Relationship Between Teacher Training Programmes And The Academic Performance Of Male Students In The Anglophone Caribbean

Despite the scholarly discourse around male educational underachievement in the Anglophone Caribbean, no clear link has been made between the way teachers are taught to teach and male underperformance. This explanatory sequential mixed-method investigation is thus an attempt to widen the discourse on factors affecting male academic achievement by examining the relationship between teacher training programmes and male academic performances. Through the employment of a mixed methodology to collect and analyse data quantitatively and qualitatively through web-based surveys and semi-structured interviews respectively, this dissertation examines the structure, theoretical and pedagogical practices underlying teacher training in the Anglophone Caribbean. Snowball sampling of 100 preservice and in-service teachers and a purposeful sampling of four curriculum directors from Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad, and Barbados were critical to the investigation. Multivariate and univariate analysis of quantitative data using SPSS software and thematic qualitative data analysis using the NVivo software supported the findings that teacher training programmes in the Anglophone Caribbean impact the learning and performance of male students. Likewise, findings elucidate that current training programmes are inadequately addressing the prevailing issues of male underachievement, thus the need to augment them in particular areas of pedagogical practices, indigenous theoretical principles and gender-friendly curricula to enhance classroom practices and by extension male academic performances. Thus, the study has strong implications for educational practice and can be used to expand the discourse of educational reforms and male academic performance in the Anglophone Caribbean.