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The Belize National Curriculum Framework
(Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and Technology, Belize, 2022-07) Belize. Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Technology
The main purpose of this National Curriculum Framework is to promote a consistent, high-quality, competency-based education via policies and practices that set standards across the curriculum system to achieve the best possible outcomes for our students. It functions as a guide to curriculum writers, teachers, administrators, managements, parents, and other education stakeholders. Its components include a common vision, aims and objectives, values and principles, philosophy of teaching and learning, the overall architecture, the importance of competency, the subject areas of learning and cross curricular areas of learning, methodologies and strategies, assessments, and monitoring and evaluation. It is more than just a curriculum – it is the overarching document of the curriculum system.
CARICOM standards for the teaching profession: Teachers, educational leaders and teacher educators
(CARICOM Secretariat, 2020) CARICOM Secretariat
The CARICOM Standards for the Teaching Profession is an aspirational collection of statements of performance and value expectations for members of the teaching profession in the CARICOM region. It is designed based on the following principles: 1. That being stirred into the profession of teaching is developmental and occurs within communities of practices. As such, no individual is fully developed as a teacher upon graduation from teacher training and the potential for growth should be aligned with career development. 2. That even before teachers graduate from their teacher education programme they are focused on the progression of their career. However, it is important to note that there is no clear and direct path to progression in the teaching service since teachers enter the teaching service at different competency levels. Therefore, the single trajectory of individuals will vary. In this regard, this document offers guidelines to assist with career progression in the teaching service. While it is important to acknowledge that years of focus to career progression. service provide significant experience toward teacher progression, factors such as competence to perform the tasks expressed in this document, knowledge and attitude as well as feedback from performance appraisals and colleagues must be of central 3. That good classroom teachers are not automatically good leaders; as such their leadership development must begin at the point of being a teacher candidate in training, through to the classroom and be sustained throughout their leadership career. 4. That the expectations for teacher educators must be aligned with those for effective and innovative classroom teachers and entrepreneurial school leaders. More so, teacher educators play a key role in developing and nurturing evidence-based practices in teaching. As such, teacher educators carry the burden of mentoring scholastic leadership. 5. That students, parents and the wider community should be fully aware of, and come to an agreement around, the sets of expectations a society should have for members of its teaching force; while ensuring the wellbeing of the teaching profession. Thus, the standards are deliberately written in an accessible manner that is aimed at holding the teacher accountable for the cultural and political obligations that s/he carries for the society. Thus, while the standards for classroom teachers, educational leaders and teacher educators, can be read in isolation, it is recommended that the document be considered in its entirety. The document should be used as a guide for education systems to develop professional standards where none exist and where they do exist it is a reference framework that can be used to strengthen existing policies and procedures that govern assessing teaching quality.
Teacher education and training policies in the Commonwealth Caribbean
(2004) Miller, Errol; UNESCO Office Santiago & the Regional Bureau for Education in Latin America and the Caribbean
The purpose of the paper is to identify and discuss policies and practices that have been adopted in teacher education and training in this sub-region. The primary focus will be on new policies, projects and programmes in teacher education and training since the beginning of the 1990s.
2019 Global Education Monitoring Report: Migration, Displacement and Education: Building Bridges, Not Walls – Dominica
(UNESCO, 2019) United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
2019 Global Education Monitoring Report: Migration, Displacement and Education: Building Bridges, Not Walls - St. Kitts and Nevis
(UNESCO, 2019) UNESCO
St. Lucia - Region: Latin America and the Caribbean Income Group: Upper Middle Income: National Education Profile 2018 Update
(2018) Education Policy and Data Center
In St. Lucia, the academic year begins in September, and the official primary school entrance age is 5. The system is structured so that the primary school cycle lasts 7 years, lower secondary lasts 3 years, and upper secondary lasts 2 years. St. Lucia has a total of 28,000 pupils enrolled in primary and secondary education. Of these pupils, about 16,000 (57%) are enrolled in primary education.
Secondary Entrance Assessment 2023: Information booklet
(Ministry of Education, Trinidad and Tobago, 2023-06) Trinidad and Tobago. Ministry of Education, Corporate Communications Division
Guidelines for the safe operation of schools in Barbados: Administration booklet
(Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training, Barbados, 2021-04) Barbados. Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training
The document indicates measures that promote the effective and safe operation of schools as every effort is made to ensure that students, teachers and other staff can conduct educational activities in safe and secure environments.
