‘Wow,this is where I'm supposed to be!’ Rethinking gender construction in teacher recruitment 1

This paper focuses on how understanding male gendered ways of experiencing the teaching profession might help us address the current shortage of male diversity in teaching. The study discusses the factors that may influence males to enter teaching and proposes the possibility of considering the participation of males in teaching as a way to contribute to education without essentialising notions of gender, but rather by acknowledging the gendered experience of becoming and being a teacher. An analysis of interviews with male teachers and teacher candidates indicates that the most salient aspect that drove the male participants into teaching is their desire to give back to the community and to promote social justice. The author thus proposes a set of guiding directions for how to begin the process of rethinking gender construction and attracting males into the teaching profession in a way that addresses gender balance and teaching quality.     

Development of teaching in ni-Vanuatu children

Teaching is an important mechanism of social learning. In industrialized societies, 3-year-olds tend to teach through demonstrations and short commands, while 5-year-olds use more verbal communication and abstract explanations. However, it remains unclear whether this generalizes to other cultures. This study presents results from a peer teaching game with 55 Melanesian children (4.7–11.4 years, 24 female) conducted in Vanuatu in 2019. Up to age 8, most participants taught through a participatory approach, emphasizing learning-by-doing, demonstrations, and short commands (57.1% of children aged 4–6 and 57.9% of children aged 7–8). Contrary to Western findings, abstract verbal communication only became common in children aged 9–11 (63.6%), suggesting that the ontogeny of teaching is shaped by the socio-cultural environment.