In One Ear and Out the Other: Unmasking Masculinities in the Caribbean Classroom

Derived from qualitative data collected for a research project based at the Institute of Social and Economic Research at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica, this paper explores classroom gendered responses of High School students in Jamaica, Barbados and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The account shows how teachers interpret gendered responses as confirmation of natural and necessary differences between male and female pupils. It is these perceived differences which they use to justify the case for single sex education, particularly for males. Conversely the paper argues that male gendered responses are informed by cultural expectations which translate into pedagogical relationships. These expectations reflect a version of masculinity (emerging from the historical experiences of white patriarchal chattel slavery in the West Indies) which equates education with the female side of a male/female dichotomy. The paper explores ways in which schools encourage this version of ‘masculinity’ at the same time as rendering it educationally inappropriate. In doing so the paper addresses issues which have been raised about male educational failure in recent British research.