Investigating educational disparities in Belize: A quantitative study on the impact of student-level sociocultural factors on academic achievement among high school seniors across Belize
(University Graduate School at FIU Digital Commons, 2020-09-11) Usher, Aisha
The idea that education is a fundamental human right is garnering increased support from the international community. Yet, there are children throughout the world who face impediments to access quality education, while others face no such hardships; this concept is described as “educational inequality” or “educational disparity.” In Belize – a sparsely populated, English-speaking Caribbean country located in Central America – there have been reports of disparities in educational attainment along gender and ethnic lines; however, there has been little research focused on potential gaps in academic achievement, especially at the secondary level. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether there are significant educational disparities in relation to academic performance in secondary schools across Belize. More specifically, the study sought to determine whether student-level sociocultural factors—namely gender, ethnicity, language, location of residence, and commute time to school — significantly impact academic performance as measured by students’ end-of-year English/language arts grade, end-of-year mathematics grade, and cumulative grade point average (GPA). Overall, study results revealed that, among the study population, there were statistically significant disparities in academic achievement associated with gender, ethnicity, and first/native language. However, location of residence (urban or rural) and commute time did not significantly influence overall academic achievement or math achievement, in but had small effects on English achievement. Also, there were no intersectional (interaction) effects between ethnicity and gender, but there were intersectional effects between language and high school of attendance. Using a postcolonial framework analysis, desired implications of the findings on praxis include: an evaluation of patriarchal effects on curriculum and gender roles in the classroom; a meaningful infusion of Belizean curricula and/or pedagogic approaches with localized knowledge and practices; the addition of bilingual, multilingual, and ESL programs at the secondary level; and, the development of culturally-relevant learning metrics using more holistic, contextualized measures of learning.
Effects of risk factors on Belizean adolescents’ academic behaviors and grit after prolonged absence during the COVID-19 pandemic
(2022) Vairez, Mathias; Gomez, Frank; Gentle-Genitty, Carolyn; Quiroz, Janeen; Manzanero, Olga
This causal-comparative study explored the effects of risk factors—family status, parental marital status, family income, and parent education level—on Belizean adolescents’ academic behaviors and grit (passion and perseverance in goal achievement) following prolonged absence during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected online using a demographic survey, the Grit-S Scale (Duckworth & Quinn, 2009), coupled with eight additional items to measure academic behaviors (attendance, preparedness, attention, note-taking, participation, organization, use of out-of-school time, and homework completion and submission) for success (Farrington et al., 2012) from secondary and tertiary students in Belize. With rare exception, Belizean education took place in person before the pandemic. This changed to remote teaching and learning during the pandemic. Findings showed that adolescents from the defined risk factor of single-parent households experienced greater declines across all eight academic behaviors. Additionally, this effect was more pronounced for adolescents who experienced the loss of a parent from divorce or death of a parent. For grit, there were two key outcomes: (a) adolescents from nuclear and higher income families had slightly higher levels of grit; and (b) adolescents from parents with lower educational attainment had significantly higher levels of grit than their peers. Based on these findings, recommendations include more study of schools that invest in becoming trauma responsive when evaluating engagement and performance during prolonged absences. Future research should assess adolescents’ level of academic behaviors, grit, and other noncognitive factors.
The U.S. globalization of social work education: The impact and implications on practice in a developing country
(School of Social Work at SOPHIA, 2019-04) Carrillo, Gabriel Donovan
The focus of this banded dissertation, is the examination of the impact of a U.S. Social Work Education Curriculum on the practice of social work globally. Globalization of social work education is explored through the lens of cultural hegemony; the author then uses the principles of critical pedagogy to address the imbalances uncovered and to promote educational liberation especially in developing countries. The Banded Dissertation is comprised of three products, two of which will be research papers and the third, an overview of a peer-reviewed conference presentation. The preparations or lack thereof, for international students who come to study social work in the U.S. is explored in the first section of this dissertation. An in-depth exploration of a U.S. globalization of social work education is presented which highlights the need for intentional preparation for culturally informed re-entry of international students to their country of origin. A conceptual model for the training of International and American students, pursuing an interest in international social work, is developed and introduced. The second section, explores the impact of a U.S. model of social work education that was adapted to support the development of social work education curriculum in Belize. The Government of Belize is the largest employer of social workers that graduate from the University of Belize’s Social Work Program. The author describes the relationship, a sample of social workers in Belize had with their training and their perception of its effectiveness in assisting them to practice within the Belizean context. Concerns are highlighted and recommendations are made for a full indigenization of the social work curriculum. The final section offers highlights from peer-reviewed poster presentations done at two conferences. The presentations were used to seek support for the development of the conceptual model described in the first section at an international social work conference. Later the final conceptual model was introduced at the CSWE’s Annual Program Meeting in Orlando Florida, November 2018. This Banded Dissertation asserts that as the Global Social Work Community seek to address a Global Agenda collectively, that social issues, although similar in many ways, are inherently different. These differences require that countries’ support such as that of the U.S., when sought, either in the form of education or technical assistance, should be reciprocated with the utmost care and attention to the indigenized needs of the particular community.
