Draws upon 14 semi-structured interviews with the participants in a teacher-researcher project on the theme of "ensuring African Caribbean attainment" with the aim of shedding light on the purposes, processes and lived experiences of teacher research in a difficult and contentious intellectual and practical domain.
Traces the author's journey as a Black Caribbean immigrant from Haiti to the United States. Describes the underlying factors that led to the author's relocation in the U.S. diaspora while at the same time examining the ways in which the author has been racially and linguistically positioned. The author further explains the negotiation of this position. The author's immigrant story is situated in the larger U.S. sociopolitical, linguistic, and racial context where immigrants, particularly immigrants of color, have faced many challenges.
Reports on data drawn from a study exploring the educational strategies of 62 Black Caribbean heritage middle-class parents. Considers the roles of race and class in the shaping of parents' educational strategies.
An analysis of the educational attainment and progress between age 11 and age 14 of over 14,500 students in England. Socioeconomic variables could account for the attainment gaps for Black African, Pakistani and Bangladeshi students, but not for Black Caribbean students. Black Caribbean students were distinctive as the only group making less "progress" than White British students between age 11 and 14 and this could not be accounted for by any of the measured contextual variables. Possible explanations for the White British-Black Caribbean gap are considered.
Author discusses the complexities of identity representation in terms of her Afro Caribbean/"third" world background and her historically African-American university (HBCU) affiliation. Notes how her academic identity marked by her first and third world educational experiences as a Caribbean person of color in the U.S. positions her between the borders of insider/outsider.
