Gender Roles in Education: How Gender Constructs Influence the Lack of Male Educators in Elementary Education and the Impact that it has on the Development of Children

Examining gender roles and the influences they have on both men and women, allow us to better understand how these roles influence their roles as individuals in society. However, men in particular are continuously impacted by social pressures that lure them away from traditionally female-dominated fields. Therefore, both boys and girls, from a very young age, are learning social constructs since they are reinforced every day in their households, schools, and their communities. Therefore, the lack of men in elementary education is the result of fitting into social constructs, lack of having male role models to influence them, and most importantly, the realization that children in primary education need positive male influences. It is a selfless profession and can be very rewarding for those who decide to pursue this field. A PowerPoint presentation and recruitment resources are attached that will help educate males that are considering primary education as a profession. This recruitment session can be used as a device to educate young males about some of their own gender constructions that they have embedded in their own lifestyles and reconsider how they can break free from them. More importantly, this recruitment session is intended to help recruit more men in education, but it is not the answer. It will take much more than one recruitment session to help fix this dilemma about the absence of men in elementary education, but this recruitment session is definitely one step forward towards a solution. These resources highlight some misconceptions about masculinity in American culture, as well as in education. In addition, there’s a discussion about some of the different factors that can help redefine masculinity in education in order to help lure more men into practicing the filed. There are also discussions about the impact that teachers have on the development of children, especially the importance of positive male role models for young boys. The purpose of this graduate project is to study the different factors that may influence males to choose elementary education as a career path and the positive impacts that may have on the development of students and to create tools that target the recruitment of males into the teaching profession.