How the American Education System has failed Young Boys and Men

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been researching the differences in economic outcomes for boys/men and girls/women. Central to this trend is the fact that the U.S. education system has been failing young boys/men, and this has a negative effect on their economic/social mobility in the long run. Throughout this article, I'll begin by discussing the history of the American Education System and how female teachers have come to dominate the overall public schooling system. Then, I'll delve into how a teacher's gender affects his/her academic performance in a class and how this varies among different academic subjects. Towards the end of this article, I'll discuss the gender biases present in our education system from a psychological perspective before delving into some solutions to solve this problem.

Throughout history, teaching has been regarded as a female profession. But why is this? It all started in the early to late 1800s, when there was a movement to create a universal education system. This led to new roles in schools, such as superintendents and principals. During that time, these were roles that were predominantly dominated by men. Central to the trend of feminization of teaching was the fact that industrialization and the availability of other jobs led men to choose alternative careers that paid more. When cities began to industrialize between 1800-1850, the literacy rate of white women began to match the literacy rate of white men. This led to women having a larger role in the primary education system. During that time, both boys and girls were taught in the same classroom. During that time, there was a growing trend in which women were expected to build households that were pious and religious, while separating themselves from a world that was detached from religious principles. This growing trend was, in part, due to the strong Christian values that Americans held during that time.

Towards the 1850s, teaching really started to become feminized in big cities such as New York and Chicago. This can be largely attributed to the fact that it was difficult to recruit male teachers, and school districts could save money by hiring female teachers. Towards the 1900s, men began to re-enter the teaching arena as some women left teaching to pursue other careers, since it became socially acceptable for women to work in other occupations. Educational and social changes that occurred in the mid-1800s really changed the perception of teaching. According to "The Feminization of Teaching in America” by Elizabeth Boyle, “Male teachers tended to come from lower-middle class backgrounds, attaining higher social status than their parents due to teachers' higher educational achievements.” Today, the teaching profession is mostly dominated by women, and they tend to come from a variety of social class backgrounds. Teaching is still a low-paid profession in which the salary tends to vary across different states and metropolitan areas. Teachers are paid the most in New York City ($87,738). A pivotal moment for the education system occurred in 2002 when an amendment to the No Child Left Behind Act authorized the creation of single-sex public schools. This amendment was passed in large part due to support from former Senator of New York and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Her support for this amendment stems from the fact that she was grateful for the opportunity to attend one of the country's most well-known women's colleges (Wellesley College of Massachusetts). This amendment to the No Child Left Behind Act was sponsored by Kay Bailey Hutchinson, a Republican Senator of Texas.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS)

Now, I would like to shift our focus from the history/evolution of the teaching profession to the theory of whether the gender of a teacher affects a student's academic performance in a certain subject, such as Math or Science. According to "How a Teacher's Gender Affects Boys and Girls" by Thomas S. Dee, “One theory asserts that the teacher's gender shapes communications between teacher and pupil, while another says the teacher acts as a gender-specific role model, regardless of what he or she says or does. According to this second theory, students are more engaged, behave more appropriately, and perform at a higher level when taught by one who shares their gender.” From an empirical standpoint, female teachers perceive male students to be disoriented and causing a ruckus in the classroom. This false or negative perception of male students by female teachers can have a negative influence on the long-term academic performance of the male students, as they may begin to lose motivation and focus on their studies. On the other hand, female teachers tend to perceive female students as being studious, focused, and driven. This can be largely attributed to the fact that female teachers may be giving their female students more preferential treatment without giving thought to how this may affect the academic performance of their male counterparts. According to “How a Teacher's Gender Affects Boys and Girls” by Thomas S. Dee, When girls are taught by women and boys are taught by men, student achievement in science, English, and social studies increases for both groups”.

In a nutshell, a student's long-term academic performance is largely impacted by the gender of the teacher. According to “How a Teacher's Gender Affects Boys and Girls” by Thomas S. Dee, “For three subject areas—science, social studies, and English— the overall effect of having a woman teacher instead of a man raises the achievement of girls by 4 percent of a standard deviation and lowers the achievement of boys by roughly the same amount, producing an overall gender gap of 8 percent of a standard deviation, no small matter if it can be assumed that this happened over the course of a single year.” These results were astonishing to me since it's clearly apparent that a teacher's gender can have a significant impact on student achievement. Gender is more likely to have a detrimental impact on boys than on girls. When drilling into the statistics in more detail, female students perform better in a history class that is taught by women. Their performance increases by 9 percent of a standard deviation. On the other hand, boys have lower academic performance in science when taught by a female teacher. Their performance drops by around 5 percent of a standard deviation. In essence, female teachers tend to perceive male students as unruly, undisciplined, and unfocused. In retrospect, female teachers perceive female students to be academically curious, focused, and motivated to study.