Understanding the significance of building a school in Belize through action research
(2023-05) Speer, Stephen Todd
This research study followed an international non-profit organization, Global Aid Consultants, and stakeholders through a new school building process. The research participants included parents, school faculty, community leaders, and international stakeholders of the school building process. The three data sources of interviews, photographs, and documents were analyzed using thematic analysis based on the grounded theory method. To better understand the research questions, the data analysis procedures were framed in four vi steps: (a) identifying codes in the data, (b) creating categories of codes, (c) synthesizing the categories to generate themes, and (d) applying the emerged themes to the study (Charmaz, 2014; Saldaña, 2016). The analysis identified over 600 codes that were grouped into 30 to 35 categories which emerged from the data. The categories were synthesized to develop seven themes. Next, the seven themes were logically applied to one of the three research questions: 1. How do the stakeholders perceive (feel, view, act) the new school? 2. From the stakeholders' perception, how did building a new school impact the community? 3. From the stakeholders' perception, how can the school building process be improved? These emerged themes are supported by the research study, literature, and my philosophical worldview. This research study highlighted insights into understanding the process of building a new school in Belize and its immediate impact on the local community. The research exposed that it takes partners with resources who communicate together in an environment they support to create developmental change. Developmental change occurs when stakeholders assist communities to develop the capability and capacity to address a problem. For example, in this research a new school was built that increased the outlook for the community. The stakeholders will use this insight to improve the school building process. Another conclusion, and one of the most important parts from this study, was finding a way to articulate the immediate impact of the new school. How does the new school impact the community is one of the most frequent questions asked by others including stakeholders. According to the research, the local, national, and international stakeholders believe that the new school provides a safe learning environment where the people are motivated for school that creates opportunities and grows the community.
Augmenting Belize’s school curricula to increase indigenous students’ engagement in learning
(2019-04-21) Juarez, Miriam E.
Due to high drop-out rates for Indigenous students in Belize, there is an urgent need to explore ways to increase student engagement. The purpose of this research is to gather the voices of the local educational community, including Indigenous stakeholders, about their experiences with the current secondary school curricula and how it may be made more engaging to Indigenous students. This research is important because it not only expands upon on limited theoretical and quantitative data presented by prior studies, but also attempts to harness the qualitative lived experiences, stories, and narratives of the local community who seek to improve education through ensuring its cultural relevance. To gather the voices, I conducted focus group interviews with students, teachers and Elders, and I distributed surveys to administrators. The sample of 30 participants was purposively selected and inclusive of residents of Toledo, Belize. Interviews were video and audio recorded and transcribed. The data, which consisted of student attendance records, responses from the surveys, and transcripts from the interviews were reviewed, coded and then thematically sorted and analyzed. My analysis of the data revealed six themes among participant responses with the most prevalent being the recommendation to integrate Maya language and culture into the curriculum.
Estimating school-level achievement in Belize
(Education and Human Sciences, College of (CEHS), 2020-09-24) Usher-Tate, Betty Jean
This dissertation consists of five chapters: introduction, literature review, methodology, results, and discussion with final thoughts. The research design of this dissertation study attended to structures, cultures, and characteristics associated with, and specific to, the Belize education system. The processes for data collection and types of analyses were appropriate, yielded meaningful results, and served as a segue for national application. The Belize Educator Survey was developed to capture the educators’ voices and illuminate their relationship to educational achievement in Belize. The Belize Educator Survey was piloted and revised with direct input from educators and experts who work in the Belize education system. In this dissertation study, the Belize Educator Survey was the primary data collection instrument for a district-wide, full-coverage survey approach in one of the six districts in Belize. All primary school educators in the district were invited to participate (N = 524), and the response rate was 60.11% (n = 315). One of the end goals of this study was to create a pragmatic way of estimating School-Level Achievement that incorporated data about all grade levels and include the voice of all educators associated with the school. Two methods, the Weighted-Indicator Estimation Protocol (WISP) and a Multilevel Achievement Estimation Protocol (MAEP), were compared. The Weighted-Indicator Scores Protocol estimation uses a combination of classic statistical analyses, while the Multilevel Achievement Estimation Protocol version relies on a multilevel approach that estimates the within- and between-school statistics simultaneously. The 2018 Primary School Examinations school-level performance served as the primary criterion-referenced variable. Analyses of variances, comparisons of standard errors of the mean, and rank-order matchings show that the school-level estimates derived from the Weighted-Indicator Scores Protocol and Multilevel Achievement Estimation Protocol methods are statistically different. Possible extensions of this study could identify or develop additional measures of academic performance that align to grade-level expectations in the Belize education system. The statistically significant negative associations between educators’ perceptions, School Size and Location are also worthy of investigation for strategic planning purposes.
