The Different Reasons Men And Women Become Teachers

There is a pretty interesting article on SMH The Different Reasons Men And Women Become Teachers which I read yesterday. I did a quick summarization of the article with the import point as following

While the “intrinsic” value of teaching and the ability to teach are the top reasons both men and women go into the profession, a new study has found that men are also very likely to go into teaching because they are interested in a particular subject.

This is the third biggest reason male teachers enter the profession, while shaping children’s future and making a social contribution are the third largest motivators for female teachers, according to the survey of more than 1000 teachers.

Other motivators for both male and female teachers include prior teaching and learning experiences and job security.

About 59 per cent of male teachers and 64 per cent of female teachers see teaching as a lifelong career, the study found.

More than 22 per cent of men see classroom teaching as a step towards leadership roles in schools, 6.8 per cent see it as a temporary career until they move into another field and 5.1 per cent see it as a fallback career.

About 17.6 per cent of female teachers see it as a step towards leadership roles, 5.5 per cent see it as a step towards a different role in a related field and 4.2 per cent see it as a fallback career.

Only one in four teachers across the country are male and the proportion of men in the profession has been steadily falling since 1984.

I think one of the most important things to investigate and remediate is why we have such an imbalance between the number of male and female teachers. Taking steps in remediating the issue, this will help in addressing the issue of shortage in teachers in some areas, particularly in the science subjects were traditionally dominated by male.

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