Examining Student Gendered Experiences with Parent Involvement in The Bahamas
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15362/ijbs.v29i2.523Keywords:
Parent Involvement, Gendered Experiences, Caribbean SchoolingAbstract
Within English-speaking Caribbean K-12 schooling systems, there has been a consistent trend of boys performing at a lower academic standard than girls. Caribbean scholars suggest approaching gendered achievement patterns from multiple perspectives, dimensions, and methodologies to help clarify the inequities that are prevalent in Caribbean schooling. To address this call, I narrow attention onto the Bahamian family context and raise the question as to whether parent involvement with schooling in The Bahamas differs for boys versus girls. Survey data (parents, n = 377) came from a comprehensive study on parent involvement with schooling that took place in Grand Bahama during summer of 2018. Multivariate analysis of factor scores using two scales, Basic Needs Involvement (11-item scale) and Academic Involvement (3-item scale), showed that parental involvement was similar for boys and girls. Like previous findings in The Bahamas, there were more girls enrolled in private schools than boys. Findings are discussed in terms of societal perceptions about whose education is valued, mandates for gender parity, the impact global trends have on local trends, and moving towards empirical-based theories for gendered achievement patterns within Caribbean societies.
References
Abdirahman, H. A., Bah, T. T., Shrestha, H. L., & Jacobsen, K. H. (2012). Bullying, mental health, and parental involvement among adolescents in the Caribbean. West Indian Medical Journal, 61(5), 504–508. https://doi.org/10.7727/wimj.2012.212
Alexander, T. (2012). A study of perspectives on parental involvement in their children's education, through engagement in homework activities [Master’s thesis, University of the West Indies].
Anderson, J. O., George, J. M., & Herbert, S. M. (2009). Factors impacting on student learning: A preliminary look at the National Test of Trinidad and Tobago. Caribbean Curriculum, 16 (2), 99–126. https://journals.sta.uwi.edu/ojs/index.php/cc/article/view/604
Bailey, B. (2004). Gender and education in Jamaica: Who is achieving and by whose standard? Prospects: Quarterly Review of Comparative Education, 34(1), 53–69. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:PROS.0000026679.99139.91
Bennett, I. (2014). Fragile masculinities: The loss of young men and the pervasive models of masculinity in The Bahamas that encourage them to fail. Caribbean Review of Gender Studies, 8, 43-77. https://sta.uwi.edu/crgs/december2014/journals/CRGS_8_Pgs043-78_FragileMasculinities_Bennett.pdf
Bowe, A. (2015). The development of education indicators for measuring quality in the English-speaking Caribbean. How far have we come? Evaluation and Program Planning, 48, 31–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2014.08.008
Bowe, A. G. & Johnson, C. L. (2022). Bahamian father involvement with their child’s schooling: To what extent does family structure matter? International Journal of Bahamian Studies, 28, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.15362/ijbs.v28i0.441
Brown, T. A. (2006). Confirmatory factor analysis for applied research. Guilford.
Cobbett, M., & Younger, M. (2012). Boys’ educational ‘underachievement’ in the Caribbean: interpreting the ‘problem’. Gender and Education, 24(6), 611–625. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2012.677014
Collie-Patterson, J. M. (2008). The national average is D: Who is to blame? College of The Bahamas Research Journal, 14, 28–37. https://doi.org/10.15362/ijbs.v14i0.102
De Lisle, J. (2006). Dragging eleven-plus measurement practice into the fourth quadrant: The Trinidad and Tobago SEA as a gendered sieve. Caribbean Curriculum, 13, 91–121. https://journals.sta.uwi.edu/ojs/index.php/cc/article/view/626
De Lisle, J. (2018). The development of theory on gendered patterns of achievement in the Anglophone Caribbean: Insights, contradictions, and silences. Gender and Education, 30(4), 450–466. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2016.1216951
De Lisle, J. (2023). Theorizing on the marginalization of boys and girls in Caribbean schooling: Recurring myths and emerging realities. In S. N. J. Blackman (Ed.), Equitable education for marginalized youth in Latin America and the Caribbean (pp. 27–55). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429276866
De Lisle, J., Smith, P., & Jules, V. (2005). Which males or females are most at risk and on what? An analysis of gender differentials within the primary school system of Trinidad and Tobago. Educational Studies, 31(4), 393–418. https://doi.org/10.1080/03055690500237413
De Lisle, J., Smith, P., & Jules, V. (2010). Evaluating the geography of gendered achievement using large-scale assessment data from the primary school system of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. International Journal of Educational Development, 30(4), 405–417. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2010.01.001
De Lisle, J., Smith, P., Keller, C., & Jules, V. (2012). Differential outcomes in high-stakes eleven plus testing: The role of gender, geography, and assessment design in Trinidad and Tobago. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 19(1), 45-64. https://doi.org/10.1080/0969594X.2011.568934
Devonish, J., & Anderson, P. (2017). Fathering the “outside” child: Differences and shortfalls among urban Jamaican fathers. Journal of Social and Economic Studies, 66(1), 33-77. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44732904
Evans, H. (1999a). Gender differences in education in Jamaica. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000136430
Evans, H. (1999b). Streaming and its effects on boys and girls in secondary schools in Jamaica. Journal of Education and Development in the Caribbean, 3(1), 45–60. https://www.mona.uwi.edu/soe/publications/jedic/article/593
Fielding, W. J., & Gibson, J. (2015). Education: Attitudes and achievement of males and females in The Bahamas. Nassau [Unpublished document, College of the Bahamas]. Researchgate. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.4490.1603
Figueroa, M. (2000). Making sense of the male experience: The case of academic underachievement in the English-speaking Caribbean. IDS Bulletin, 3(2), 68–74. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1759-5436.2000.mp31002009.x
Figueroa, M. (2004). Male privileging and male academic underperformance in Jamaica. In R. Reddock (Ed.), Interrogating Caribbean Masculinity (pp 137–166). UWI Press.