Dominican public-school novice principals’ description of their early career experiences and needs entering the principalship early career experiences and needs entering the principal
(ScholarWorks at Western Michigan University, 2020-04) Hernandez, Mary Francis Benzo
Research on principal leadership is extensive; however, studies suggest such research cannot be generalized across all contexts, as educational leaders’ needs are a result of the specific context in which they work. Since there is limited research on principal leadership in the Dominican Republic (DR), the country can benefit from current and contextualized research on principal leadership within primary and secondary education. The purpose of this basic interpretive qualitative study is to explore Dominican public-school novice principals’ early career experiences and how they identified their needs entering the principalship. Through portraiture, this study aims to document principals’ life stories, background, feelings, and pathways to becoming principals. Participants included 10 novice principals who had one to five years of experience in the role and who worked in public primary and secondary schools in Educational Region 15 in Santo Domingo, DR. Data collection procedures involved indepth interviews, a participant-profiling guide, and observations. Principals in the study describe their role as one who is accountable for school processes. Findings from the study suggest that principals face the challenges and demands of the principalship without a proper induction process, which is the main issuethey encounter throughout their experience as principals. These challenges refer to finding a balance between instruction and management, dealing with the community, children’s vulnerability, and their feelings as novice principals. Participants discussed their need for training in leadership strategies and management, particularly at a time of national educational reform in the DR. Principals also expressed that their main challenge with the reforms is teachers’ resistance, more so than navigating these changes themselves. Finally, principals in this study reported that they would benefit from formal support groups or networks for novice principals. This study suggests further research on how principals perceive existing principal preparation programs, the influence of mentors, and induction programs in the Dominican educational system should be conducted.
A longitudinal study of Dominican secondary school students and their perceptions of a multi-hazard environment
(2020-12) Parham, Martin
Risk perception studies compare differences in objective and actual risk and form an essential part of disaster risk reduction (DRR). Criticisms of past risk perception studies emphasise the narrow focus on single hazard environments; focus on just adult groups and short-term approaches. This study addresses these issues through a 5-year longitudinal study (2013-2018) of student perception on the Small Island Developing State (SIDS) of Dominica, to better understand multi-hazard perception trends. As part of this assessment, it uses the 2012 UNESCO report into disaster risk education to test the impact of three educational approaches (interactive, surrogate, field-based) on changing student risk perception. Criticisms of existing student risk perception studies focus on methods deemed more applicable to adults. This study tests an adapted Pictorial Representation of Individual Self Measure (PRISM) method to assess its validity for collecting child risk perception data. This study, one of the first longitudinal studies assessing multi-hazard perception, showed that PRISM was an effective tool for collecting secondary student risk perception data. Longitudinal trends in multi-risk perception showed consistent student perceived relative risk order. Students showed bias towards perceptions of known or experienced hazards and poor relative understanding of low frequency high magnitude geophysical hazards. Significant large-scale events (e.g., Hurricane Maria) intensified hazard perceptions, however, this effect decayed over time. Highlighting that the relationship between frequent versus less frequent hazards needs further consideration. Equally, location and gender are both factors influencing perception. Boys tended to be more risk averse, while evidence of disaster risk perception spatially suggests a need for bespoke approaches to DRR education. This study showed that targeted educational pedagogical approaches all impacted risk perception. Participatory approaches were more impactful. Field-based learning caused the greatest shifts in perceptions for less-perceived geophysical hazards. This has important implications for future disaster risk education and outreach. The study showed that careful educational resourcing can improve engagement in DRR, but it should have a local focus. This study underlines the need to develop DRR education into school curriculum. Children should be encouraged to play a more active role in bottom up DRR approaches, within schools to improve risk perceptions.
