EDUCATION FOR ALL IN THE CARIBBEAN: ASSESSMENT 2000

MONOGRAPH SERIES
Series Editor: Lynda Quamina-Aiyejina
Citizenship Education, Democracy and Global Shifts
Re-Thinking Caribbean Social Studies
Glenford D. Howe & Don D. Marshall
The production of the EFA in the Caribbean Monograph Series was in part facilita
ted by a financial contribution
from the UNFPA Caribbean Regional Office.
UNESCO
1999
ii
The ideas and opinions expressed in this work are those of the author and do not
necessarily represent the views of
UNESCO. The designations employed and the presentation of the material in the pu
blication do not imply the expression
of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the UNESCO concerning the legal status
of any country, territory, city or area,
or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or bounda
ries.
UNESCO
Published in 1999 by the Office of the
UNESCO Representative in the Caribbean
The Towers
3rd Floor, 25 Dominica Drive
Kingston 5, Jamaica
Printed in Trinidad by F.A.S.T.E.R. Publishing Services
Victory Street, Arima
Cover design by: Carole Maison-Bishop
ISBN: 976-95036-1-4
iii
FOREWORD
Education for All in the Caribbean: Assessment 2000 is a remarkable output, whic
h is the culmination of
intensive collaborative efforts between the countries of the Caribbean sub-regio
n, the Regional Advisory
Technical Group and the EFA Forum Secretariat, and relevant agencies and institu
tions.
The Country Reports, Monograph Series, and Case Studies highlight and pinpoint,
in an extremely effective
manner, some of the issues and concerns that drive education policy and action i
n the Caribbean. At the same
time, the documentation presents a balanced and informed overview of the rich an
d varied educational and
cultural experience of the sub-region; a knowledge which is critical to the unde
rstanding of the unfolding social
and economic developments.
UNESCO is pleased to have been associated with this endeavour, particularly thro
ugh our regional office in
Kingston, Jamaica which, as co-ordinator of the Regional Advisory Group for the
Caribbean Sub-region, was
integrally involved in every aspect of the exercise. We look forward to continue
d collaboration with the Caribbean
on activities of a mutually rewarding nature as the consequences and implication
s of the EFA Assessment become
manifest.
Colin Power
Deputy Director-General for Education
UNESCO
iv
SERIES INTRODUCTION
At Jomtien in 1990, member states of the United Nations adopted the Framework fo
r Action to Meet Basic Learning
Needs and created the International Consultative Forum on Education for All (EFA
Forum). One decade later, the EFA
Forum embarked on an assessment of this initiative, intended to assist member st
ates in examining their education
provisions to inform the formulation of policy.
Once the Caribbean EFA Regional Advisory Group had embarked seriously on the ass
essment, it was quickly realised that
it would be difficult to capture, in any one place, an assessment of all that ha
d transpired in education in the Caribbean during
the period 1990-1999. Moreover, the technical guidelines constrained assessors t
o specifics within quantitative and qualitative
frames. However, because it was felt that education in the Caribbean is too dyna
mic to be circumscribed, the idea of a more
wide-ranging monograph series was conceived.
Researchers, education practitioners, and other stakeholders in education were i
nvited to contribute to the series. Our
expectations were that the response would be quite moderate, given the short tim
e-frame within which we had to work. Instead,
we were overwhelmed by the response, both in terms of the number of enthusiastic
contributors and the range of topics
represented.
Caribbean governments and peoples have invested in the hardware for education—buil
dings, furniture, equipment; in the
software, in terms of parent support and counselling services; and they have att
ended to inputs like books and other
teaching/learning resources. They have wrestled with ways to evaluate, having go
ne through rounds of different national
examinations, and modifications of ways to assess both primary and secondary edu
cation.
But, as the efforts to complete the country reports show, it has been more diffi
cult to assess the impacts, if we take the
eventual aim of education as improving the quality of life--we have had mixed su
ccesses. That the sub-region has maintained
relative peace despite its violent past and contemporary upheavals may be cited
as a measure of success; that the environment
is threatened in several ways may be one of the indicators of how chequered the
success has been.
