This research project was undertaken within the scope of concern for human resource development and particular concern for documented areas of gender discrimination within education. In the recent past human resource development in education has been limited to expanding access to education. Within the last few years, aid and educational organizations realized that quality of educational experience in developing countries may not 'match' access and a number of instances of potential 'discrimination' within educational systems have been identified (mainly due to gender, social class and religion). One research finding characteristic of educational outcomes in developing countries is that females do not perform as well as males (in terms of achievement within various subjects and 'staying-on' rates in secondary education). Research into the relationship of sex differences, gender and educational attainment has drawn upon biological, psycho-social and (latterly) political theories to help explain results that differentiate the performance of boys and girls.
THE PROJECT
This research project addresses the problem of gender differentiated achievement and staying-on, but approaches it from a distinct angle: exploring why females have stayed-on in schools and achieved comparatively better educational achievement scores in the Caribbean countries of Trinidad, Barbados and St Vincent. These results are consistent throughout the educational system of these countries: in primary and secondary schools, across social classes, in most curriculum subjects and across various types of stratified secondary schools (see Kutnick and Jules, 1988; Jules and Kutnick, 1990). Two main questions arise from the perspective of human resource development:
1. why are females succeeding so consistently within the classroom and educational system, and2. are female educational strategies distinct from the strategies displayed by males at the classroom level?
The project is set against a reported background of limited academic success amongst females in developing countries and within science and mathematics curricula in developed countries (see Acker, 1988; Delamont, 1983; Serbin, 1983; Skelton, 1990; among others). Studies of school achievement in developing countries, especially in the African continent, identify that success is related to socio-economic status of parents, sex and age of pupils (see Heyneman, 1976) although these findings may be confounded by school factors such as class size, provision of texts, location of school (see Schiefelbein and Simmons, 1980). Among personal aspects used to explain lack of school achievement, gender (in particular being a female) has consistently been alluded to (King, 1987; Sutherland, 1987), especially as it interacts with religious orientation and socio-economic status to explain access to schools and choice of subject (Brock and Cammish, 1997).
On the other hand, Caribbean educational research provides a contrasting picture of gender and school achievement from African and Asian dominated research. The World Bank (1993) brought together information concerning 'Access, Quality and Efficiency in Education in the Caribbean Region'. With regard to school achievement the report identifies that most countries within the Caribbean region have good (if not universal) access to primary education and a large proportion of the population have access to post-primary schooling. Variation in school achievement among these countries is largely explained by socio-economic status of parents, although a clear second order of variance is explained by sex of pupils; females out-perform males at various levels of schooling, in a broad range of curriculum subjects and this is substantiated on within-class and national examinations. Higher levels of school achievement by females have been found in:
Primary schools: Barbados: Females show higher reading achievement and higher scores on English and mathematics examinations (Commonwealth Secretariat, 1990);
Trinidad: Females show a lower drop-out rate and lower repeater rate (Trinidad CSO, 1988), and girls score higher than boys on the Common Entrance Examination (World Bank, 1993).
Secondary schools: With the knowledge that most secondary schools have been structured into a stratified system of prestige and lower status schools (allowing differential access by pupils), there are still consistent sex differences found by curriculum subject, and within school and national testing. Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) results show that females are more likely to 'sit' the examination (60% girls, 40% boys) and girls across the Caribbean achieve better CXC results in English, history and social studies while boys achieve better in mathematics, geography and business studies (Leo Rhyme, 1989). Across Caribbean results conflict somewhat with results found in Trinidad (Kutnick and Jules, 1988; Jules and Kutnick, 1990; and Osuji, 1987). After accounting for social class these studies found:
1) girls perform better on teacher-made, within-class tests at all ages between 8 and 16 and in all curriculum subjects even within the differentiated sciences at the fifth form -females achieving higher average scores in biology and physics and no significant difference in chemistry; and2) girls perform better on CXC examinations across the whole range of subjects.
