A century ago, men dominated teaching, but a decline in respect for teachers and a fall in relative pay rates has seen fewer enter the profession. Liz Porter meets three who love the classroom.
It's almost 15 years ago now, but Michael Higgins can still recall the feeling of confusion as he walked into the staff room on his first day in his new job at a large Melbourne Catholic primary school.
He knew he was in the right room. But where were all the other blokes?
A former engineering company manager, he had spent his previous working life in a male-dominated working world. Suddenly he was one of five men on a staff of about 60. 
He soon discovered that the man shortage wasn't confined to his school. By the dawn of the 21st century male primary teachers were also a rare species in Britain, the US and all over Europe.
In Australia, as a new study by the Australian Catholic University's Professor Tania Aspland has recently revealed, the shortage of male primary teachers was entrenched by the early 1990s.
The executive dean of ACU's faculty of education and arts, Professor Aspland analysed more than two decades of Australian Bureau of Statistics figures. Fewer than one in five of 2014's Victorian primary teachers in Victoria were male, her report revealed. But back in 1991, men already comprised only a quarter of Victorian primary teachers.
The academic has urged state governments, policymakers and schools to consider every possible strategy to increase the participation of men in teaching - from education campaigns to scholarships and even targets. She also calls on teachers themselves to speak up about the rewards the profession offers.
"When students are doing their placements, teachers often say, 'Are you sure you want to do this?' Men are also sometimes told they could do better for themselves elsewhere."
The gender imbalance in teaching is a problem for Australian society, she says, not just for its primary schools.
"It's no different from the argument for more women on the governing boards of large corporations. Schools are microcosms of society and children are entitled to both female and male role models. Because of the changing structure of families it is up to the schools to provide that microcosm."
So what is behind the flight of male teachers from the classroom? Professor Stephen Dinham, chairman of teacher education and director of learning and teaching at the University of Melbourne, explains it as the combined effect of a drop in relative pay rates and a lack of good career structure.
"Real" wages for teachers have declined by 20 per cent since the '70s, he says.
"In the '70s you could support a family on a teacher's wage. These days in many cases a teacher's wage is a second wage for a family. As men have gone to other jobs rather than teaching, particularly in primary, it reinforces the view that teaching is 'women's work'. Any occupation, such as nursing, that is seen by the public as 'women's work' tends to be paid less and be less highly regarded."
Simon Gipson, head of St Michael's Grammar, sees the issue as less about money and more about the fact teachers are no longer held in high regard, with men who choose primary education courses seen as taking "the tertiary course of last resort".
The past decade's revelations about paedophiles in schools have also made some young men fear that their choice of a career in primary teaching might be misinterpreted.
"In the media we have been bombarded with the most negative examples of extraordinarily awful behaviours of male teachers in primary schools. We are not getting any of the positive stories - or any positive affirmation about why it's important to have gender diversity in our teaching population."
Even in his position, Gipson feels affected by the near-universal suspicion of males showing affection to small children.
"When I visit the junior school, often one of the little preppies will come up and grab me by the leg. I get so concerned about what people might think and how this might be misinterpreted. I won't be initiating it, but kids are tactile and like to be hugged. You're constantly trying to double-guess how other people will perceive behaviours that are well-intentioned natural human responses."
Gipson doesn't want to fall into "stereotypes" by defining the qualities males might bring to primary school classrooms.
But Professor Aspland argues that children benefit from being exposed to specifically "male" or "female" modes of thinking and conversation.
"It's more than just providing male figures to children who don't have a father at home," she says, quoting a 2013 Macquarie University study that surveyed the views of 184 grade 6 students (80 boys and 104 girls) and 97 parents.
Both groups surveyed said male teachers were important as role models and father figures, and for students - especially boys - to seek help from and confide in. Respondents said it was important for boys to have a teacher of the same gender when learning about puberty and as they approach it. They said male teachers were important for girls' interaction with men - and their consequent understanding of them.
One girl described having a male teacher as "like having an additional father, in that you have your biological one but you've got another person with a boy brain guiding you through ... between nine and three [o'clock]".
Boys talked of the way male teachers "seem to understand you more", with two adding that male teachers had a better understanding of the "rough" way boys play. Female teachers thought getting a bruise "was really bad", one of them said. "But boys think getting a bruise is all right."
All available statistics suggest the shortage of male teachers is set to worsen, with the ACER Staff in Australia's Schools survey revealing 55 per cent of the nation's male primary teachers are aged over 41. A third are aged over 51.
The only statistical bright spot on the horizon for primary teaching is Melbourne University's graduate entry-only program, which has 25 to 30 per cent male primary teacher trainees. Compare this with the current 20 per cent male representation in schools, and the 11 per cent male enrolment on the ACU's Ballarat or Melbourne teacher training campuses (where male enrolment for secondary teaching is 37 per cent).
Male secondary teacher numbers look superficially more equal, despite the proportion of men having dropped from 55 per cent in 1981 to 43 per cent nationally in 2011. But the 2015 ACER report on supply and demand in the Australian teacher workforce flags a looming crisis in maths and science teaching.
Three-quarters of the nation's physics teachers are male - with more than 40 per cent of them aged over 50. More than half of the nation's maths teachers are male, and almost half of them are over 50. This gender-associated maths and science teacher crisis has already arrived, Professor Dinham says.
"One in three 15-year-olds is being taught maths by someone who is not a trained maths teacher. One in four is being taught science by a non-science teacher - and it's worse in government schools."
Private schools tend to have the resources to combat that particular secondary teacher shortage.
But when it comes to primary staffing, Gipson says, theoretical commitment to gender equity has to give way.
"I have an absolute obligation to get the best person for the job. When you draw from a pool where you are lucky to get 15 or 20 per cent male applicants, it's increasingly the case that the best person will be female."
Victorian Minister for Education James Merlino said that, while wanting to attract more male teachers into the profession, the Education Department's hiring policy focused on teacher quality and choosing the best candidate based on merit. Gender was not considered as part of recruitment.