Writers in the monograph/case study series have been able to document, in descri
ptive and analytic modes, some of the
attempts, and to capture several of the impacts. That this series of monographs
on Education for All in the Caribbean has been
written, edited, and published in nine months (from first call for papers to iss
ue of the published titles) is itself an indication of
the impact of education, in terms of human capability and capacity.
It reflects, too, the interest in education of a number of stakeholders without
whom the series would not have been possible.
Firstly, the work of the writers is acknowledged. All worked willingly, hard, we
ll, and, in most cases, without material reward.
The sterling contribution of the editor, who identified writers and stayed with
them to the end of the process, is also recognised,
as is the work of the printer, who came through on time despite the severe time
constraints. The financial contribution of the
following agencies also made the EFA assessment process and the publication of t
he monograph/case study series possible:
Commonwealth of Learning (COL), Department for International Development (DFID),
[Economic Commission for Latin
America and the Caribbean??], United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultura
l Organization (UNESCO), the United
Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), The
University of the West Indies, Cave
Hill; the UN country teams based in Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago,
Haiti, and Guyana.
We invite you to peruse individual titles or the entire series as, together, we
assess Caribbean progress in education to date,
and determine strategies to correct imbalances and sustain positive impacts, as
we move towards and through the first decade
of the new millennium.
Claudia Harvey
Unesco Representative and Coordinator, Regional Technical Advisory Group (RTAG)
EFA in the Caribbean: Assessment 2000
v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank all those who assisted with the research and production
aspects of this monograph. Special thanks to Allison Johnson for typing and arra
nging
the text, and also to the Research and Publication Fund Committee of the Cave Hi
ll
Campus of The University of the West Indies for its financial sponsorship of thi
s
publication. We also wish to express our appreciation to the Journal of the East
Caribbean Studies, for granting us permission to incorporate in this monograph a
portion of an article previously published in vol. 23, no.3, September 1998. Dr.
Vena
Jules provided helpful comments on a draft of this monograph and for this we are
grateful. Finally, we thank our families and God for their continuous guidance a
nd
blessings.
vi
CONTENTS
Foreword
Acknowledgements
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations
Abstract
1. Social Studies and Citizenship Education
Introduction
Caribbean Social Studies: Its Development
Notions of Citizenship Education and the “Good Citizen”
Social Studies and Citizenship Education: Theoretical Considerations
Social Studies and Attainment of Citizenship Education
Creating Knowledgeable Citizens
Developing Skills
Developing Appropriate Values
Fostering Social Participation
2. Globalization and (Barbados) School Reform
Introduction
Economic Change and the School Reform Impetus
Gender Performance in the School System
Assessing the “EduTech2000 Masterplan”
Recommendations
Notes
References
vii
About the Authors
Dr. Glenford Howe, a UWI and Commonwealth Scholar, is Research Officer in the
Office of the Board for Non-Campus Countries and Distance Education at the Cave
Hill Campus of The University of the West Indies.
Dr. Don Marshall is Research Fellow at the Institute of Social and Economic Rese
arch
at the Cave Hill Campus of The University of the West Indies.
