Papers by Stephen Geofroy
One key determinant of inclusion regarding children from lowincome households is belief in their ... more One key determinant of inclusion regarding children from lowincome households is belief in their learning potential. Teacher educators of the in-service post-graduate Diploma in Education programme are charged with helping teacher-participants interrogate and modify negative views they may hold of students from such backgrounds. Some views may constitute an approach inimical to the empowerment of children. While views of teacher-participants on the learning potential of children from low-income households are discussed early in the programme, there is need for systematic analysis of such views. In so doing, insights gained can guide the approach of teacher educators in their quest for sensitizing teacher-participants as to appropriate responses in educating children from low-income households. Using a qualitative case-study approach, the views of nine teacher-participants were obtained through semistructured focus group interviews that were analysed thematically using the grounded t...
Modern society has brought greater opportunities for peer groups to play relatively greater and i... more Modern society has brought greater opportunities for peer groups to play relatively greater and increasingly unsupervised roles in the lives of young men as they grow up. At the same time social and economic circumstances have created pressures for adults, who previously played a central role in guiding and mentoring young people, to become less important in their lives. The increased influence of peer groups has a strong impact upon the codes of masculinity that many boys aspire to and plays a central role in policing which masculinities are considered ―acceptable. A potent combination of obligations for boys to act like ―real men and of pressures to eschew roles that have become discredited as soft, gay or feminine seems to be driving young men towards dangerous, risk-taking hyper-masculinities. The net outcome of these processes is for violence and crime to be increasingly seen as premiere ways of proving one's manhood in front of those who matter most to boys: their peers.
This paper investigates how Social Sciences teachers, upon completion, perceive their capability ... more This paper investigates how Social Sciences teachers, upon completion, perceive their capability to transfer transformatory learnings gained on an initial in-service Postgraduate Diploma in Education programme (2013-2014) at the School of Education, The University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. Using a phenomenological approach, experiences of 14 teachers from various disciplines within the social sciences were investigated through semi-structured interviews in two concurrent focus group sessions. The research questions investigated what learnings on the programme they perceived as transformatory and what were their perceptions on transferring transformatory learnings in their schools. Findings revealed that the main transformatory learnings on the programme occurred through an expansion of pedagogical content knowledge, becoming a reflective practitioner, sharing a community of practice, and sharpening their professional identity. In the transfer of t...
Teachers’ Professional Development in Global Contexts
Developing a critical-reflective teacher-understanding of teaching practices is an essential elem... more Developing a critical-reflective teacher-understanding of teaching practices is an essential element of teacher development on the in-service Diploma of Education programme for secondary school teachers at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago. Teacher development involves engagement with key educational concepts and reflection on practice. Given the post-colonial context characterising the educational system in the West Indies, this research arose out of the need by Social Sciences teacher-educators to know whether their teachers had developed the kind of critical-reflective understandings that would enhance their classroom practice in an emancipatory fashion. This paper examines teachers’ understandings of their teaching practices to determine whether these understandings can be classified as emancipatory, given the existing post-colonial nature of the educational system. The study assists the Social Sciences teacher-educators to improve their approach to teacher professional development, a key aspect of which involves the process of teacher reflection whereby teachers interrogate theory, practice and context and integrate improved understandings into their profession in an emancipatory manner. In this qualitative case study, data on teacher-understandings were gathered from teacher-participants’ written teaching-philosophy statements over the duration of the ten-month programme. Data reduction employed thematic analysis. Choice extracts were then presented and discussed in narrative form including observations and implications. Findings indicate that teacher-participants understand themselves as emancipatory agents, although their sense of self as part of a professional community needs to be strengthened. They also possess understandings of their subject-discipline and teaching practice as emancipatory.
