Are you a male teacher in an Australian school?
We want to speak to primary and secondary teachers from across Australia who identify as men (inclusive of trans and cis people), promote gender and social justice, and challenge or disrupt harmful and violent masculinities in their classrooms.
We are interested in learning from male teachers who:
- are employed at least 0.5 full-time equivalent in a primary or secondary setting
- identify as male
- self-identify as challenging normative masculinities through teaching.
Our goal is to survey approximately 200 teachers, and interview 40 teachers, about how they are confronting masculine norms and teaching boys to think critically about gender.
What is involved?
The Challenging Masculinities project comprises two components:
1. Online survey
The online survey will take about 20 minutes to complete and will provide an understanding of how and when male-identifying teachers engage in gender-just practices. Participants completing the survey can opt-in to be interviewed.
The survey will run throughout 2026 and early 2027.
The plain language statement provides more information about how the data will be collected, stored, and used.
After reading the plain language statement, teachers may choose to complete the online survey.
2. Interviews
The face-to-face interviews will explore in more detail how gender and other forms of (in)equality impact teachers’ ability to enact gender-just practices.
The interviews will run for approximately 60 minutes, and teachers will receive a $100 gift card in recognition of their time and expertise.
The interviews will be conducted throughout 2026 and 2027. They will be scheduled in consultation with participants and held in appropriate meeting spaces (e.g. meeting room in a public library or university).
The plain language statement provides more information about how the interviews will be conducted.
After reading the plain language statement, teachers may choose to register to be interviewed.
Note: Teachers do not have to complete the online survey component of the research project to register to be interviewed.
Why is this research important?
The Challenging Masculinities research project will examine how male-identifying teachers across Australia are addressing issues related to masculinities and promoting gender justice in school settings.
Increasingly Australian primary and secondary schools are being recognised as cultural sites that reproduce narrow and violent forms of masculinity. These include those that are characterised by misogyny, sexism, homophobia and transphobia, some of which have been linked to online manfluencers.
Despite growing awareness of this problem, Australian teachers report feeling unprepared to address the rise in harmful and aggressive forms of masculinity in their classrooms and schools. This project seeks to identify strategies and structures that teachers are currently using to challenge masculinities in their classrooms and schools.
Research questions
Challenging Masculinities will answer the following research questions:
- How and when do male-identifying teachers actively and intentionally challenge masculinities?
- What motivates male-identifying teachers to challenge students’ understanding and enactment of masculinities?
- What are male-identifying teachers’ perceptions of the impact of their gender-just pedagogical practices?
- What opportunities and challenges do male-identifying teachers experience when challenging masculinities in schools?
- What recommendations can be made about best practices to challenging masculinities through gender-just pedagogies?
Benefits
Challenging Masculinities will:
- identify pedagogical best-practices that Australian male-identifying teachers are employing to challenge and transform damaging forms of masculinity
- determine systemic enablers and constraints that impact teachers’ gender equality work
- develop guidelines and tools to better support teachers to implement gender justice practices.
By focusing on male-identifying teachers, the research recognises the crucial role men play in challenging and transforming restrictive and aggressive forms of masculinity, including how they navigate the complex terrain of gender in education.
Meet the researchers
Dr Troy Potter
Troy’s interdisciplinary research brings together gender, literary studies and critical literacies to understand how young people make meaning from, and are shaped by, the texts with which they engage. Masculinities and queer identities are a special interest.
Dr William Bingley
William’s research focuses on how modern technologies, such as algorithmic social media, shape social identity, and the implications of this for outcomes such as prejudice, collective action, and wellbeing.
Prof Michael Kehler
Michael is a leading scholar in the field of masculinities studies and gender equity in the context of teaching and learning. His research addresses advocacy, allyship and diverse masculinities while addressing gender-based violence, homophobia and misogyny.
Contact us
Please contact Dr Troy Potter to learn more about this research, including how to participate.
This research project is funded by the 2026 Faculty of Education Researcher Development Funding Scheme and has approval from the Melbourne Human Ethics Research Committee (Ethics ID: 35313)