viii
LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS
AIDS Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
CAI Computer Assisted Instruction
CAPE Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations
CXC Caribbean Examinations Council
HIV Human Immune Deficiency Virus
NCSS National Council for the Social Studies
SBA School Based Assessment
UWI The University of the West Indies
ix
ABSTRACT
Throughout the Caribbean there has been an escalation in public and official deb
ates about
what seems to be an upsurge in deviant behaviour among the youth. Consequently,
governments have been turning to the educational system to assist by, for exampl
e,
implementing what some call “citizenry education” in order to help alleviate the pro
blem. In all
of this, social studies is regarded as having a vital role since its specific pu
rpose for being on
the curriculum is to impart citizenship education. This monograph examines the r
ole and
challenges of social studies in achieving citizenship education or cultivating d
emocraticminded
citizens in the Caribbean, and offers a theoretical and conceptual framework for
understanding the role of social studies in the Caribbean school curriculum. It
also provides a
discussion of the profound challenges globalization and technological change pre
sent for
secondary schools and, in particular, for social studies teachers. It argues tha
t these global
shifts or imperatives require responses from social studies and other educators
which are
characterized by a global perspective, inventiveness, industriousness, and a nat
ional sense of
belonging. The main points of the monograph are summarized in a set of recommend
ations
which suggest that if social studies is to effectively achieve the critical goal
of citizenship
education in the Caribbean context, certain fundamental changes will need to be
made to the
way the subject is conceptualized, supported, financed, perceived, taught, and e
xamined,
among other things.
1
PART 1
Social Studies and Citizenship Education
Introduction
It would not be an overstatement to claim that few subject areas or fields of in
quiry have experienced the
degree of controversy and heated debates as that of the social studies. This con
troversy is, in no small way, due
to the fact that over the years a number of competing views have emerged with re
spect to the best strategies for
achieving the main goals of social studies. In addition, social studies has not
been immune to the wider debates
and controversies which have characterized virtually every aspect of education,
including pedagogical practices,
financing, the curriculum, administrative practices, and education’s role in socie
ty and national development.
Nevertheless, it is also equally true to assert that in spite of the turmoil in
social studies there is a general
agreement among academics about what the essential goals and, especially, the ov
erarching goal of social
studies ought to be. Risinger (1997, p. 223) has observed that “for all the argume
nts, convention speeches, and
journal articles, it seems clear that the term citizenship education lies at the
heart of social studies.” Likewise, the
National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), as well as the leading scholars
in social studies, have all
identified citizenship education as the major and overarching goal of social stu
dies. This view is also shared by
Caribbean social studies teachers and was, in fact, the basis for the introducti
on of social studies into the
curriculum of Caribbean schools (Morris, Morrissey, & King, 1991, pp. 227-228).
This unity in focus, if not in methodology and content, stems from the fact that
, in most cases, controversies
surrounding social studies do not question its fundamental purpose but rather fo
cus on how best citizenship
education may be conceptualized and imparted to the youth. Yet, the controversie
s are of great significance
because they reflect the important, if difficult, questions of not only what is
the relationship between social
studies and citizenship education but, more fundamentally, how, or in what ways,
can social studies achieve the
overall goal of citizenship education? It is these interrelated questions, and e
specially the latter, that this paper
attempts to explore at both the conceptual/theoretical and practical/implementat
ion levels in the context of the
Caribbean. It concludes with the assertion that if social studies is to effectiv
ely achieve the critical goal of
citizenship education in the Caribbean context, certain fundamental changes will
need to be made to the way the
subject is conceptualized, supported, financed, perceived, taught, and examined,
among other things. Discussion
of the potential of social studies for imparting citizenship education in the Ca
ribbean ought necessarily, however,
to be situated in the context of the development and current state of social stu
dies in the region.
Caribbean Social Studies: Its Development
The emergence and development of social studies in the Caribbean coincided with,
and was stimulated by,
the rise of the New Social Studies movement in the United States during the 1950
s and 1960s.The New Social
Studies movement emphasized, among other things, social participation and good c
itizenship; active student
engagement with information to construct meaning; and the use of discovery learn
ing or inquiry whereby
students generated and tested hypotheses to develop conclusions, concepts, and g
eneralizations about
geographical, economic, sociological, and historical phenomena. This exciting an
d rejuvenating form of social
studies profoundly influenced the emerging Caribbean social studies. In other wo
rds, social studies evolved in
the Caribbean within the conceptual framework of the New Social Studies movement
. However, over time social
2
studies in the Caribbean became more indigenous, that is, rooted in Caribbean ex
perience and context. Thus, it
was expected that Caribbean social studies would help produce citizens who would
have a deep understanding
of, and participate in, the newly independent Caribbean societies and the forces
at work within them.
