We need more male teachers so British boys have role models, says minister
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/apr/03/bridget-phillipson-education-secretary-more-male-teachers-adolescence
Posted by sjw_7
We need more male teachers so British boys have role models, says minister
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/apr/03/bridget-phillipson-education-secretary-more-male-teachers-adolescence
Posted by sjw_7
30 Comments
But we pushed male teachers out due to parental fear of pedophilia. So reaping what was sown.
This would be good but men generally aren’t drawn to teaching in schools.
> Speaking at a conference on Thursday, Phillipson will warn that boys and young men growing up in Britain need stronger role models to counteract the dangers they face, illustrated by the Netflix series Adolescence.
If schools are anything like the one represented in Adolescence I’d be surprised if they can find anyone that wants to train to be a teacher in a secondary school.
You gonna pay them a living wage? Overtime for outside of work hours (marking, lesson plans). Hazard pay? Training costs?… yeah didn’t think so
Huh what happened to dad uncles older brother. I’m all for more male teachers but seems like they are giving teachers more responsibilities
They will literally try absolutely any possible angle rather than just go straight to what they know are the real problems.
Might want to do something about the wages then, no man is going to give up a decent career to go teach for those wages
Right, but I got given shit and weird looks when I was on end of day duty because I was a man watching over children, even with my lanyard clearly around my neck.
Given shit tons of work, with the expectation to constantly be the disciplinarian
Parents saying that I shouldn’t be standing around watching over the children
So I fucked off to china and I won’t deal with that ever again lmao
Finally. Some sense. More male role models in boys’ lives.
Now if teachers, of all kinds, were treated better this would go a long way
*While previous research has been suggesting that the reasons for the decline in the number of males enrolling in teacher education are complex and multi-faceted, four factors that had a significant impact on the low number of male teachers and early years practitioners working in educational settings are related to:*
*• Status*
*• Salary*
*• Working in a predominantly female environment*
*• Physical contact with children*
*Moreover, research demonstrates that the declining number of male practitioners results in increased pressure and work for those who choose to remain in the profession.*
[https://malechildcareandteachingjobs.co.uk/blog/why-are-male-teachers-struggling-at-work/](https://malechildcareandteachingjobs.co.uk/blog/why-are-male-teachers-struggling-at-work/)
Poor pay, overworked, underfunded, abused, and unable to do anything but chase tick boxes. Not to mention dealing with feral, neurodivergent kids with phone addictions (with sweet FA help).
There’s a reason my once head teacher dad had a nervous breakdown and now drives trucks for a living.
I once thought about becoming an English teacher. Not after seeing what the profession did to him.
The government couldn’t make it any less appealing or accessible and then cries when there’s a shortage of teachers.
What’s certain though, is if we (they) don’t sort this mess out and make teaching a properly respected and remunerated job again our future society is cooked.
INCREASE PAY THEN.
For Christ’s sake.
Teaching – particularly secondary school – requires a lot of training to become fully qualified and a fuck ton of work. For all the talk of gender equality, society still largely has the perception that men “should” be the breadwinner in families.
Put 2 and 2 together. Are men, riven with status anxiety as we are, really going to put the required level of effort in to something that tops out at £50k and us seen my many (wrongly, but still seen that way) as a “glorified creche job”?
If you want more male teachers, you have to restore the status of Teaching as a respectable middle class career again. This shouldn’t be rocket science at this point.
(Edit; my eldest has a make primary school teacher who plays football with the boys. Cannot underestimate the importance of boys actually having the space to be themselves during the school day. I do think Phillipson might be on to something here)
Well make it an attractive field to go into with good pay, support, training and work life balance.
Male teacher here.
I agree with the principle- being passionate about your job, projecting prosocial and ethical values can have a positive influence on those who otherwise lack those figures in their lives.
The focus though should be on families. Government should be doing all it can to maintain effective standards of parenting and promoting harmonious lived environments for children. The ‘let’s get teachers to do it’ mantra is getting old and is contributing significantly to 1/10 teachers leaving the profession in the first year, 33% leaving in 5 years and nearly 60% in a decade.
The government need to recognise they can’t keep stretching the expectations of the roles of teachers, and need to place greater emphasis on the role of parenting. I would propose:
– SureStart
– Parenting courses (that look at development and appropriate (‘good enough’) vs inappropriate parenting)- linked to benefits to encourage uptake. I get this could be controversial but sorry many families need this and I think these should be mandatory.
