A Survey of Primary School Teachers’ Understanding and Implementation of Moral Education in Trinidad and Tobago 1

Abstract

Results from a survey of teachers’ understanding and implementation of moral education in primary schools in Trinidad and Tobago are presented here, against consideration of the role of moral education in schooling. The paper discusses the range of moral curricula available for the implementation of moral education in schools and constraints on implementation in the classroom. It also compares the need for and applicability of moral education programmes in developing and developed countries. In Trinidad and Tobago, noted for its population and religious mix, the role of moral education has been given importance from the highest levels at the Ministry of Education and elsewhere in government. The survey of a representative sample of teachers in primary schools throughout the country showed that they largely felt themselves responsible for introducing moral education to their pupils, although they rarely drew upon any specific curriculum. They tended to take a ‘virtues’ approach in their teaching of moral education, and were generally satisfied with the results of their efforts. There were few differences between understanding and implementation of moral education that could be attributed to age, sex, experience or responsibilities of the teacher, or the age of the pupils. These results are not just characteristic of a developing country as they mirror earlier findings in England and elsewhere.

     

Academic development through the contextualization of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: reflections drawn from the recent history of Trinidad and Tobago

Whilst the case for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) has been made, there has been little discussion on how such scholarship might lead academic development at the local level. Through analyzing the recent history of Trinidad and Tobago this paper proposes that the conceptualization of SoTL should embrace the nuances of its particular context. It is argued that, since gaining independence, the education system of Trinidad and Tobago has failed to shake off the remnants of its former colonizer and that the Ministry of Education has looked to import educational ‘best practice’ from other countries. This paper suggests that ‘borrowing’ the drivers of development is culturally naïve and, instead, proposes that educational change should be led through a context-specific examination of the relationship between scholars of teaching and learning and the society in which they find themselves.     

Using multiple methods to investigate eleven-year-olds’ experiences of preparing for a high-stakes public examination in Trinidad and Tobago

This study was designed to uncover and evaluate unintended and indirect consequences of using the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) in Trinidad and Tobago for high-stakes selection and placement. A major argument is that the test-taker is central to consequences, both intended and unintended. Data were obtained from eleven-year-olds preparing and taking the examination using multiple qualitative methods, which privilege agency and personal and social consciousness. Methods capturing the test-takers’ experience included diaries, focus groups, drawings, photovoice, and photo-elicitation. The findings were summarised by a theory of action and reported in integrated themes. Test preparation was mostly drill and practice. Both test preparation and test-taking were emotion-eliciting events requiring significant investment in positive social relationships to buffer negative impact. The costs and impact of early high-stakes examinations in Trinidad and Tobago might be higher than anticipated.     

Determinants of Academic Success within Classrooms in Trinidad and Tobago: some personal and systemic variables

Within the context of expanding placements for secondary education and the call for improvement of quality within the educational systems of developing and developed countries, this paper considers who and (comparatively) how well students are succeeding in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. The paper notes that there have been a limited number of studies in the Republic which provide information on opportunities for school success at the macro level of the school system. Additionally, there is much conflicting information published which explores factors determining success and failure in developing and developed countries; such factors include personal/biographical and systemic/school focused variables. There is also very little information concerning whether these variables have a similar effect at the micro/classroom level. In relating determinants of classroom level success to the expansion in quantity (and supposedly quality) of the educational system in Trinidad and Tobago, we question whether a greater opportunity for education actually results in a greater probability for all students to succeed. A proportional, stratified, random, clustered sample of 992 secondary school students (5% of the 2nd and 5th form population in half of the educational districts in Trinidad and Tobago) was selected for study. Information obtained for each student included systemic information (school attended, type of school, school size, education district, locality, managing authority, single‐sex or coeducational school, form level and class size) and personal information (sex of student, age, occupation of father and mother, religion and classroom based end‐of‐term test scores in each of the curriculum areas studied — with an average overall score). Analyses of the within‐class test scores showed that a large amount of variance was accounted for by the systemic and personal variables, and the most telling of the variables were the type of school attended and gender of the student. Students in traditional schools obtained higher scores in traditional curriculum areas than other students, and girls consistently gained the highest of the scores. Further analyses showed significant differences with reference to parental occupation, the size and locality of the school and school sexual make‐up. The results show a consistent bias to success of female students, from a middle class home, attending an urban traditional school, in all curriculum areas except social studies. Students attending government managed schools at the 5th form scored higher in social studies than those in traditional schools. The results confirm that the quantitative expansion of the secondary school system in Trinidad and Tobago did not expand in quality educational opportunity for all, except in the new curriculum area of social studies. Interpretations of the results relate to the existing literature on developed and developing countries and the particular situation in Trinidad and Tobago.     

