Enhancing the world of educational quality : peer mentoring processes to retain quality elementary male teachers in Australian contexts

There is increasing demand worldwide for quality teachers and better training to prepare people to become effective teachers. The attraction and retention of quality teachers is pivotal to improved student learning outcomes. In Australia there has also been the call for more male elementary teachers to provide students with a range of quality learning experiences and enhance a diverse educational workplace. This paper presents the results of an on-line survey that formed part of a larger Australian research project, based in the state of Queensland, which investigated peer mentoring as a retention strategy. Data from the on-line survey outlined the lived experience of being a beginning male teacher in Queensland, Australia. Respondents talked about the ‘tensions’ between a lifestyle choice concerning changing careers and the realities of the changing nature of school, complexity of teachers’ work and intensification of work. An argument is mounted in this paper that peer mentoring networks between male pre-service teacher students and experienced male teachers could inform the construction of a teacher identity that could assist in retaining quality elementary male teachers and establish new collaboration between school-based industry partners and university teacher educators focusing on the preparation of male elementary teachers to be effective 21st century entrepreneurs of learning.