One of the last questions that I would like to answer is: How can we change our education system so that it's better equipped to teach both boys and girls? One of the most obvious ways to do this is to recruit more male teachers and encourage boys/men to join the teaching profession. This may be difficult to achieve, since many men have reported being discriminated against in the teaching profession and have been accused of being a threat to children's safety. According to "The Effect of Teacher Gender and Gendered Traits on Perceptions of Elementary School Teachers" by Yena Kim and Allyson J. Weseley, “Social role theory (Koenig & Eagly, 2014) may underlie the social barriers to men entering elementary education. This theory holds that men and women take on certain roles because of different societal expectations (pg. 115).” The role of social role theory in the hiring practices of school districts is detrimental to the entry of men into the teaching profession since it paints a negative perception that our predisposed gender roles define the job that we perform. Moreover, tying the role of your gender to the job that you perform also leads to social stigmatization, in which society and people in general question men and women who perform jobs or take on roles in their households that are typically fulfilled by the other gender. For example, if a man were to take on the role of a homemaker by performing duties such as cooking, cleaning, and taking care of his child, society may mock him and stigmatize him as not being fit to be a homemaker. According to “The Effect of Teacher Gender and Gendered Traits on Perceptions of Elementary School Teachers” by Yena Kim and Allyson J. Weseley,” Such assumptions are detrimental to society as they lead people to question men and women who take on roles that are typically fulfilled by the other gender (Eagly & Koenig, 2008).Consequently, individuals may view male elementary educators as inadequate in carrying  tasks typically associated with communal roles dominated by women (pg. 117).”By creating social role stereotypes, men have been excluded from the teaching profession, which has had a negative impact on students. Recruiting more men to enter the teaching profession can help broaden students' experiences, perception of the world, and gender identity.

According to “The Effect of Teacher Gender and Gendered Traits on Perceptions of Elementary School Teachers” by Yena Kim and Allyson J. Weseley, “Croft, Schmader, and Block (2015) issued a convincing argument to expand research on barriers to men's entry into female-dominated fields. Increasing representation of men in elementary classrooms is crucial, both to broaden men's career opportunities so that they can achieve a better occupational fit, and to broaden children's experiences because the behaviors of the adults to which they are exposed may shape their ideas about gender (pg. 118)". The theory of Nature Vs. Nurture plays a role in recruiting more men into the teaching profession since it will not only help broaden students' thinking and experiences, but also defeat certain negative gender stereotypes that revolve around men and women. Moreover, the nature vs. nurture debate revolves around the idea that we are born with a blank slate (tabula rasa). Nurture suggests that we develop our thoughts, perceptions, ideas about society, and the world through our experiences. The term "Tabula Rasa" was first coined by John Locke, an eminent English philosopher.

The idea of tying certain characteristics with expected gender roles can be connected to role congruity theory. According to “The Effect of Teacher Gender and Gendered Traits on Perceptions of Elementary School Teachers” by Yena Kim and Allyson J. Weseley, “role congruity theory proposes that people are more positively evaluated when their characteristics are perceived to be congruent with expected gender roles (pg. 116).” Role Congruency Theory also affects hiring practices. This is most common when men apply for roles in female-dominated occupations such as teaching. To counteract the negative perception that men face when applying for these roles, men tend to highlight some feminine characteristics that are deemed important for success in the occupation they are applying for. According to “The Effect of Teacher Gender and Gendered Traits on Perceptions of Elementary School Teachers” by Yena Kim and Allyson J. Weseley, “U.S. undergraduates rated communal traits (e.g., affectionate, sensitive) as the most important traits for success in female dominated occupations (e.g., elementary school teacher, speech therapist) but agentic traits (e.g., competitive, aggressive) as the most important traits for success in male-dominated fields (e.g., airline pilot, computer programmer). Such perceptions may lead to more negative evaluations of individuals who work in fields that are viewed as incongruent with their gender (pg. 117).” School Districts and other organizations should strive to reform their hiring practices to counteract the implications of Role Congruity Theory and Social Role Theory. By doing this, they may be able to attract more male applicants to female-dominated occupations such as teaching.

            In the end, there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution to the problems facing the education system. However, if policymakers and politicians were to take action by speaking with school superintendents and principals in their states about the systemic biases present in our education system and how boys/men are falling behind in school compared to their female counterparts, we may be heading in the right direction in finding a solution to this problem. Furthermore, by eliminating the associations between one's gender role and a certain occupation, we may be able to encourage more boys/men and girls/women to apply for and perform jobs/occupations that aren't traditionally associated with their gender.