Student Perspectives on Achievement: A Case Study of Eastern Caribbean Community College Students

• In Event: Transforming the Future of Educational Research: RISE Caribbean

Abstract

Globally, student achievement is a critical concept within education, although its meaning is often contested (Guskey 2013). Particularly for Black and other minoritized students (Wingrove-Haugland & McLeos 2021), notions of achievement are entangled with broader realities of systematic inequalities, socio-economic disadvantages, and historical injustices. In the Caribbean, discourses around student achievement usually center on high stakes examinations (DeLisle, 2012; Denny 2020; Jackson 2010), as well as concerns about gendered patterns of achievement (DeLisle 2011), often framed against the backdrop of colonialism.

Secondary school entrance and exit examinations have persisted in the Caribbean as a key measure of student achievement, despite several attempts at educational reform (Delisle 2012). Entrance examinations are typically taken at age 11 and serve a selection function for entry into elite secondary schools. These exams have been heavily criticized for their adverse effects on students, including decreased time for formative assessments, skewing the curriculum, teaching to the test, and increasing test anxiety. Denny (2020) argues that secondary entrance examinations, like much of the practices and ideologies around achievement, show compelling evidence of colonial legacies. Overall, many of the key indicators of student academic achievement suggest significant problems for most of the student population (Jules 2008). Another dominant issue with student achievement in the Caribbean relates to gender. Challenges surrounding boys’ and girls’ education have led to the notion that there is gendered disadvantage (Cobbett & Young 2012; DeLisle 2018), although much of the discourse has examined boys’ underachievement.

At present, significant knowledge gaps remain in understanding the individual priorities, and perspectives, particularly of the students themselves. In the context of an international research-practice partnership (Weinstein & Worrell, 2016), I employ a qualitative case study approach to clarify understandings about the ways in which Eastern Caribbean students conceptualize and navigate ‘achievement’. The study relies on semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 30 students from 6 community colleges across 6 countries, namely, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, St. Lucia, and St. Kitts & Nevis.

Drawing from the theory of ‘edutocracy’ (Denny 2020), the findings of this paper challenge narrow, top-down, colonialist interpretations of student achievement, and argues for broader, more holistic conceptualizations of achievement which acknowledge Caribbean students; complex social and historical positioning, respond to their diverse needs and interests, and amplify their voices. These findings also signal the need for Caribbean educational research practice partnerships to prioritize the perspectives of those most directly involved in the practice of education, and to consider where these perspectives may converge and diverge, particularly, the extent to which they align with research-based best practice on student achievement.

Authors

• Chloe Walker
  Presenting Author

• Deirdre Cobb-Roberts, University of South Florida
  Presenting Author