Improving the status and prestige of post-colonial secondary schools in a developing nation: The marketing approach

In many countries of the Third World the structure of secondary education is dichotomized. On the one hand there are traditional grammar schools that predate decolonization, and on the other a new breed of schools has emerged during the period of political independence. Maintaining their traditional reputation for excellence, the grammar schools attract, but are not limited to, students demonstrating the highest levels of academic proficiency. They are the schools where children of the local élite are usually in attendance. The newer post-colonial secondary schools are usually attended by students of lower academic performance, the majority of whom come from lower class families. Post-colonial secondary schools lag far behind their traditional grammar school counterparts in academic performance. In Trinidad and Tobago some serious criticisms have been levelled against the newer post-colonial type of secondary schools. Their reputation and status in the local society have been low, and several efforts at melioration have been attempted by the Government, without much success. The paper therefore attempts three main tasks. It examines some of the major problems faced by post-colonial secondary schools in Trinidad and Tobago, critically reviews some of the efforts made by Government to improve the status and prestige of these schools, and suggests the strategy of marketing educational institutions as a means by which melioristic transformation of these institutions may be achieved. A speculative analysis of certain issues likely to be affected as a result of implementation of the marketing strategy concludes the paper.     

From Central Guidance Unit to Student Support Services Unit: The Outcome of a Consultation Process in Trinidad and Tobago

In this article, we report on a multiyear consultation project between a consulting team based in the United States and the Ministry of Education in Trinidad and Tobago. The project was initiated with a request for training in counseling for secondary school students but ended with the training of personnel from the Ministry of Education in diagnosis and assessment at the elementary school level. Outcomes included manuals with national norms on phonemic awareness, oral reading fluency, and parent and teacher rating scales for the elementary-age students in Trinidad and Tobago and on a depression screener and an anxiety measure for secondary school students. Details on the consultation process are discussed as are lessons learned.     

Post‐expansionist Adjustments in Secondary Education in a Developing Society: a case study

Following the conclusion of a period of educational expansion during the last two decades, developing nations are now focusing attention upon adjusting some of those innovations made during the recent period of quantitative expansion. The paper examines how Trinidad and Tobago has responded to the need for adjustments in education provision during the current post‐expansionist period. In particular the paper analyzes Trinidad and Tobago's current reaction to the nation's system of double‐shift schooling, a device instituted during the 1970s as part of Government's strategy for universal secondary education. Arguments both for and against the shift‐system are presented, and Trinidad and Tobago's insistence that the mechanism should be dismantled is critically examined. Explanations for the approach taken by Trinidad and Tobago towards the nation's double‐shift schooling are drawn from two sources: arguments about the state of the nation's economy, and policies regarding approaches to educational development planning in developing nations.     

The role of educational choice in occupational gender segregation: Evidence from Trinidad and Tobago

We analyse the role of educational choice on the degree of occupational segregation in Trinidad and Tobago during a period in which educational policies intent on equating gender opportunities in education were implemented. To this end we utilize waves of the Trinidad and Tobago labour force survey over the period 1991–2004. Our results show that while educational segregation has fallen substantially over our sample period, this has not translated into less occupational segregation. This suggests that the educational policy has not been sufficient to combat occupational segregation. However, results at a more disaggregated level show that experiences have been heterogeneous across educational and occupational groups.     

