The Limits of Role Modelling as a Policy Frame for Addressing Equity Issues in the Teaching Profession

In this chapter, I focus on the policy implications of male teacher shortage and recruitment in terms of addressing fundamental equity issues in the teaching profession. These equity issues have been highlighted in response to the question of male teacher shortage and continue to provoke considerable debate, as I will illustrate in this chapter with specific reference to discourses about the ‘endangered male teacher’ and the policy implications of this in Canada and specifically Ontario (Abraham, 2010a, 2010b, 2010c). Concerns about male teacher shortage have been expressed in terms of two fundamental discourses or policy narratives: (i) the need for more male role models which ties in with anxieties about absent fathers and the increasing prevalence of single-parent families (Brockenbrough, 2012a; Harnett and Lee, 2003; Hutchings et al., 2008; Maylor, 2009; Pepperell and Smedley, 1998) and (ii) the question of striking a more representative gender balance in the teaching profession, a position that is underscored frequently by limited notions of equity which fail to engage with important considerations about the status of women’s work, racial inequality and male privilege (Brockenbrough, 2012b; Drudy, 2008; Drudy et al., 2005; Griffiths, 2006; Martino, 2008; Moreau et al., 2007; Riddell and Tett, 2010; Thornton and Bricheno, 2006; Williams, 1993).