'please Can We Have a Man?': Male Trainee English Teachers Entering Predominantly Female Departments

For thirteen years I worked as a male secondary English teacher. I had noted that in English departments men were consistently in the minority, usually one or two in a department. Over the years my colleagues " perception was that male English teachers were either exceptionally good or noticeably weak. Therefore, a male English teacher stood out. Moving from school to a University education department where I led a PGCE secondary English course I met many mentors of secondary English trainees, in school and at the University. Several mentors requested a male trainee teacher, saying, " Please can we have a man? " I was intrigued and spoke with a group of mentors who said: " It would be good for the department. " " It would make a change. " " It would be good for the boys to have a role model. " " It would be good to get some fresh ideas. " " It would be exciting and a challenge. " " We haven't had a man in the department for ages. " These responses confirmed the need for the study. I carried out two small-scale pilot studies at two universities, followed by an ethnographic study at the University where I worked to gain new insights into the experiences of men learning to teach in predominantly female English departments. I use the term " predominantly female " with its nuance of more abundant and frequent, to reflect the numerical dominance of female teachers in English departments. On the PGCE secondary English course that formed the focus of the study there were 18 women and 7 men. This ratio is typical of the gender balance on PGCE secondary English