The Decentralisation Of Education In Kerala State, India: Rhetoric And Reality

The decentralisation of educational administration has been widely advocated as a strategy to promote local participation in education. However, the fact that this advocacy has a long history raises the question why decentralisation has not been achieved in more educational systems. The answers to this question are many and complex. Among them are difficulties with the implementation of reforms. The present study examines some of these difficulties in Kerala State, India. It determines that although Kerala has a strong reputation for political participation, the rhetoric of decentralisation in the educational sector has not matched the reality there. The lessons to be learned in this context have wide implications for the theory and practice of decentralisation in education.     

Language for the Global Economy: Some curriculum fundamentals and pedagogical practices in the colonial educational enterprise

The paper provides an example of contrivances undertaken to establish English as the language of the global economy. Trinidad and Tobago is the location chosen, and the late colonial period is the time frame used to demonstrate how the 'project' worked. The paper focuses upon some curricular and pedagogic practices used to transmit and fortify English as the language of communication, and is classroom based. What took place at ground level, so to speak, and within the framework of a major formal institution, the colonial elementary school, is examined. Three theoretical frames are engaged: selected aspects of language learning theory as these relate to reading in particular, pedagogical content knowledge and hermeneutics. The analysis reveals that classroom practices were orchestrated to cement and fortify an English language base in Trinidad and Tobago during the period under study, and to guarantee the use of English for all time. The strategies used included appropriate packaging of content, exclusiveness in selection and use of textual (British) material, pre-occupation with the 'grammar syndrome', indoctrination into British culture, and transmission of the ideology that success in 'school English' was a touchstone for induction into 'the good life'. The paper concludes that the job of securing the already established English-language base in Trinidad and Tobago was a diligent masterpiece. The colonizer 'played a good number' upon the colonized in Trinidad and Tobago, so much so that the present exclusive use of English in that country is seen as irreversible, unlike the situation in some other post-colonial states.     

The Decentralisation Of Education In Kerala State,India: Rhetoric And Reality

The decentralisation of educational administration has been widely advocated as a strategy to promote local participation in education. However, the fact that this advocacy has a long history raises the question why decentralisation has not been achieved in more educational systems. The answers to this question are many and complex. Among them are difficulties with the implementation of reforms. The present study examines some of these difficulties in Kerala State, India. It determines that although Kerala has a strong reputation for political participation, the rhetoric of decentralisation in the educational sector has not matched the reality there. The lessons to be learned in this context have wide implications for the theory and practice of decentralisation in education.     

Evaluating the geography of gendered achievement using large-scale assessment data from the primary school system of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago

This study analyzed the spatial distribution of gender differentials in Mathematics and Language Arts on national assessments of educational achievement in the primary school system of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. The findings indicate statistically significant medium-sized differences favouring females on Language Arts primarily in the rural regions of east Trinidad and in the island of Tobago and statistically significant, negligible to small differences on Mathematics nationwide. Individual schools reporting medium-sized gender differences were more common in rural, low-performing education districts, where reported poverty was also higher. This pattern of early gendered achievement in language within low-achieving, poor and rural geographic locations points towards the need for placed-based education policies and focused interventions.     

Curriculum Convergence: An ethno-historical investigation into schooling in Trinidad and Tobago

Conscious manipulation of the curriculum in order to achieve the goals of colonialism was a principle in schooling in Trinidad and Tobago prior to independent rule. The approach was selective: the state identified and conveniently put into practice certain principles believed to have potential for servicing the colonial ideal. The curriculum domains which provided guidance in the process were mental discipline, child study, social efficiency and humanism, and the indicators gleaned from each of these ideological camps came together at the height of the colonial period and collectively informed curriculum choice and pedagogical practices. An amalgam of curriculum principles and approaches, therefore, rather than any one distinct operational ideology, underpinned practice. The study focuses on the teaching end of the schooling spectrum. It uses an ethno-historical method to identify both curriculum content and pedagogical strategy, determines the ideological provenance of these inputs, and indicates how the colonial state stood to benefit from the choices made. It is argued that the approach used by the colonizer did in fact accomplish some intended outcomes, but in that very feat lies the crucible for many of the difficulties which an independent Trinidad and Tobago now faces in its attempt to develop and implement curricula that are responsive to the emergence into a modern nation state.     