Under the impetus of input from The University of the West Indies (UWI) (especia
lly the St. Augustine
Campus in Trinidad), the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and, subsequently, Mi
nistries of Education in
other territories, much progress was made in the teaching and development of soc
ial studies in the region.
Nonetheless, this progress was constrained by the fact that social studies consi
stently had to compete with such
subjects as history and geography for a place in the curriculum. The irony, howe
ver, was that the people teaching
social studies were mainly trained in history and geography. This fact influence
d the way social studies was
conceptualized and taught in the Caribbean. It was, for example, partly responsi
ble for the knowledge
transmission/knowledge intake mode which has since characterized social studies
in the Caribbean. Little effort
has been made, until fairly recent times, to develop authentic and well-trained
social studies teachers capable of
understanding, interpreting, and articulating the modified goals of the New Soci
al Studies movement.
Furthermore, over the years, social studies has come to be viewed by many teache
rs, parents, and students as
being a subject for “weaker” or non-academically inclined students. Given that in th
e Caribbean the academic
culture is heavily biased in favour of traditional subjects such as mathematics,
geography, history, the sciences,
and English, social studies as a subject has been much neglected and stigmatized
. Nevertheless, there has always
been the lingering perception among Caribbean educators that the teaching of soc
ial studies holds a special hope
for creating responsible citizens, especially given the large numbers of disillu
sioned youth in most Caribbean
societies. It is thought that social studies can provide the kind of moral educa
tion, knowledge, skills, and values
conducive to the development and maintenance of cohesive and stable democratic s
ocieties. This faith in social
studies coexists and rests quite comfortably, for the most part, with the realiz
ation that all forms of education,
and not just social studies, can contribute to citizenship education, and that v
arious other social, political,
economic, and psychological factors may also have a profound influence in the de
velopment of the good and
informed citizen.
Notions of Citizenship Education and the “Good Citizen”
Even though the social studies goals of knowledge, skills, and values must be se
lected from the vast array of
knowledge, skills, and values in the world, the criteria for selecting these mus
t be jointly rooted in the degree to
which they foster the primary objective of Caribbean social studies, that is, th
e development of “good citizens”
in a democracy and, of course, one’s conception of the meaning of citizenship as i
t relates to Caribbean societies.
Thus, social studies and citizenship education would be fundamentally different
for a socialist or authoritarian
state like Cuba, than for democratically governed states like those of the Anglo
phone Caribbean. Furthermore,
since most of the social studies in the Caribbean is taught from an American or
democratic perspective, the
dominant Caribbean conception of citizenship would be reflective, in the main, o
f the democratic ideal, even
though Caribbean democracy may have distinguishing features and peculiarities ro
oted in the Caribbean’s
historical development and its social, political, and economic realities. Educat
ion of any type needs, as
Hartoonian (1985) reminds us, to be defined and analyzed within the context of t
he respective socio-political
systems in which it functions.
Caribbean citizenship education, then, should be designed to: (a) provide studen
ts with the knowledge, skills,
and values they will need to understand modern life, and to participate in it ef
fectively as prosocial group
members and responsible citizens; and (b) to ensure the survival of the principl
es and values of Caribbean
democracy through the development of enlightened citizens. Fundamental difficult
ies are, however, raised by
any attempt to untangle and delineate the ostensibly simple question of what con
stitutes good citizenship or the
good citizen in a democracy. Firstly, there is disagreement among social studies
theorists and others about the
definition of the good citizen, not least because of issues related to the socia
l construction of knowledge and
power. Citizenship, as Janzen (1995, p. 134) and others have observed, is a conc
ept immersed in ideological
controversy; is a concept which can function to obscure inequality or lead to th
e denial of the very basis of
citizenship’s social life; and is a concept whose controversial nature has led to
the legitimization of contradictory
pedagogical and curricular manifestations. Secondly, researchers have provided f
ew rich portraits of teaching
3
and learning that directly address issues of citizenship. Thirdly, the concept o
f the citizen is subject to change
and variations depending upon, for example, the peculiarities of the particular
country’s socio-political system of
governance and cultural traditions, among other things. Fourthly, as Engle and O
choa (1988, p. 3) have noted,
democracy is an imprecise and continuously developing social form which is invok
ed by Marxists and capitalists
alike.
