This paper aims to examine the ‘gender regime’ of secondary schools in the Caribbean, through a case study of four secondary schools in the small Eastern Caribbean nation state of Antigua and Barbuda.

Most research on ‘gender and education’ in the Caribbean has focussed on achievement with the result that girls emerge as a ‘success story’ due to their overall higher academic achievement, and boys’ apparent under-achievement – as in other parts of the western world - has been problematised (Figueroa,2000; Chevannes, 2002; De Lisle et al, 2005). Yet research in other contexts (Francis, 2006; Warrington & Younger, 2011) has shown that a focus on boys’ academic achievement often masks other problems and inequalities, such as girls’ continuing low self-esteem, boys’ domination of classroom space and teacher attention, continued inequitable power dynamics and beliefs that it is still better to be a boy.

The extent to which these issues exist has not been well researched in the Caribbean context. In particular, there is a real lack of in-depth qualitative research which explores gender dynamics in schools anywhere in the Caribbean. The studies that do exist are few in number, now slightly dated (Bailey, 2002; Parry, 1996, 1997; Plummer, 2008), and have largely been conducted in Jamaica.  However, these studies indicate that broader research on gender issues is needed in the Caribbean. For example, Bailey’s research on gendered dynamics inside Jamaican secondary school classrooms highlights girls’ experiences of sexual harassment from boys and male teachers and Parry’s research demonstrates that teachers hold strongly gendered stereotypes about boys and girls which inform the way they treat pupils in the classroom.

This paper is located within a gender-relational theoretical context, challenging the recuperative masculinity perspective which has dominated much of the recent debate about gender and achievement in Europe and Australasia, to identify the ‘hidden’ gender inequalities which may exist that have been masked by a focus on achievement scores, and to consider how the gender regime impacts upon the quality of schooling and of well-being for girls. The outcomes of the research are offered as contributing to the debate about the gender regimes of schools, not only in the Caribbean but in the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe such as Scandinavia, Iberia and Germany. 

Research objectives:

·         To examine evidence of differential gendered treatment in the formal and informal structures of the school and daily practices.

·         To understand how girls, boys and teachers view the experiences of schooling in relation to gender.

·         To understand how male and female pupils and teachers perform masculinity and femininity in the school context.

·         To highlight specific areas of concern that may have been missed by a focus on achievement.

·         To explore the extent to which girls, boys and teachers resist the prevailing institutional culture.

·         To collect evidence of good practice with regards to gender that can be shared with other schools.

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