Welcome to UWISpace, The University of the West Indies Institutional Repository for Research and Scholarship
This archive was established by the UWI Libraries to support the dissemination of knowledge by providing open access to the digitally preserved intellectual output of the University. Here we aim to collect together in one place the research and scholarship of members of the UWI community. UWISpace provides a platform for the collection, organisation, access and preservation of scholarly information in digital formats.
Departments and individuals wishing to deposit their research material in the UWISpace archive can email the administrators, or phone (868) 662 2002, Exts. 84419, 82241, 82215 at The Alma Jordan Library, St. Augustine Campus, Trinidad and Tobago.
All items in the UWISpace repository are protected by original copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.
Courtesy: The Caribbean Charts and Engravings Circa 1555-1818. The Alma Jordan Library. The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago.
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Recent Submissions
The effects of traditional bullying on the academic performance of learners at the primary level in Guyana
(International Journal of Educational Policy Research and Review (IJEPRR), 2018-09-25) Fraser, Sherwin; Edwards, Dale; Williams, Roslyn
This paper examines the effects of traditional bullying on the academic performance of students at the Grade Six levels in primary schools in Guyana and highlights the dynamics of gender involvement. This randomized study was conducted on 33 students (ages 9-11 years) with maladaptive behaviour at Diamond Primary School. The participants in this study were bullies, victims and bystanders, who were all students. The results indicated a significant relationship between bullying and academic performance. The study concluded that traditional bullying has been and continues to be a major problem in schools. The study recommended that school wide bully prevention programmes be conducted to mitigate this dastardly act.
The Journal of Education and Humanities, Vol. 4, 2021
(Faculty of Education and Humanities, University of Guyana, 2021) McPherson, Akima; Goolsarran, Mohandatt; Khan, Michael; Rose, Pamela; Kendall, Andrew
This fourth issue of the Journal of Education and Humanities (JEH) continues to fulfill its commitment to lecturers in the Faculty of Education and Humanities, University of Guyana, to assist them in developing their research profiles and output in a refereed journal, and to provide findings from invaluable critical literary analyses and research studies in Education. These peer-reviewed articles inform future improvements in key subject areas of Education and expand the body of critical literary works. In addition, it extends the same opportunity to lecturers in another area of academic study offered by the Faculty: the Fine Arts. These findings analyses and recommendations could stimulate further research in Guyana, the Caribbean, and internationally. Such findings and analyses are included in two research papers on English and Mathematics, the two compulsory subjects in our regional Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate (CSEC), two analyses of literary works, as well as the statement and display of works of Michael Khan, one of the long-serving lecturers in the Creative Arts Division who won the first prize in the Fine Craft category for one of his pieces at the 2017 Guyana Visual Arts Competition and Exhibition. Khan shares a statement of himself as an artist, allowing us the opportunity to view samples of his work from his perspectives and in support of his claim that his creative compositions capture and manipulate simple art forms as he conveys his ideas. An outstanding feature of this issue is the attention paid to Mathematics and English by two active researchers in Education. Mohandatt Goolsarran focuses attention on all the stakeholders involved in the teaching of Mathematics in secondary schools in Guyana. His paper provides well-examined data to suggest future decisions at the regional, national and school levels while highlighting the need to synchronise changing curricula demands with technology. Pamela Rose addresses the gender disparity that affects male and female students’ preferences for writing instructions in classrooms in a Creole-speaking context, an area in which research is sparse. Her findings not only point to the need to equip secondary school English teachers with the knowledge and skills needed to create meaningful metalinguistic tasks to distinguish Creole and Standard English codes, but also to change the existing monolingual language policy and the development of learners’ self-efficacy in writing. Another outstanding and unique feature of this issue is a comparative approach to analysis in the next two papers. As a discipline, comparative literature emerged in theearly nineties, but these two papers have the distinction of applying the methodology to different genres – fine arts and literature, and literature and film. On the one hand, Akima McPherson juxtaposes the imprinting of a sexualized and racialized denigration of the black female body (portrayed as a modified Classical Greek/Western nude while bearing undertones of West-African aesthetics), in an earlier painting and an ode, with the more recent Caribbean sculpture of the liberated and proud black female body (a national monument in Jamaica), imbued with clear and defined attributes of West African figuration, a juxtaposition that leads to the acceptable conclusion that this latter work embodies freedom from the shackles of white patriarchy. On the other hand, Andrew Kendall takes us on a well-informed international ‘journey’ in the comparison of a West German novella and film, written and produced in the 1970s. Both focus on the Cold War. In this paper, a careful and intriguing critique is made of how the writers of both genres responded to the paranoia caused in society by the Cold War, as well as how they portrayed the uncertainty of truth and meaning in the social climate during that era in their use of language. As readers, we are left to decide whether we agree with the writer’s claim that the dual value of these contemporaneous explorations are key factors in presenting such concerns.
Making Space for Heritage: Collaboration, Sustainability, and Education in a Creole Community Archaeology Museum in Northern Belize
(2020) Harrison-Buck, Eleanor; Clarke-Vivier, Sara
Working with local partners, we developed an archaeology museum in the Creole community of Crooked Tree in the Maya lowlands of northern Belize. This community museum presents the deep history of human–environment interaction in the lower Belize River Watershed, which includes a wealth of ancient Maya sites and, as the birthplace of Creole culture, a rich repository of historical archaeology and oral history. The Creole are descendants of Europeans and enslaved Africans brought to Belize—a former British colony—for logging in the colonial period. Belizean history in schools focuses heavily on the ancient Maya, which is well documented archaeologically, but Creole history and culture remain largely undocumented and make up only a small component of the social studies curriculum. The development of a community archaeology museum in Crooked Tree aims to address this blind spot. We discuss how cultural sustainability, collaborative partnerships, and the role of education have shaped this heritage-oriented project. Working with local teachers, we produced exhibit content that augments the national social studies curriculum. Archaeology and museum education offer object-based learning geared for school-age children and provide a powerful means of promoting cultural vitality, and a more inclusive consideration of Belizean history and cultural heritage practices and perspectives.
Enhancing the cultural competency of prospective leaders via a study abroad experience
(2018) Hermond, Douglas; Vairez, Mathias R.; Tanner, Tyrone
The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether an experiential learning opportunity, specifically a study tour experience, would improve the cultural intelligence of prospective educational leaders and would challenge them to expand their own cultural understanding and behavior. Several prospective leaders who enrolled in a graduate program in Educational Leadership volunteered to attend a study abroad program that was intended, in part, to enhance their cultural competence. They were then asked to complete a survey that measured the four domains of cultural intelligence, namely metacognition, cognition, motivation and behavior. They were also asked to respond to prompts about how the experiential learning experience impacted their own cultural understanding and behavior. The results indicated that the study tour participants were cognizant of their cultural intelligence and that they compared and contrasted the norms of their own culture and those of the study tour country. In essence, participants acquired substantial cultural intelligence and reflected on how their leadership behavior should change to meet the needs of others.
Two Decades of Computing at the University of Belize
(2022) Garcia, David; Rabbani, Farshad
Computer science became a distinct academic discipline in the early 1950s. The first computer science degree program was founded in Belize around 45 years later, under the auspices of the nascent University College of Belize, which would subsequently become the University of Belize. We present a twenty-year synopsis of a degree program created in 1998 to build an undergraduate curriculum using the surge of computing in the country of Belize as a catalyst coupled with the recognition of the importance of computing for national development. The four-year undergraduate degree program has resulted in steady student enrolment over the past two decades featuring a female student population consistent with female enrolment in similar computer science programs globally. The study details the origins, development efforts, successes, challenges, and recommendations for the program's future development.