Men and the Classroom: Gender Imbalances in Teaching

The teaching of young children has long been dominated by women. This global phenomenon is firmly rooted in issues related to economic development, urbanization, the position of women in society, cultural definitions of masculinity and the values of children and childcare. Yet, amongst the media scare stories and moral panics about underachieving boys, there are surprisingly few empirically-supported answers to vital questions such as:

• Is the feminisation of teaching really a problem?
• How...