Enter Students' Voices: A Study of Secondary Students' Schooling Experiences in an Era of Universal Secondary Education in the Caribbean

• In Event: 60.062 - Learning From African and Caribbean Students' and Teachers' Experiences

Abstract

This study presents students’ perspectives of their schooling experiences as a result of the implementation of Universal Secondary Education (USE) in the tri-island state of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique. Studies analyzing the effects of USE on student academic achievement - and by extension countries’ development - have failed to include the perspectives of those most affected by the policy, that is, the students themselves. Students’ responses were grouped according to the following categories derived from data coding and analysis: classroom relationships, classroom teaching and learning, school curriculum, and school infrastructure. Data were collected through a mixed method approach which included a survey of fifty (50) students and one (1) student focus group from eight (8) secondary schools.

Authors

• Verna Charleen Knight, The University of the West Indies

• Jennifer E. Obidah, University of the West Indies