The Need to Increase the Number of Male Teachers that Work With Young Students - Research Paper Example

The definition of the concept of a role model has been central to the research of Bricheno and Thornton (2007). According to them, the process of socialization is very important in order for people to learn about others’ attitudes, values and beliefs that are important to the formulation of their own. In fact, these authors believe that adults, and most importantly, the children learn so much from their observation and experience of others’ behaviour (Bricheno and Thornton 2007). It is because of this then that role models were seen to be very important players in the socialization process.

However, it has been argued that they tend to pose different stereotypical and counter-stereotypical behaviours. Nonetheless, the unique characteristics of the role model significantly affect the behaviour and attitudes of the observer, in this case, the students. Because of this then, there are usually common patterns that are found with regard to role models and the process of socialization. As a result, it has been argued that in relation to role models, commonly cited patterns are social class and gender (Bricheno and Thornton 2007; Skelton 2003).

Francis and Skelton (2005) further state that their study was able to prove that pupils tend to relate or prefer teachers of the same gender. In this case, they more or less consider same-sex teachers as their role models (Francis and Skelton 2005). It is in relation to the discussion presented above that Bricheno and Thornton (2007) discuss the male teachers as a role model inside the primary classroom.