Teachers - gender and supply

There's a new research report just published by SEED on the subject of the gender imbalance among teachers in Scottish schools and what to do about it. 'Insight 24: Gender Balance of the Teaching Workforce in Publicly-funded schools in Scotland' is the summary version.

Lots of interesting snippets of information to discuss, but not many surprises in the report.

Putting it crudely, the proportion of men in the teacher workforce is declining, was already at a very low level in primary schools and is now falling in secondaries too. The researchers offer some views on why people, especially men, don't find the profession so appealing any more; and suggest some possible actions to aid recruitment of the most able individuals regardless of gender.

Yesterday I was talking to a group of school headteachers. The opinion there was that gender was quite possibly irrelevant; the priority was to have motivated teachers of any gender and age who could take the classes, as supply cover for teacher absence seems very hard to find.