In the annual revision of the programme, six Social Sciences teacher educators explored the exper... more In the annual revision of the programme, six Social Sciences teacher educators explored the experiences of their teacher-participants to ascertain whether such experiences were aligned with the objectives of the Social Sciences curriculum sessions. Through the interpretative phenomenological approach (IPA), the researchers collaboratively explored the views on how 14 teacher-participants, who volunteered to take part in the research, experienced the programme. Using a semi-structured interview protocol, two focus group interviews were conducted simultaneously at the end of the programme. Interviews were transcribed by the teacher educators who also met as a team to undertake the coding exercise done inductively through the application of the constant comparison method of Glaser and Strauss (1967) to arrive at the themes. The findings show that teachers' experiences were aligned with the session objectives especially with respect to learnings on the nature of their discipline, de...
In the annual revision of the programme, six Social Sciences teacher educators explored the exper... more In the annual revision of the programme, six Social Sciences teacher educators explored the experiences of their teacher-participants to ascertain whether such experiences were aligned with the objectives of the Social Sciences curriculum sessions. Through the interpretative phenomenological approach (IPA), the researchers collaboratively explored the views on how 14 teacher-participants, who volunteered to take part in the research, experienced the programme. Using a semi-structured interview protocol, two focus group interviews were conducted simultaneously at the end of the programme. Interviews were transcribed by the teacher educators who also met as a team to undertake the coding exercise done inductively through the application of the constant comparison method of Glaser and Strauss (1967) to arrive at the themes. The findings show that teachers' experiences were aligned with the session objectives especially with respect to learnings on the nature of their discipline, de...
The context of this study is a Masters course in educational foundations, adjusted from an overal... more The context of this study is a Masters course in educational foundations, adjusted from an overall theoretical format to one which places heavy emphasis on the social interaction of participants toward the building of a community of learning. In a learning community, situations arise which require of its members social competencies conducive to positive social interaction. Subsequent to the course re-format, a qualitative case study was undertaken to gather responses over two course offerings. Data were analysed from teacher-participants, lecturers and tutors, as well as from sections of an assignment. Teacher experiences reveals that success in building a learning community needs scaffolding through in-depth sensitization into what a learning community entails. The challenge to lecturers is to examine their commitment to an emphasis on community building rather than discrete disciplinary knowledge in the philosophy, psychology and sociology of education.
This paper targets the problem of masculine identity construction in its present configuration am... more This paper targets the problem of masculine identity construction in its present configuration among selected English speaking Caribbean cultures. A short consideration of themes from Post-Modern thought and in particular insights from Feminist research are included for background and clarificatory import on masculinity as a socially constructed entity. With the help of this preamble Caribbean masculinity is 'deconstructed' with some important and insightful implications for emancipation critically delineated. Finally, some conclusions and recommendations are drawn with respect to a way forward toward a 're-description' of Caribbean masculinity with promise of greater freedom for all. Post Modernism liberation and 'redescriptions'.
The Journal of Public Space, 2017
Space is gendered. Private domestic space is classically considered to be a woman's domain while ... more Space is gendered. Private domestic space is classically considered to be a woman's domain while public space is masculine. Of course, men are found in private spaces and women in public, but ownership is a reference to those who typically exercise day-today control of that space. It should be remembered, however, that women frequently act as proxies for men in private spaces too; in much of the world, domestic space is inherited by men who are traditionally considered heads-of-the-household. To complicate matters, masculinity comes in many forms and to reconcile these wide variations with narrow, widely-held stereotypes, Connell introduced the term hegemonic masculinity. We take this term as referring to idealised cultural stereotypes related to orthodox masculinity, which provide virtual benchmarks for manhood but which exist nowhere in their absolute form. Nevertheless, these stereotypes serve to map out male domains and they can hence also serve to exclude women, thus making space gendered. We further argue that a potent means of mapping gender domains is through taboos: these taboos designate physical places and cultural spaces that men should not be associated with and doing so can pose grave risks to a reputation and sometimes result in violent retribution. We explore how masculine obligations and taboos construct boundaries between both male and female domains (intergender divides) and create distance between the domains of 'real' men and males who fail to measure up (intragender divides). In particular, we will focus on how the passage to manhood is both deeply affected by, and translates into the everyday character, praxis and ownership of public space with particular reference to manhood in the Caribbean.
