Browsing by Author "Fournillier, Janice B."

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    Education in crisis: Re-visiting the "Carnival mentality"
    (School of Education, UWI, St. Augustine, 2008) Fournillier, Janice B.
    This paper draws on an ethnographic case study of learning/teaching practices in Trinidad Carnival mas'camps. Over the Carnival 2005 season, selected members of the mas' making community shared their perspectives on learning/teaching practices at work in the Carnival mas' camp. I constructed the learning narratives in this article from the field notes, photographs, and biographical interviews. I used these learning narratives to make meaning of the various socio-historical-cultural theories of learning that situate learners in spaces that are sometimes explained using constructs like non-school and non-formal. These learning narratives demonstrate the practices that inform learning, the kind of person the learner becomes, and his/her philosophy of lifelong learning and continuing education. Further, they provide evidence of the value of these spaces, and the kinds of imagined possibilities that exist for Caribbean policy makers whose discourse suggest that they recognize the importance of encouraging non-formal, informal, and indigenous learning systems
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    On-the-job training: Pre-service teacher training in Trinidad and Tobago
    (School of Education, UWI, St. Augustine, 2001) George, June M.; Fournillier, Janice B.; Brown, Marie-Louise
    This monograph reports on a study that investigated the On-the-Job (OJT) Pre-Service Teacher Training Programme in Trinidad and Tobago in order to understand its origin, goals, programme design, curriculum, and organization. Data were gathered from in-depth interviews with personnel from the Ministry of Education, eight trainees, and three graduates of the programme; documentary analysis; and limited field observations. Although all indications are that the OJT Programme is making an impact on the preparedness of young, untrained teachers for the classroom, there are structural problems that have plagued the programme. These include: 1) the insufficiency of funds needed to implement the programme, 2) the lack of necessary staff, and 3) the lack of coordination among the various components of the programme and also with the teachers' colleges that receive OJT graduates
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    Primary teacher trainees in Trinidad and Tobago: Characteristics, images, experiences, and expectations
    (School of Education, UWI, St. Augustine, 2001) George, June M.; Mohammed, Jeniffer; Quamina-Aiyejina, Lynda; Fournillier, Janice B.; Otway-Charles, Susan
    This monograph reports on a study that was undertaken to provide some insights into the characteristics, images, experiences, and expectations of student teachers in Trinidad and Tobago, so that educators can provide programmes that take cognizance of these qualities in the attempt to adequately prepare these trainees for their work in primary school classrooms. Three different techniques were employed to collect data: 1) examination of the personal files of trainees to determine their entry characteristics; 2) administration of a questionnaire to obtain survey data; and 3) small-group work with 16 volunteers utilizing autobiographies, focus group interviews, and one-on-one interviews. It was found that, on the whole, trainees have an image of the good teacher as caring and nurturing, as technically proficient in the classroom, and as performing in difficult contexts where intrinsic rewards can enhance their self-image, but where poor working conditions and the low status accorded the profession may militate against a feeling of satisfaction on the job. The trainees not only had images of the teacher as expert, but they also expected to become experts as a result of their teachers' college experiences. Their experience, though, was that the route to becoming an expert at the teachers' colleges was not as facilitating as they had expected. Their expectations of how lecturers should treat them were sometimes not met