Fostering inclusive education: principals' perspectives in Trinidad and Tobago

This paper shares elementary school principals' perspectives from one urban school district in Trinidad and Tobago, regarding factors that might enhance or limit their and/or their faculty's readiness for inclusion in their schools. Qualitative data collection comprised a self-administered questionnaire and focus group interviewing. Respondents comprise 18 school principals. Findings revealed a philosophical readiness to embrace inclusive practice, but resistance towards assuming responsibilities for such students within the classroom. Recommendations to facilitate more effective inclusion hinged upon teacher education, leadership and collaborative practice.     

Antecedents affecting science achievement scores in classrooms in Trinidad and Tobago

This paper initially notes the role of scientific education in a developing country and the need to enhance scientific education among the school population. Enhancement of science education for all pupils is dependent on the distribution of schools, quality of schools and pupil participation in any country. To understand how science education is advanced in a developing country it is also important to know who is currently succeeding in science education in schools and to understand how this success is distributed amongst the school population. Thus, this paper questions whether school-based science achievement may be predetermined by antecedent factors or whether there is an equal opportunity of success amongst all pupil participants. A review of the literature has found that many antecedent factors affect school and science achievement, and these factors may be more important than within-school processes thought to enhance science education. The antecedent factors refer to: social/home background; age, religion and sex of the pupil; school class level and size; type of school attended and its locality.This study assesses how antecedent factors affect science performance in a representative sample of pupils in primary and secondary schools throughout Trinidad and Tobago. The representative sample totalled 1998 children, aged 6–10 years. Pupils were selected from a geographic transect of Trinidad and Tobago, which fulfilled demographic criteria. Once pupils were selected, biographic data were obtained for each child. Science achievement was measured by an end-of-term science examination designed for each class by the class teacher and graded on a 100% scale (within each class). Within class pupil scores were ‘standardized’ for comparisons between classes, schools, etc. Results from the analyses are summarized as: science achievement scores decrease as pupils increase in age. Girls perform consistently better than boys, with a slight variation in the sex by religion by school level interaction. Pupils in private schools score higher than pupils in similar levels of state schools. Pupils from a middle class background perform better than pupils from a working class background. Differences in performance relate to the religion of the child, with Muslim pupils scoring higher than Hindu or Christian pupils. Pupils in single-sex schools perform at higher levels than pupils in co-educational schools, and this is true for girls-only and boys-only schools. At the secondary school level the type of school attended is related to science achievement performance with pupils in prestige (usually church controlled) schools performing better than pupils in the comprehensive (state controlled) schools.The results support, develop and refine the previous literature on school and science achievement. Unusually, girls are at the forefront of science achievement in both primary and secondary schools. Also, traditional prejudices of social class, school status and location are confirmed within the school system in Trinidad and Tobago. A number of directions for future research and classroom action studies are indicated which focus on the existence of these inequalities.     

Action research improves services for child sexual abuse in one Caribbean nation: An example of good practice

BackgroundChild sexual abuse (CSA) is a multi-dimensional problem. The search for best practice must consider the complexities surrounding CSA and its management in any particular society.ObjectiveData previously gathered from service providers on CSA service provision in Trinidad and Tobago identified key deficient issues in policy and practice. In this paper, researchers aimed to bridge the gaps identified, and effect changes to improve services for CSA using an action research methodology.Participants and settingService providers from all sectors in governmental and non-governmental organizations in Trinidad and Tobago, who work with children at risk of CSA were involved in the process.MethodsResearchers led the service providers into an awareness of their own practice through critical discussion of, and reflection on, the key deficient issues. The new knowledge generated, with guided input from evidenced-based best practice, led to the development of guidelines for management. Discussion of the practicability of the guidelines by service providers in multiple sectors generated more new knowledge that refined the management approach.ResultsThe contextual knowledge obtained from service providers resulted in best practice guidelines for service providers that were culturally relevant and context-sensitive, adaptive and implementable, and allowed a seamless multidisciplinary response to CSA in Trinidad and Tobago within prevailing constraints.ConclusionsAction research offers an effective approach to improve services for CSA through mobilization of service providers and changes in policy and practice. It is applicable in any setting and likely to be effective in any socio-cultural context.     

