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Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science

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ArticleOpen Access http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jhass.2023.06.015

Male Teachers in China: A Critical Examination of Gender Identity

Danyang Han

Handan University, Handan, Hebei, China.

*Corresponding author: Danyang Han

Published: July 17, 2023

Abstract

In light of the disparity in the gender ratio of teachers around the world, this article utilizes gender as a social construct to explore the recent tendency of the preference for male teachers in China. Drawing on theoretical fieldwork from a multi-perspective analysis of the relationship between gender and educational issues, it examines underlying reasons and potential impacts of encouraging men to join the teaching profession. The policy of recruiting teachers in favor of men is rooted in gender essentialism, which ignores the fluidity of gender as advocated by gender performativity. Not only does this deny the contribution of women who dominate the education profession, but it can also result in the feminization of male teachers' gender identities, which can result in a reduced willingness of men to enter the education profession. The article tentatively concludes that the prevalent inclination for male teachers tends to blame the femininity of current teachers, promoting gender stereotypes and preserving China's patriarchal society. However, the author’s view here is to degenderise teachers not to oppose the possibility of males becoming teachers.

Keyword

Gender identity, Male Teachers, Feminisation of Education, Patriarchal Values

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Copyright

© 2023 by the author(s).
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) license, which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not modified or adapted.
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How to cite this paper

Male Teachers in China: A Critical Examination of Gender Identity

How to cite this paper: Danyang Han. (2023) Male Teachers in China: A Critical Examination of Gender Identity. Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science7(6), 1127-1131.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jhass.2023.06.015