Generation 2.0

Male teachers in the arts and crafts subject

Abstract

Men are in the minority as teachers in primary school, this trend is reinforced in the arts and crafts subject. We have interviewed male teachers in primary school, as well as male students who are training to become teachers in the subject. We have done this to gain more knowledge about conditions that may have influenced their educational and career choices.              

      Drawing on life course theory, we look at the informants' lives with arts and crafts in relation to location in time and place, time of life events, linked lives and human agency. The informants tell us about positive experiences with the subject in their own childhood and that the opportunity to share their own joy and knowledge with students is a driving force when working with arts and crafts in school. As current and future teachers of arts and crafts, the informants are role models for children and can be important for the recruitment of future teachers. The informants talk about people who have influenced them, and in these stories other men dominate. The subject the informants describe in school is characterized by gender stereotypical material choices such as wood in preference to textiles, and it seems that differences between the sexes are maintained. This appears to be due to individual choices, as well as to the contextual frameworks in school and education.