Decentralisation And Privatisation Of Education In Africa: Which Option For Nigeria?

Arguing that the politicisation of decentralisation appreciably reduces educational quality and efficient resource allocation and negatively affects matters of equity in and delivery of education, the present study provides a critique of decentralisation and privatisation in education in Africa with special reference to Nigeria. On the basis of the experiences of other nations, the author suggests that both decentralisation and privatisation in education – especially the introduction of user fees – have created a new dimension of educational inequality in Nigeria as well. In this case, it can be seen that indicators of efficiency declined significantly in line with negative trends in national-government appropriations to sub-national governments and the education sector. The author concludes that no linkage can be asserted to exist between decentralisation and educational improvement.     

Teacher Identity in an Era of Educational Reform: The case of Trinidad and Tobago

The pace of educational reform has been increasing significantly at the global level and teachers have significant roles to play in such reform movements. This paper compares the beginning teacher identity of primary teacher trainees in Trinidad and Tobago with the concept of the teacher that seems to underpin present reform initiatives. Beginning teacher identity, explored through the use of a questionnaire and interviews, is portrayed as images and metaphors. It seems to encapsulate the missionary ideology of teaching and the notion of child-centred pedagogy, with the classroom as the centre of interaction between pupil and teacher. The reforms, on the other hand, look to teachers to support, as well, the decentralisation effort that calls for collaboration with the community, and the promotion of continuous assessment practices that calls for collaboration across grade levels in the school. Both the community focus and the school focus are likely to pose problems for beginning teachers who maintain a classroom focus. The paper highlights the need for reform efforts to take into account the gaps between existing teacher identity images and those envisioned for the reformed system.     

Cultivating Political Morality for Deliberative Citizens — Rawls and Callan Revisited

In this article, I will argue that the implementation of deliberative democracy needs to be supplemented by a specific political morality in order to cultivate free and equal citizens in exercising public reason for achieving a cooperative and inclusive liberal society. This cultivation of personality is literally an educational project with a robust ethical ambition, and hence, it reminds us the orthodox liberal problem concerning the relation between the state and its citizenship education. Following Callan’s reformulation of the political conception of the person, I will argue that Rawls’s political liberalism can accommodate the ethical demand of deliberative citizenship education. Liberal civic education should legitimately specify its own ethical endowments for active citizenship and need not shy away from making proposals on the cultivation of liberal character that might result in influencing individual’s conception of the good. Rawls’s theory thus redefines the state neutrality problem on education and paves the way for a framework of deliberative citizenship education.     

Empowering school-based management through decentralised financial control

Abstract

This article focuses on decentralisation of financial control as a strategy used to develop school-based management (SBM) and improve performance. SBM is a management mechanism aimed at improving schools by shifting decision-making powers regarding the budget from the central level to the schools (Raywind 1990, 142). The article examines the role of the state in decentralisation by exploring the current South African education policy on this aspect of educational reform as expressed through the Norms and standards for school funding (RSA 1998). The policy was designed in response to the demands for educational reform and restructuring initiatives.

A common feature in the implementation of this policy is the devolution of decisionmaking authority over the management of resources to schools. This includes devolution of state-allocated budgets and delegation of financial management responsibilities to school-based financial management structures through the district as a primary education service delivery system for the state. To assist both the district and the school in carrying out their responsibilities, a model for school-based financial management is presented in this article.