According to the National Report of Malaysia by Ministry of Education, in 2003, male teachers comprise 33.3 per cent and 36.1 per cent at primary and secondary school levels respectively. The difference in ratio causes a big gap between male and female teachers in Malaysian school. Not only in Malaysia, United States of America also faced the same problem. According to the National Centre for Education Statistics, women outnumber men in the teaching profession by approximately three to one in 2006. In 2001, the National Education Association reported that only 9% of Americas elementary school teachers were men. The lack of balance can lead to a difference in perceptions about female and male teachers. (Wood, 2011) However, I do not agree that male teachers should be increased to reduce the gender gap in schools or to change the perceptions of the society. This critical essay will further discuss why men do not prefer to be teachers, the nature suitability of females to be teachers and the quality of good teachers. According to Oxford Advances Learners Dictionary (2010), dwindling means to become gradually less or smaller. The definition of man is an adult male human. (Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, 2010). First and foremost, men do not like teaching profession because they think that women are better suited since it involves children (Ng, 2009). This phenomenon gets the attention of the people when the statistics released by the Malaysian Ministry of Education stated that there are 70 percent women more than men in teaching profession. Perception of men is that caring and nurturing children are not their nature job. Besides, men who enter teaching profession will receive negative reactions and discouragement from family members. In their family eyes, men should not enter pink collar jobs which are women dominated occupation world. Concern about family disapproval for entering a traditionally female profession and fear of being labelled a paedophile keep men from entering the field (Anliak & Beyazkurk, 2008). This shows that male is more influence by nurture in job selection. Thus, men are feared to break the society taboo although they have the nature quality to step in teaching profession. 2 | P a g e
Besides that, teaching profession receives a relatively smaller wages compared to other professional occupation in the private sector such as doctors, engineers and dentist. With the increasing living cost in the metropolitan city such as Kuala Lumpur, a teachers salary is barely enough to make ends meet. To it worse, teachers are not allowed to take up part-time job according to Education Ministrys regulations. This situation forces male teachers to give up teaching and seek other higher income jobs. Low income usually makes mens life hard as a bread winner of the family. In addition to lower pay, they feel their working status is lower than those in the male dominated field. Thus, men are not really interested to be a teacher.
Furthermore, a male primary teacher gives society different perceptions. Lately, many cases of child abuse and child molestation are done by male teachers. Men may have fears of being accused of child molesting. For example, if a young child is upset, a male teacher who demonstrates comfort via physical affection is much more likely to become suspect than a female teacher. This situation and parents suspicion may also prevent men from taking up this job. (McWilliam & Jones, 2005 cited in Wilkins, Gamble, 2004). Of course, there are situations where children may need comfort or a hug to manage their emotion. The perception of society really brings a great dilemma to male teachers and this fear discourages the increase of men involved in the teaching profession. In addition, when choosing suitable teachers, the interviewers should seek for passion and dedication and not the academic achievements of the applicants. What make a good teacher? According to Ingersoll, the quality of a teacher is determined by his or her personality traits, teaching applications, and level of academic development. Cramer and Piers (1997) study emphasises two characteristics of effective teachers: Enthusiasm and being excited about teaching. Besides, Teaching Commissions report argues that excellent teaching, which combines passion and academic prowess, has the potential to be the great 3 | P a g e
equaliser. This means that by selecting teachers according to their passion will help to detect more naturally good teachers and increase the standard of teaching. Therefore, it shows that natural qualities are more important in selecting a better teacher not the gender of the teacher. Women are renowned as a natural nurturer rather than men. They obviously make better teachers. According to Talcott Parsons (1954 cited in Macionis, 2004) women take primary responsibility for managing the household and raising children. This means they are naturally nurtured to be a good mother. Thus, they can be a better teacher than men. Teaching is believed as the extension of motherhood for women. In Griffin & Smiths (1991 cited in Kim & Relfel 2004) state that in mothering discourse, mothers or teachers are expected to sacrifice themselves when they love and care for children. Therefore, men are not needed to be teachers as women make better teachers because they are willing to give more personal time to show more sympathy to their students. This can be supported by Delpit (2006 cited in Ali Yilmaz, 2011) who reported that the top ten important effective teachers characteristics are being empathetic, understanding students emotions and who knows subject matter and can provide concrete examples. According to researcher Carol Gilligan, women have a unique ability to make better moral decisions regarding personal and caring aspects of development than men. Besides, Carrington et al. (2008) states that students who had female teachers had more positive attitudes toward school. This further emphasize that women are naturally better teachers than men. Therefore, men do not need to be encouraged to enter this field of work. As a conclusion, teachers have the great responsibility of shaping future generations. Children must be taught moral values and discipline from young if they are to become good, law-abiding citizens in the future. To achieve this goal, we need teachers who have the knowledge and skills are needed for them to teach the students to succeed. We need teachers who understand that teaching is a serious commitment, not just an interesting experience. And most importantly, we do not need to have a not willing male teacher in the school. According to 4 | P a g e
Martino and Kehler (2006 cited in Wood, 2011), even if a male teacher can be a positive role model for his students, schools cannot solve boys diverse educational social problems by simply providing male teachers in the building. Cooney and Bittner (2001 cited in Wood, 2011) raise the concern of some teachers that a poor male role model could do a lot of damage in the classroom and it is important to be aware that good teaching is critical. In addition, a good teacher must not necessary to be a male because quality teacher needs natural passion in teaching. So, we do not need to force male teacher in schools to teach the future generation. Future generation is very precious to our country as they are the leaders-to be one day. Therefore, we need to select more naturally good female teachers to teach our future country leader. (1207 words)