Dr. Stephen Geofroy
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Item When Bad is Cool: Violence and crime as rites of passage to manhood.(CARIBBEAN REVIEW OF GENDER STUDIES, 2010-01) Plummer, David; Geofroy, StephenModern 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.Item Social Sciences teachers' perceptions of transformatory learnings and the transfer of transformatory learnings from an initial in-service professional development programme at The University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago, 2013-2014(CERIS, 2016) Barras, D., Bitu, B., Geofroy, S., Lochan, S., McLeod L., & Ali, SThis 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 transformatory learnings, participants declared an enhanced pedagogical practice, a piquing of interest, a feeling of empowerment and other factors that facilitated the learnings. They mentioned certain barriers to implementation such as the emphasis their schools placed on teaching to the test and the challenge of access to educational technology.Item Teachers’ views of the learning potential(Caribbean Educational Research Information Service, 2017) Bitu, Barras, Geofroy, Ali, Lochan, McLeod, Stephens-James & Valentine-LewisOne key determinant of inclusion regarding children from low-income 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 theory approach. Findings revealed that although teacher-participants expressed views acknowledging the challenging life contexts of students from low-income households, they were also keenly aware of the empowering potential of positive relationships in the educational endeavour. Practical asset-based strategies for teachers and administrators were advanced in response to issues confronting students from low-income households. Recommendations suggested ways in which teacher education could be enhanced.Item Did they learn anything? Experiences of Social Sciences teachers on an initial in-service post-graduate teacher education programme, 2013/14, at The School of Education, UWI, St Augustine Campus, Trinidad and Tobago(Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, 2015) Ali, Barras, Bitu, Geofroy, LochanIn 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, developing skills for teaching diverse learners, becoming responsible for self-development as teachers. Such learnings seem to indicate a positive change in praxis and professional identity. The recommendations made would lead to a review of the session objectives for the Teaching of Social Sciences in the Dip. Ed. programme for future cohorts