Nevertheless, in the context of the values and principles of democracy, it is st
ill possible to formulate a set of
philosophical questions which may inform any attempt to explore the notions of t
he good citizen or effective
citizenship education. We may inquire for example: What is it that good citizens
in a democracy are required to
do? What attitudes and what skills do they need if they are to be effective citi
zens? What is the “active” citizen?
What are the rights and responsibilities of the good citizen, and what knowledge
should the citizen have of the
structures and processes of government, various social and environmental problem
s, or about other persons in
the society who because of race, gender, colour, or other reasons are different
from the majority? The challenge
of social studies, then, is to help develop the type of citizen who can reflect
and come up with reasoned positions
and answers to these type of issues and questions, bearing in mind that citizens
hip education also takes place in
such non-formal and informal settings as hallways, in libraries and museums, and
on the field of sports, among
other places. Citizenship, however, as the NCSS (1997, p. 225) has warned, is de
fined not only by an affirmation
of democratic principles, but also by a willingness to engage in civil debate an
d to work for policies that serve
the common good.
Social Studies and Citizenship Education: Theoretical Considerations
Even though developing the good citizen is the principal goal of social studies,
the attainment of this goal is
by no means an easy or clear-cut task, not least because, as Grant and VanSledri
ght (1996, p. 57) observe,
beyond the rhetorical consensus about the major goal of social studies, there ha
s been little debate about the
relationship between social studies and citizenship education. Questions in need
of exploration and clarification
include: What does this relationship mean? What social studies content directly
address this goal? What
instructional strategies promote citizenship education? What evidence do we have
that social studies education
significantly effects or affects students’ participation in [Caribbean] society? I
s citizenship education the
exclusive domain of social studies? What is social studies and what is its relat
ionship with respect to the
humanities and the social sciences? These are all difficult questions to ever fu
lly resolve but they are made even
more problematic by two main factors. Firstly, the notion or concept of citizens
hip is, as noted before, highly
contested and there are at least eight approaches or schools with different emph
ases in their conceptualization of
citizenship education. Dynneson and Gross (1982, pp. 231-232) have identified th
e following: (a) citizenship as
persuasion and indoctrination, (b) citizenship as contemporary issues and curren
t events, ( c) citizenship as the
study of history, civics, geography, and related social sciences, (d) citizenshi
p as civic participation and civic
action, (e) citizenship as scientific thinking, (f) citizenship as humanistic de
velopment, (g) citizenship as
preparation for global interdependence, and (h) citizenship as a jurisprudence p
rocess.
Secondly, and perhaps more troubling, even though social studies now has a more
acceptable (NCSS)
definition and an overarching goal, the profession is still highly fragmented an
d unfocused, and its relationship
with the social sciences and humanities still ill-defined and unclarified. The m
ore radical critics of social studies
including Chester Finn, Charlotte Crabtree, Diane Ravitch, and Paul Gagnon have
argued, among other things,
that: (a) social studies is merely a “grab bag” of current events, and characterized
it as flesh without bones and
random ideas without coherence; (b) many social studies teachers lack a belief i
n democracy; and (c) that the
democratic ideal may best be achieved by teaching history and geography as separ
ate subjects, or that these
subjects should dominate the social studies curriculum as they did in the 1960s
and 1970s (see Barth, 1993, pp.
56-57).