The Journal of Public Space, 2017
Space is gendered. Private domestic space is classically considered to be a woman's domain while ... more Space is gendered. Private domestic space is classically considered to be a woman's domain while public space is masculine. Of course, men are found in private spaces and women in public, but ownership is a reference to those who typically exercise day-today control of that space. It should be remembered, however, that women frequently act as proxies for men in private spaces too; in much of the world, domestic space is inherited by men who are traditionally considered heads-of-the-household. To complicate matters, masculinity comes in many forms and to reconcile these wide variations with narrow, widely-held stereotypes, Connell introduced the term hegemonic masculinity. We take this term as referring to idealised cultural stereotypes related to orthodox masculinity, which provide virtual benchmarks for manhood but which exist nowhere in their absolute form. Nevertheless, these stereotypes serve to map out male domains and they can hence also serve to exclude women, thus making space gendered. We further argue that a potent means of mapping gender domains is through taboos: these taboos designate physical places and cultural spaces that men should not be associated with and doing so can pose grave risks to a reputation and sometimes result in violent retribution. We explore how masculine obligations and taboos construct boundaries between both male and female domains (intergender divides) and create distance between the domains of 'real' men and males who fail to measure up (intragender divides). In particular, we will focus on how the passage to manhood is both deeply affected by, and translates into the everyday character, praxis and ownership of public space with particular reference to manhood in the Caribbean.
The Journal of Public Space, 2017
Space is gendered. Private domestic space is classically considered to be a woman's domain while ... more Space is gendered. Private domestic space is classically considered to be a woman's domain while public space is masculine. Of course, men are found in private spaces and women in public, but ownership is a reference to those who typically exercise day-today control of that space. It should be remembered, however, that women frequently act as proxies for men in private spaces too; in much of the world, domestic space is inherited by men who are traditionally considered heads-of-the-household. To complicate matters, masculinity comes in many forms and to reconcile these wide variations with narrow, widely-held stereotypes, Connell introduced the term hegemonic masculinity. We take this term as referring to idealised cultural stereotypes related to orthodox masculinity, which provide virtual benchmarks for manhood but which exist nowhere in their absolute form. Nevertheless, these stereotypes serve to map out male domains and they can hence also serve to exclude women, thus making space gendered. We further argue that a potent means of mapping gender domains is through taboos: these taboos designate physical places and cultural spaces that men should not be associated with and doing so can pose grave risks to a reputation and sometimes result in violent retribution. We explore how masculine obligations and taboos construct boundaries between both male and female domains (intergender divides) and create distance between the domains of 'real' men and males who fail to measure up (intragender divides). In particular, we will focus on how the passage to manhood is both deeply affected by, and translates into the everyday character, praxis and ownership of public space with particular reference to manhood in the Caribbean.
Modern society has brought greater opportunities for peer groups to play relatively greater and i... more Modern society has brought greater opportunities for peer groups to play relatively greater and increasingly unsupervised roles in the lives of young men as they grow up. At the same time social and economic circumstances have created pressures for adults, who previously played a central role in guiding and mentoring young people, to become less important in their lives. The increased influence of peer groups has a strong impact upon the codes of masculinity that many boys aspire to and plays a central role in policing which masculinities are considered-acceptable‖. A potent combination of obligations for boys to act like-real men‖ and of pressures to eschew roles that have become discredited as soft, gay or feminine seems to be driving young men towards dangerous, risk-taking hyper-masculinities. The net outcome of these processes is for violence and crime to be increasingly seen as premiere ways of proving one's manhood in front of those who matter most to boys: their peers.
Uploads
Papers by Stephen Geofroy