The Importance of Women Faculty at Boys' Schools

This edition of Margin Notes is guest written by Janetta Lien, Assistant Head of School / Director of Enrollment

At a recent conference, fellow attendees openly expressed sympathy that I work at a boys’ school. Before joining group discussions, I found myself describing the benefits of working at Browning, and then possibly even more surprising to fellow conference attendees, sharing why I like it so much. That experience led me to reflect upon the role of women in a boys’ school. 

At Browning, we talk a lot about relational teaching and learning. In their book, I Can Learn From You: Boys as Relational Learners, Michael Reichert and Richard Hawley write, “Boys are not only relationally receptive, but they may be especially relationally receptive—indeed, unlikely to thrive scholastically outside of caring, supportive relationships with their teachers.”  

In speaking with Dr. Reichert, I asked for observable data on whether boys had a gender preference for their teachers. Without pausing, he said that male- and female-identifying teachers turned up in near-equal numbers whether boys were discussing both successful or unsuccessful relationships. Put another way, a teacher’s gender mattered less to boys than that teacher’s proficiency as relationship managers. 

Fresh out of graduate school and having been a grade-level chair at an all-gender school, I arrived at Browning buoyed by youthful confidence in my competency and passion as a science educator. I was irked that it took me longer than my male-identifying colleagues to earn the boys’ trust—and that upset me. Through some honest dialogue with trusted peers, observing other teachers’ classes, and applying new tactics on my own, I changed how the boys interacted with me, which boosted their engagement in my classes and the happiness and enjoyment I started to feel as their teacher. I didn’t realize it then, but I had figured out how to be a relational teacher.

Certainly, a male-identifying teacher might experience some immediate engagement with boys. Boys might be highly cooperative in this teacher’s classes at the beginning, and find common ground with him in their shared gender identity. However, if that teacher does not also demonstrate effective relational teaching (being highly facile in their subject matter, taking an interest in the students’ interests beyond the classroom, accommodating some degree of oppositional behavior, and opening up about themselves), the boys can, in the words of one educator, “smell a fraud.” Then, the early respect they might have had for that male teacher will eventually erode. Women with effective relational skills belong in a boys’ school as much as anyone else who cares about boys does. It’s all about the skills, not the gender. 

In my current roles, I now don’t have as many daily or sustained interactions with the boys. I’ve found, though, that as someone who played a role in a student’s arrival at Browning, I still have the opportunity to utilize relational gestures with the boys I had gotten to know through the admission process. I know I am not the only person who can guide these young men during their years at Browning, but I am glad to be among many—across gender identities—who surround them daily with care and genuine affection.