Fearfully powerful: male teachers, social power and the primary school

Abstract

This paper interrogates the relationship between the social distance men have from children, fear, and the social expectation that men will be capable of managing student (mis)behaviours. Briefly, the central argument is that the social distance men, as a group, have from children, and child protection concerns of men working with children can produce an unfamiliarity and wariness amongst children, of men. This wariness when translated as fear can produce respect and a social expectation that men are (or should be) better than women at managing student behaviour. The argument is developed from a (pro)feminist post-structuralist perspective and draws upon data from a recent qualitative research project on male teachers. While set in Australia there is a global significance for this paper as it theorises how gender inequities are perpetuated in primary school settings in industrialised nations.