At the start of this project we were unsure why Trinidadian girls performed consistently better than boys throughout the age groups and across the subject range. There was a strong indication (though without statistical support) that similar results may be found in Barbados. We were also curious whether the results that showed females outperform males in school achievement in countries with universal access to primary and secondary education in the Caribbean (Trinidad and Barbados) would generalise to a country with only limited secondary places for students (St Vincent). Data in the project was obtained to provide insight into four questions:
1. the variance of within-class achievement scores by sex, especially between pupils of equal ability (as noted results of the primary school leaving examination, the Common Entrance Examination (CEE), and knowing that these results are used as the main selection criteria for entry into a system of stratified secondary schools);2. whether differential levels of achievement remained over time, especially over the years of secondary schooling so that subject choice and performance can be related to earlier individual expression of ability or socialisation influence;
3. whether there are differential learning strategies that characterize girls and boys in schools, and whether these strategies are related to the status of their secondary school;
4. whether the quantitative Trinidadian results may be substantiated elsewhere in the Caribbean, especially in Barbados and in St Vincent.
The questions were formulated in the expectation of identifying positive educational actions that may be undertaken to facilitate and support educational efforts and staying-on rate for all pupils. This expectation would apply especially to boys, who were seen to suffer from lower academic performance than girls and who were more likely to 'drop-out' of school early. The questions were explored through a series of studies so that:
1. the variance of achievement by sex of children was explored in quantitative studies undertaken in Barbados and St Vincent;2. differential levels of achievement (in Barbados and St Vincent) could be related to the stratified nature of schooling in these countries and/or personal background factors in the children's lives;
3. differential learning strategies and school stratification was explored in classroom case studies undertaken in Trinidad and Barbados; and
4. whether early quantitative results in Trinidad would generalise to Barbados (an island with slightly higher levels of school participation than Trinidad) and St Vincent (an island with a similar level of primary school participation as Trinidad, but a much reduced level of secondary school participation).
SOME BACKGROUND LITERATURE; setting the agenda for analysis
Current literature concerning less developed countries:
Within recent years, explorations into sex and gender differences in academic achievement have become more frequent. The range of results exemplify the need for caution when interpreting and generalising findings. Caution is most strongly linked to two aspects of the research: the use of sex and/or gender as complete or partial explanation for the differences found in the attainment performance of boys and girls in schools; and the separation between more and less affluent developing countries (especially those in the Caribbean and those in Sub-Saharan Africa).
For clarification in this report, when referring to attainments and behaviours of boys and girls in schools, we will adopt the differentiated terms used by Oakley (1981, p.41): "Sex refers to the biological division into male and female; gender to the parallel and socially unequal division into femininity and masculinity". The division in educational participation and effects between Caribbean and Sub-Saharan African countries is largely based on economic strength and the ability of the country to provide primary and secondary schools and access to these schools for all of its population.
Reviews and comparisons of research in developing countries (such as Brock and Cammish, 1997) identify that participation and attainment in education requires a complex explanation. Access to education is limited, especially in the African countries (of their comparison), due to the following factors:
Geography: the distance to school and incompleteness of educational systems in rural areas of any country;Socio-cultural and historic attitudes: previous participation rates and models of participation in education, parental occupation and education, early marriage and primary socialisation patterns;
Health: historic sex preference for the enhancement of male opportunities linked with female dominated domestic responsibilities;
Economic: questioning who should benefit from education and who controls this decision;
Religion: the images and biases presented by the various religions as well as the educational opportunities offered by the religions;
Political: a weighing of equal opportunities for the population versus economic constraints under which any country is labouring; and
Educational: organisation and structure of schools, modes of interaction between teachers and pupils, the curriculum and curriculum materials offered to pupils.
The outcomes or effect of these factors can be seen in the enrolment number of boys and girls at the various stages in education, achievement by boys and girls generally and within specific subjects, subject selection by student, and wastage (or drop-out) of girls and boys at various stages in schooling (see Swainson, 1995 for an in-depth consideration of these issues). While the factors in Sub-Saharan Africa appear to conspire to limit the participation of females in education, the research picture of the Caribbean is very different.
