When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

You've reach your limit of free articles.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime.

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Ad-free experience NEW

Exclusive international news coverage

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Monthly Access

30-day free trial, then $2.90 per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
Society

Measuring The Effects Of A Male Teacher Shortage

Political leaders and education researchers in the West are increasingly questioning how the lack of men teachers might affect the country’s school children. In France, where the rate of male teachers in primary schools went from 35% in 1954 to 18%, some

Measuring The Effects Of A Male Teacher Shortage
Marie-Estelle Pech

PARIS -- There are too many women in English schools, declared British Prime Minister David Cameron. In order to restore authority in the classrooms, Cameron thinks that the presence of male teachers – who can show both "strength and sensibility" – should be reinforced as soon as possible. The idea has been given some thought in France as well.

An advisor close to French President Nicolas Sarkozy said "there are too many women teachers' and that the situation should be "more balanced."

"By reforming the whole profession, by offering a better salary, we hope to attract more men to the job," said a source close to the president. "Lots of women become teachers because it's a profession that suits their way of living. They tend to work part-time, which causes many organizational problems. What we want are teachers who are 100% involved, who are better paid but also more present in schools."

Like other western countries, France has seen an increasing feminization of education over the past 60 years. The rate of women teachers in primary schools went from 65% in 1954 to more than 82% nowadays. In private schools it peaked recently at 91%. In secondary education, the gap is still present, although less extreme.

The causes for such disparities are well-known. Men turn their backs to teaching because the profession has lost prestige. Moreover, young men very often opt for scientific studies that are more likely to lead them to job opportunities that come with a higher salary than teaching.

Overall, men and women also appear to have different conceptions of the profession. French researchers Jean-Richard Cyterman and Alain Lopes found that women, when asked why they chose to become teachers, usually answer "to be able to work with children" or "to keep a healthy balance between professional and personal life," or "because it was a vocation." A common response from men, in contrast, is that they wanted "to work in public service."

Trying to avoid complete male flight

In a 2008 report about working conditions in education, French education expert Marcel Pochard stated that an equal representation of men and women seemed to be "almost out of reach." But national education authorities should be careful, he warned, and "try to avoid a complete feminization that could be blamed for giving a biased vision of society to pupils."

Another education scholar Jean-Louis Auduc shares that opinion. In a recent essay called "Boys First," Auduc notes that jobs linked with childhood and adolescence are becoming the exclusive domain of women. During their school years, boys suffer from a lack of a male role models, he argues.

Is that why boys don't do as well as girls at school? They're more agitated, they tend to fail more easily and a smaller number of them manage to earn high school diplomas. But things may be more complex. Studies carried out in several countries have suggested there is no obvious link between the teacher's gender and academic success. What matters most is the quality of the teacher-student relationship, according to Michèle Asselin and Gisèle Bourret, two Canadian researchers.

Those who struggle the most at school are young people from poor families who also tend to be attached to traditional, stereotypical gender roles. "They sometimes challenge the authority of women teachers," a French teacher says. Specialists agree on one point: there should be more men in schools, if for no other reason than to oppose the idea that education has become a "women's matter."

Read the original article in French

Photo - Wikipedia

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Society

The Colombian Paramilitary's Other Dirty War — Against LGBTQ+ People

In several parts of Colombia over the past decades, right-wing paramilitaries and their successor gangs have targeted all those tagged as sexual "deviants" for execution, supposedly in a bid to restore traditional values.

Image of a man applying powder on his face.

November 7, 2021: ''Santi Blunt'', one of the vocalists and composers of LGBTQIA+ group ''Jaus of Mojadas'' in Pasto, Colombia.

Camilo Erasso/ZUMA
Johan Sanabria

BARRANCABERMEJA — Sandra* spotted her name for the first time on a pamphlet left at her doorstep in 2008, in Barrancabermeja, her home town in northern Colombia. Local paramilitaries known as the Black Eagles (Águilas negras) dropped it there on Dec. 15 as a warning and, effectively, a deferred death sentence. It meant they knew where Sandra, a transgender woman, lived and that if she chose to stay, she could expect to die.

✉️ You can receive our LGBTQ+ International roundup every week directly in your inbox. Subscribe here.

The pamphlet, copies of which were left in bars or premises frequented by gays, lesbians and transsexuals, stated, "Barrancabermeja is becoming full of fags, AIDS-spreaders and sodomites, and this must stop." Colombians do not take gang threats lightly, and know that paramilitaries are death squads: in many parts of the country, they have killed with utter impunity.

Sandra was born in August 1989 in the San Rafael hospital in Barrancabermeja. Her mother was a housewife and her father worked for the country's big oil firm, Ecopetrol. The youngest of three children, she had dark skin and dark eyes, thick lips and long, curvy hair. She is not very tall, speaks slowly and tends to prolong words, and seldom laughs.

Keep reading...Show less

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

You've reach your limit of free articles.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime.

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Ad-free experience NEW

Exclusive international news coverage

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Monthly Access

30-day free trial, then $2.90 per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch

The latest