Figueroa, M. (2010). Coming to terms with boys at risk in Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean https://www.cedol.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/66-69-2010.pdf
Graham, D. H. J. (2007). The role of parental involvement in the education of secondary school children in Barbados: An examination of family and school contexts on classroom motivation [Doctoral dissertation, Oakland University]. https://search-proquest-com.huaryu.kl.oakland.edu/docview/304848832?accountid=12924
Jean-Pierre, M. (2021). The education system of The Bahamas: The first quarter of the twenty-first century. In S. Jornitz & M. Parreira do Amaral (Eds.), The education systems of the Americas (pp. 1-27). Global Education Systems. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93443-3_32-1
Kutnick, P. (1999). Quantitative and case-based insights into issues of gender and school-based achievement: Beyond simplistic explanations. Curriculum Journal, 10, (2), 253–282. https://doi.org/10.1080/0958517990100206
Kutnick, P. (2000). Girls, boys and school achievement. Critical comments on who achieves in schools and under what economic and social conditions achievement takes place: A Caribbean perspective. International Journal of Education Development, 20, 65–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0738-0593(99)00045-0
Kutnick, P., & Jules, V. (1988). Antecedents affecting science achievement scores in classrooms in Trinidad and Tobago. International Journal of Educational Development, 8(4), 305–314. https://doi.org/10.1016/0738-0593(88)90017-X
Kutnick, P., Jules, V., & Layne, A. (1997). Gender and school achievement in the Caribbean: Education research paper. https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/12859/1/%20er970021.pdf
Marshall, I. A., & Jackman, G. A. (2015). Parental involvement, student active engagement and the "secondary slump" phenomenon: Evidence from a three-year study in a Barbadian secondary school. International Education Studies, 8(7), 84–96. https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v8n7p84
Miller, E. (1994). Marginalization of the Black male: Insights from the development of the teaching profession. Canoe Press.
Mulligan, G. M. (2003). Sector differences in opportunities for parental involvement in the school context. Journal of Catholic Education, 7(2), 246-265. https://doi.org/ 10.15365/joce.0702072013
Munroe, G. C. (2009). Parental involvement in education in Jamaica: Exploring the factors that influence the decision of parents to become involved in the education of their children [Doctoral dissertation, University of Toronto]. https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item?id=NR52530&op=pdf&app=Library&is_thesis=1&oclc_number=718167544
Murphy, S. (2002). The attitudes of Jamaican parents towards parent involvement in high school education [Master’s thesis, University of Wisconson-Stout]. http://www2.uwstout.edu/content/lib/thesis/2002/2002murphys.pdf
O’Neil-Kerr, O. (2014). An investigation into Form Two students’ perceptions of their parents’ involvement in their education both pre- and post their SEA examinations [Unpublished Master’s thesis, University of the West Indies]. https://uwispace.sta.uwi.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2139/21614/Odette%20O'Neil-Kerr.pdf?sequence=1
Orlando, M. B., & Lundwall, J. (2010, June). Boys at risk: A gender issue in the Caribbean requiring a multi-faceted and cross-sectoral approach. En Breve, 158. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstreams/eb39f2d1-e9a5-553d-ae1e-a129ad32e322/download
Parry, O. (1996). In one ear and out the other: Unmasking masculinities in the Caribbean classroom. Sociological Research Online, 1(2), 10–22. https://doi.org/10.5153/sro.12
Plummer, D., McLean, A., & Simpson, J. (2008). Has learning become taboo and is risk-taking compulsory for Caribbean boys? Researching the relationship between masculinities, education and risk. Caribbean Review of Gender Studies, 2. http://hdl.handle.net/2139/15663
Reddock, R. (2003). Men as gendered beings: The emergence of masculinity studies in the Anglophone Caribbean. Social and Economic Studies,52 (3), 89–117. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27865342
Reddock, R. (2010). Gender and achievement in higher education. Journal of Education and Development in the Caribbean, 12 (1). https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rhoda-Reddock/publication/235500045_Gender_and_Achievement_in_Higher_Education/links/0fcfd51354c3802303000000/Gender-and-Achievement-in-Higher-Education.pdf
Worrell, F. C. (2006). Ethnic and gender differences in self-reported achievement and achievement-related attitudes in secondary school students in Trinidad. Caribbean Curriculum, 13, 1–22. https://journals.sta.uwi.edu/ojs/index.php/cc/article/view/622