– increased criminal responsibility for parents of children who commit crimes/anti-social behaviour (mainly community based sentences but obvs custodial at the higher end)
– Incentives! (Not talking directly financial here, but something creative)
– greater backing of schools to deal with ‘bulldozer parents’ (bad parenting isn’t restricted to those who lack resources or knowledge), those who meet the threshold for vexatious complaints to receive consequence
– introduce legislation to bring the age of ownership for smart phones up to 16
This is part of the reaction to the TV show “adolescence”.
That won’t have helped as it made working in a school (or the police, or youth detention centres) look like a horrible dehumanising experience.
I wonder what people in other countries think of working in Britain after watching that, as it makes British employees look like miserable, bitter, bureaucratic wage slaves who hate their jobs and their lives.
It’s a bit incidental but I can’t help but feel disheartened that all of this discussion is off the back of a fictional drama show.
Do we need Netflix to produce a show every time we want the government to address a policy change?
Incentivise males to become teachers then?
Government has a massive reliance on an entire generation saying “gee willickers, my pay sucks I’m suffering, but boy, I sure do love m’england!”
They expect the same thing whenever the subject of conscription comes up. On a smaller scale it’d be deemed an abusive relationship and probably have a netflix special.
So give teachers better working hours, less stress, strip out the community leadership elements, and make it a feasible career for men (and women) to enter.
No one will enter it when they’re pulling 65hr weeks on £30k pa
Alot of these British male teachers they want are in Asia unfortunately where they are paid more, have less stress and a better life.
That also assumes that those male teachers would be good role models. I’m sure most are but how’s that going to be guaranteed?
Or, you know, socialise children to have a set of principles and morals in a way that isn’t related to gender at all. Boys can learn empathy from women just as much as men. Boys can learn how to be good people and ambitious from women just as much as men. Man. What kids need are attentive teachers who can effectively work with their needs and motivate them. The teachers who motivated me and taught me the most were the ones who showed a modicum of care towards my wellbeing.
I didn’t grow up in the UK and I had many male teachers in my schools (although more in secondary school than primary) and there were still behavior problems, because problem students could not be removed, there was nowhere for them to go, and troubled students could not be supported, because there was no staff or resources available. A man just being there won’t fix it, the man needs to be able to *do* something.
I can’t agree with this enough. As a young boy growing up, my father was a very stoic blue collar fella who often I barely related to. I loved sport but most the coaches in the sporting teams I grew up in were bordering on alcoholics.
Thankfully in my last few years at school I found a role model in one of my teachers. He guided me to university, and made me realised there were other options for my future. I believe in the uk 3 out of 4 teachers are female. Young boys need to find a role model they can relate to. I can’t stress enough how important this is for young guys.
People viewed their teachers as role models? Almost every one I had was pretty shabby.
Also we need to keep encouraging men to be able to WFH so their kids can see them more.
It shits me up the wall when the same people complaining about boys not being parented right and not having male role models etc also oppose WFH and want to see everyone back in the office.
Well you’ll have to stop prioritising girls at school first, the reason males don’t go to uni at the same rate is because they were never encouraged at school to do well. That’s just a true statistic. Kind of sexist
I don’t think it’s teachers job to be a ‘role model’, yes they should demonstrate good values. But class time is very limited, they’re really there to teach the subject. We really need our kids to have good skills – this means Maths, English, Critical Thinking, Sciences/Arts. The UK is really behind in learning outcomes compared to so many countries.
I think male role models should come within their home, so their father, grand father, elder brother, or uncles. Appreciate not all kids have a male role model.
I equally think it doesn’t matter what gender is the role model, women can demonstrate good values for their sons too.
I don’t think it’s teachers job to be a ‘role model’, yes they should demonstrate good values. But class time is very limited, they’re really there to teach the subject. We really need our kids to have good skills – this means Maths, English, Critical Thinking, Sciences/Arts. The UK is really behind in learning outcomes compared to so many countries.
I think male role models should come within their home, so their father, grand father, elder brother, or uncles. Appreciate not all kids have a male role model.
I equally think it doesn’t matter what gender is the role model, women can demonstrate good values for their sons too.
Why the fuck would anyone be a teacher in this country?
As someone who has friends who are teachers and ex-teachers I’d say the common issue is parents as much as pay.
When I was a kid the teachers were largely backed by parents. Now it’s the other way round. If little Jonny doesn’t get an A triple star then the teachers are to blame. In one instance it was pointed out that little Jonny wasn’t turning up to lessons, which was a contributing factor. The response? The teacher being shouted at for not making the lessons interesting.
I’ve heard some nightmare stories which border on parody. But nah, you know they only work 9-3 and have all the summer off….
I can guarantee that at least one of your kid’s teachers in the past term was crying in their car at some point last term. Teaching used to be a career people would spend years in but the turnover is huge now.