Exploring Caribbean Boys’ Achievement in Secondary Education

And Boys Stories of Schooling: Their Own Worst Enemies?

This book explores underachievement of boys and girls in secondary education. The author focuses her empirical study on the alarming underachievement of African Caribbean boys in British schools in comparison to other groups. She also adopts a historical perspective to compare West Indian children who arrived in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s (many labeled as ESN) (Coard 1971) to problems faced by black boys in todays classrooms. Janet Graham also explores the impact of globalization, population movement, government policies, and diversity on black boys education provision in inner-city schools in Britain. She investigates masculinity, subcultures, peer-group pressures, and exclusion from school and their impact on black boys education. The institutional focus study sets the context for the empirical study and provides a perspective from voices of black boys in one inner-London school to find out what they think about school, learning, subcultures, peer-group pressures, and teachers. As a contrast, teachers views of the boys are also provided. This book will be of interest to educationalists, teachers, parents, school management, and government bodies interested in race, diversity, achievement, who want to bring about change to improve life chances.