ABSTRACT
Gender differences in educational participation and achievement are a major subject of public policy concern internationally. International performance indicators routinely include data on gender differences. Each year, the publication of data such as those contained in the OECD annual publication, Education at a Glance, and the release of national statistics on examination performance, tend to generate ‘moral panics’ in the media about the underperformance of boys and what this might represent (Arnot and Weiner, 1999:7). These debates are frequently followed by discussions in the media on the assumed impact on boys of the feminisation of teaching and the low number of males who choose the profession (and, in particular, primary/elementary teaching) as a career. The quality of the teaching workforce has been a central concern in the establishment of a major international review on the attraction, development and retention of teachers established under the auspices of the OECD (OECD, 2003b). As part of this international review, the decline of the proportion of males in teaching has been highlighted as an issue of concern to policy makers (OECD, 2004).
