Browsing by Author "Henry-Wilson, Maxine"

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    The initial engagement and experiences of Caribbean educators with the reality of COVID-19: Exploring the educational planning implications
    (The University of the West Indies, Jamaica, 2022) Thompson, Canute; Ferguson, Therese; Knight, Verna; Bailey, Dian; Cole, Sharline; Davis, Nadine; Henry-Wilson, Maxine; Johnson, Viviene; Mccarthy-Curvin, Avalloy; Montgomery, Allison; Moore, Schontal
    COVID-19 caught the world off-guard, bringing disruption and chaos to all sectors, including education. Within Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS), the experiences were varied, as were the responses of educational stakeholders at all levels to the crisis of the pandemic. Stakeholders’ experiences and responses should inform educational planning and policy, and it is against that backdrop that this research was conducted. This research captures the insights from three webinars sponsored by the Caribbean Centre for Educational Planning, which focused on challenges faced by educational institutions at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels of the education system. The transcripts from those webinars were used to construct this paper using a generic qualitative research design. The webinars pulled on the expertise of panellists from across the Caribbean and North America. The findings reveal that most stakeholders were unprepared for the challenges occasioned by COVID-19, which translated into further difficulties adapting to online/blended teaching/learning, psycho-social stresses, heightened economic challenges, and disruptions to examinations. In response to these challenges, among the stakeholders, training was implemented, open communication increased, technical and infrastructural resources were upgraded, health and safety protocols were enforced/reinforced, and domestic and international groups collaborated to bolster access for all students. Lessons learned included the need for collaboration, equity, access, and opportunities, and exercising the courage to radically rethink the region’s ‘educational futures’ by incorporating the shared perspectives of key stakeholders in educational planning and policy making.
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    Time Out: The Impact of COVID-19 on Education
    (Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CAPRI), Kingston, Jamaica, 2021-09) Sewell, Stephanie; Henry-Wilson, Maxine
    This report provides an evidence-informed account of what has happened to education, and to children, in the wave of the pandemic-induced school closures and the shift to remote teaching and learning. It does not seek to evaluate the education sector beyond what pertains directly to this unforeseen, singular, unpredictable, fluid event, the COVID-19 pandemic. This study does the following in order to arrive at this evidence: 1. Situates the COVID-19 school closures in the broader context of the Jamaican education system, with a focus on primary and secondary education. 2. Gives a chronology of events related to COVID-19 school closures in Jamaica. 3. Determines if and how students were disadvantaged by the closure of schools, accounting for the extent to which their pre-existing socioeconomic conditions exacerbated or ameliorated that disadvantage. 4. Describes the responses to the challenges faced, particularly by the state. 5. Estimates the extent to which learning losses can be expected, as well as what the effects of school closures have been on students’ social and emotional development, and the fulfillment of their potential to self-actualize.