A recent review by Drayton (1995) drew upon the World Bank report (1993) and educational statistics from the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean Countries (OECS). She identified that:
a. enrolment for boys and girls was very similar within primary schools, but became differentiated during the years of secondary schooling;b. girls generally attained higher within-school and national examination results than boys although this was differentiated by subject; and
c. boys and girls tended to choose different (stereotypical) subjects in the later years of secondary schooling.
Explanation for the educational attainments of girls could not be provided by the classic biological theories (brain size and development). Rather, educational attainment was more likely to be explained by patterns of early socialisation (female responsibilities, matriarchal upbringing as well as maternal occupation and education, sex role socialisation and the debateable area of male marginalisation (Miller, 1991)), school differences (co-education versus single sex education, school organisation, teacher pupil interaction (especially the association of discipline with boys) and curriculum materials); and the social processes within which the child is engaged.
The review by Drayton introduces political explanations of educational attainment. She suggests that any consideration of academic success must include social-economic attributes of the child's family, primary socialisation in and around the home and school-based factors. The relative contribution of these forces have been accounted for in the Trinidad study by Jules and Kutnick (1990), showing
effects of parental occupation, type of school attended, religion and sex of the child. Jules and Kutnick, though, were unable to explore for interactive occurrences within the classroom.
Current literature in developed countries:
Only within recent years has it been acknowledged that boys are not achieving at the levels of girls (for example see the OFSTED/EOC report, The Gender Divide (1996)). The explanations of research results in Western countries (UK, USA, Australia for example), strongly parallel the explanations used in the developing country literature. The differences in examination attainments between males and females show that sex differences are mediated by: the level of education (females attaining higher than males through GCSE, while males 'catch up' in a number of subjects at 'A level); sex differentiation in secondary subject choices; changes in female attainments over the last three decades; male disaffection and discipline problems in school (see Murphy and Elwood, 1996 for fuller discussion).
Explanations for these differences between boys and girls have moved away from biological theories into psycho-social insights concerning patterns of socialisation and differential experiences offered to males and females, especially the experiences offered by the family home and the organisation/interactions of the school. These advances in explanation have been derived from two types of methodological approach to the study of achievement within schools: large sample, multivariate studies and small sample, qualitative studies. The large sample studies question whether the differences between the attainments of boys and girls are simply based upon sex differences. These studies show that explanations for attainments must account for experiences in the home (occupation and education of mother and father, socialisation patterns) and other experiences in the child's life (type of school attended, quality of interaction within school, friendships). More intensive, qualitative studies show that distinct 'educational' experiences are offered to boys and girls within the confines of cultures and subcultures. Experiences may appear as simple as different books for reading, described by Murphy and Elwood (1996); but these experiences have been linked to pupils' later writing style and the way that information is expected to be provided and assessed in examinations. Verbal and nonverbal interactions between pupil and teacher provides further evidence of differential experiences and participation in the learning process of the classroom (Lafrance, 1991) and disaffection from schooling (Davies and Bramber, 1995). These studies provide a number of points for consideration. Among the points are: what is the relative weighting of the various contributing factors to attainment; if there are similarities and fluidity between the performances of males and females, how can psycho-social experiences be so different; what role does the organisation and structure of the school play in the differentiation of experience for pupils; and, are reading and discipline really key factors in eventual attainment of pupils? A final and substantive point is made by Mahony (1997). In identifying that gendered models of educational attainment are reductionist and simplistic, Mahony questions why so much interest is currently being focused on male underachievement. From a developing country view, underachievement in education represents a threat to national development. Mahony forces a further consideration that the focus on male underachievement may also represent the rebirth of the 'competitive state' in which old power elites re-assert themselves and challenge the accomplishments of equal opportunities that have been painstakingly established (especially by women, minorities and disadvantaged) over the last two decades.
