Topical Teaching

I believe that it is very hard for male teachers to get a job in the public system. Often public schools are female dominated, to the point where a token male would have some effect on the staff-room dynamic. I feel that it was a major factor in my inability to secure a job in the public school system. As I recounted in an earlier post:

I applied for 30 Public School positions over the summer and none of these possibilities turned into a job offer. Nobody in the State system was prepared to take me on. Sitting in the job interview, I couldn’t help but wonder whether I was leapfrogged because of my gender. I know it seems rich for a male to cry sexism, but the selection panel was nearly always all female and on walking around schools, I noticed that nearly all the teachers were female. In the name of a close-knit staff dynamic, it wouldn’t have been such an easy proposition to disturb the status quo and invite a male into the staff room inner sanctum.

But while males might be discriminated in the public system, I have it on good authority from people high up in other private schools, that males are preferred over females in the private system because they don’t go on maternity leave. So it goes both ways.

Still, after all women went through (and to some extent still do) when it comes to being overlooked for jobs, you can understand why it doesn’t feel right to have a male shouting sexual discrimination:

A MALE primary school teacher has alleged he was the victim of sex discrimination after losing out on a job to a young woman.

Glenn Telfer claims he was the top candidate for a permanent post at an Edinburgh primary after doing the job for several months and earning plaudits from parents and his boss.

But the 55-year-old ended up out of work after the job went to Louise Hunter, 25.

Mr Telfer is taking Edinburgh City Council to an employment tribunal claiming sex and age discrimination.

Click here to read my post about the absence of male teachers in public schools.

Tags: Edinburgh primary discrimination, Education, Feminism, Glenn Telfer discrimination, Louise Hunter, Male Teachers, News, Sex Discrimination, sex discrimination of female teachers over males, Una Gillespie

This entry was posted on June 30, 2012 at 11:45 pm and is filed under Male Teachers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.