Two separate studies (reported in Thornton & Bricheno, 2006) have shown that on beginning teacher training in 1998, and at the point of leaving the profession in 2005, men and women primary teachers tend to emphasise different concerns about their work. This paper explores those differences and seeks to analyse and explain how and why men’s (and women’s) concerns about primary teaching appear to have changed during the past decade. In 1998 we undertook a large scale survey, partly funded by the TTA, into ‘Students’ Reasons for Choosing Primary Teaching as a Career’ (Reid & Thornton, 2000). This research involved a questionnaire survey (1611 responses) and follow-up interviews (143) with new (1998 entry) primary teaching students drawn from 14 different Higher Education institutions in England. It addressed their concerns about entering teaching as well as their positive expectations. In 2005 we explored teachers reasons for leaving teaching and it is against this later data that we examine whether or not the perceptions and concerns of leaving teachers in any way ‘mirror’ the concerns expressed by new entrants in 1998. In most societies, work is gendered, there is a continuing sexual division of labour (Cockburn, 1991), and teaching, especially in the early years, is a predominantly female occupation. More specifically, Mills (2005, p.5) suggests so few men teach because of … poor wages in relation to the work performed; limited career path for those not seeking administrative roles; the labelling of male primary school teachers as homosexual or not ‘real men’; the current media spotlight on allegations of child abuse; the fear of being labelled a paedophile. In the 1990s in England there was considerable suspicion of men in teaching, particularly in the primary sector. This linked to public concerns about child protection issues and may have impacted negatively on the recruitment of male primary school teachers. Like other researchers in the field (Smedley, 1999; Johnston et al, 1999), we found that issues relating to the gender of the teacher were of far greater concern for men in 1998, at the start of their training, than they were for women. Our subsequent analysis has found that while the kinds of concerns outlined by Mills (above) were shared by many new male entrants to teaching in 1998, they were not prevalent amongst the reasons given by men who had left or intended to leave teaching in 2005. The paper concludes by suggesting that one possible explanation for these differences might lie in social and political changes that took place between 1998 and 2005, namely a change in the ways in which teachers and their status were presented in the media (including male teachers as role models for boys rather than gays or paedophiles), and how they were viewed and treated by two quite different governments, with different educational priorities – the Conservatives up to 1997 and the New Labour (to date). The expressed concerns of male (and female) teachers are now somewhat different from what they were in 1998, and it is possible that this may mark a turning point for the numbers of men in primary teaching.

Male concerns about entering primary education in 1998 and their reasons for leaving it in 2005 are found to be different. This might be explained by changes in wider society, such as a change in the ways in which male teachers and their status were presented in the media (as role models for boys rather than gays or paedophiles), and changes in UK government (the Conservatives up to 1997 and the New Labour (to date). This may mark a turning point for the numbers of men in primary teaching.