An investigation into the progression of Saint Lucian male students through higher education
(2020-08) Mayer, Fiona
In Saint Lucia, the number of young men pursuing higher education tends to be significantly lower than that of young women. However, there is limited scientific research into the topic of young males’ participation and under-representation in higher education within the Saint Lucian environment. This qualitative research examined the main factors that affect young males in Saint Lucia as they journey through higher education. The thesis examined the lived experiences that these young men encountered during the pursuit of higher education. As the lived experiences were shared, the authentic experiences of the young Saint Lucian males as it relates to higher education and the factors that influenced those aspirations were expressed. This research is informed by Giorgi’s descriptive phenomenology, which focuses on the importance of the participants’ experiences. The work of Bourdieu is used to underpin the research. The research methodology used in this study ensured that the perspectives shared were based on the subjective experiences of the participants. With the use of purposive sampling, fifteen young males were selected as participants for this study. Semi-structured online interviews were conducted with the fifteen participants of the Piton Institute of Higher Learning, which is located in Saint Lucia. The data analysis identified units of meaning and emergent themes. The findings suggested that there was keenness towards, and aspirations of higher education after secondary school, in the minds of the participants in the study. According to their shared experiences, the path to higher education was influenced by social, economic and cultural capital. The study brings new knowledge and perspectives to an area, which has been under researched in Saint Lucia, by focusing on the voices of the research participants. The impact of social, academic and cultural capital was explored in relation to the higher education aspirations and its part in the widening participation debate. This study being qualitative in nature, the findings are not generalizable to all Saint Lucia males. Nonetheless, the conclusions and recommendations provided a useful insight into how higher education can be made more accessible to young males in Saint Lucia and increase their success at completion of their studies. Further research can explore the perception of males in secondary schools about higher education. Based on the findings, it is recommended that necessary policy frameworks, financial and educational support systems be instituted to facilitate increased levels of male progression and success in higher education.
Teacher perception on integrating school psychology in the developing nation of Grenada
(Walden University, 2021-02) St. Louis, Carla Erica Maria
Internationally, formalized school psychology and related services strive to address the academic and mental health of students in schools. In developing nations, teachers are the primary professionals to address students’ needs in schools. Little research has focused on teachers’ perceptions of students’ needs, available services’ quality, and how formalized structures with qualified certified professionals can further address students’ needs. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems and Nastasi’s participatory culture-specific intervention model are the theoretical underpinnings of this qualitative study and focus group interviews were used to investigate special education needs (SEN) teachers’ perceptions. Data were collected using open ended questions and probes with 18 SEN teachers in Grenada. Data analysis comprised reviewing interview transcripts, applying coding stages, and conducting theme generation to answer the research questions. Results revealed teachers perceived that students demonstrated difficulties in academic performance, social emotional functioning, and with their mental health. Results further revealed services were insufficient, quality ranged from totally unhelpful to significantly helpful, and that formalized services are urgently needed and desired. SEN teachers verbalized challenges but had a vision of how formalized school psychological services within a collaborative approach (including SEN teachers, school psychologist, and counselors) would support and address student needs. Implications for positive social change include teacher preparation and competence, stakeholder input into policies and procedures, and contextually derived roles for a future school psychologist that would help students develop their fullest potential.
Perceptions of the education officer’s role in the education system in Barbados
(The University of Sheffield, 2018) Morris, Christina P.
Barbadian PK-3 Grade Teachers’ Perspectives of Positive Behavior Support Behavior Support
(Walden University, 2021) Lynch, Nicole Natasha
In Barbados, positive behavior support (PBS) has been introduced as an alternative to the use of harsh disciplinary practices, but Barbadian PK-3 grade teachers’ perspectives of PBS are not well understood. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore Barbadian PK-3 grade teachers’ perspectives of PBS as an approach to managing classroom behavior. The conceptual framework for this study was derived from Bandura’s social cognitive theory and the PBS framework. The research question focused on Barbadian PK-3 grade teachers’ perspectives of PBS as an approach to managing classroom behavior. Semi-structured telephone and Zoom interviews were used to collect data from 12 Barbadian PK-3 grade teachers from multiple school sites, who were purposefully selected and recruited using the snowball sampling method. Interview transcripts were analyzed using open and axial coding. Through thematic analysis, three overarching themes emerged: Teachers perceived PBS as a more positive approach to classroom management than traditional approaches to discipline, felt capable using PBS but identified weaknesses associated with its use, and believed that both PBS and corporal punishment have a place in the Barbadian PK-3 classroom. Despite perceived barriers to its use, participants saw PBS as beneficial. Most participants did not believe PBS should replace corporal punishment. They advocated for the use of corporal punishment as a response to certain infractions and as a last resort. Findings from this study may bring about positive social change by providing PBS coaches with information to promote PBS and help PK-3 grade teachers implement a less harsh disciplinary approach in the PK-3 classroom.

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