ABSTRACT
The quality of the teaching workforce is of central concern to policy makers around the world. In this regard, the decline of the proportion of males in teaching has been highlighted as an issue of disquiet. In most developed countries women are numerically and proportionately dominant in first and second level teaching (although not in management). At the outset of this volume on gender and teaching the question was raised-to what extent is this a problem:’
Public discourse has focused on a number of issues. The first of these relates to academic underachievement among boys in second level schools. The research reviewed here suggests that factors affecting boys’ levels of achievement are complex. They include, very crucially, factors such as social class and locality. It is much less clear that teacher gender plays any significant role.
