Natural disciplinarians or learning from the job? The first two years of seven male teachers in Icelandic compulsory schools

Abstract

This article presents an interview study with seven newlygraduated male teachers in Icelandic compulsory schools. We interviewed them five times during their first two years of teaching. The focus is on the ways in which the gender of the novice teachers mattered in the expectations that they experienced and how these expectations interacted with the professional demands of being a teacher. The interviews reveal that hegemonic masculinity ideas have an impact on the minds of our interviewees as they experienced various expectations, based in such masculinity. The findings also suggest a tension between the expectations of men as natural disciplinarians and the professional induction of learning to become a teacher. Male-specific expectations included that the school as well as parents expected that the students had respect for them on the grounds that they were men. While such expectations gave some a head start with positional authority, it laid a burden on them as novices. Not all of our interviewees fitted the male-specific expectations, which supports the importance of breaking down gendered stereotypes. In recruiting teachers, regardless of gender, we need individuals able to perform professional practices of care and attention to detail in managing a classroom.