educational Leadership at the University of Leicester.