These criticisms of social studies have persisted even though the NCSS has attem
pted to resolve the dispute
by recommending that history, along with geography, should serve as the matrix f
or the social studies, with
topics and concepts from the social sciences woven into courses at all levels. E
ven more troubling, however, is
the criticism from some of the staunchest defenders and advocates of social stud
ies including Alleman and
Brophy, and Engle and Ochoa, who argue that there has been a loss of focus and a
drift away from the original,
4
major concerns of social studies. These writers have been lamenting that over th
e decades social studies has
undergone a redefinition to mean “according to different conceptual orientations,
the exposition of separate
social science disciplines, or a series of atomistic behavioural activities, or
uncritical content coverage and
isolated facts and skills; and they attribute many of the conceptual and curricu
lar problems within the subject
area to this loss of initial focus” (Griffith, 1995, p. 50). This lack of clarity
and coherence in the
conceptualization and definition of both citizenship education and social studie
s, as well as in the way they
interface, has created and compounded other problems faced by social studies in
its quest to effectively achieve
its goal of developing good citizens, not only in the United States but also in
the Caribbean and elsewhere where
there has been an adoption of social studies. Why then, it may be asked, is ther
e this widespread view among
social studies scholars and practitioners that social studies is best suited for
its declared objective of developing
good citizens, and why, it may also be asked, is citizenship education so necess
ary to Caribbean societies?
In answer to the first question it should firstly be acknowledged or reiterated
that other fields of inquiry, for
example history, with their own goals, can indeed also help to develop the good
citizen. However, the
distinguishing fact about social studies is that it is the only subject area whi
ch has citizenship education as its
primary concern. It is perhaps, for example, the only or one of the few subject
areas which has an explicit
objective and focus on the development of interpersonal skills, one of the most
important skills needed by a
citizen in a democratic society. It is also a highly interdisciplinary subject a
rea and, thus, can selectively draw on
the content of other fields of inquiry to achieve its overarching goal of citize
nship education. Wraga (1993)
explains why an interdisciplinary approach is so critical:
The interdisciplinary imperative for citizenship education stems from the realit
y that in order
to understand and act upon complex societal issues effectively, citizens must be
able to
integrate knowledge from a variety of subjects. Since this integration does not
happen
automatically, it must be taught. (p. 201 )
He goes on to add that the rationale for the interdisciplinary imperative has it
s sources in (a) the educational
limitations of the disciplinary curriculum, (b) historic precedents in which the
social studies played a central role
in interdisciplinary efforts, (c) theoretical concerns, and (d) recent education
al developments that point to the
advisability of interdisciplinary curriculum and instruction.
The second question calls for a rationale for citizenship education, which may v
ery well also be used as
justification for social studies teaching in the Caribbean. If one accepts that
democratic ideals are worthy of
being preserved and strengthened for future generations, then it would be possib
le to see quite clearly the great
need for citizenship education in the Caribbean. As Risinger (1997, p. 223) has
noted in the American context,
without an informed citizenry committed to the principles of the democratic syst
em and willing to participate in
that process, the nation as we know it cannot and will not survive. Hartoonian (
1985) makes a similar point:
In a democratic republic, education becomes even more critical since our system
is built upon
the concept of the “enlightened citizen”- that is, an individual in touch with the c
ultural
heritage who possesses a working knowledge of the economic, political and social
factors that
make up the human ecosystem in which we all must function; an individual who und
erstands
the principles of rule of law, legal limits to freedom, and majority rule with m
inority rights;
and an individual who possesses the attitudes of fair play, cooperation, and (a
demand for)
quality in the character and work of self and others. Without a conscious effort
to teach and
learn these things, a free republic will not long endure.... For if our human ec
osystem, our
institutions, and our citizens are without the qualities cited above, it really
does not matter
what else is done since our reason for being as a people will be gone. (p. 5)
Hartoonian’s argument about the consequences of the dissolution of democratic soci
ety is not as far-fetched as it
may seem on the surface. Throughout the Caribbean and the rest of the democratic
world, but especially in the
non-democratic world, we see clear and telling signs of what may happen when dem
ocracy is absent or when it
is abandoned or subverted. In Rwanda, for example, over 500,000 people were slau
ghtered when the
democratic ideals so important to the peaceful preservation of a pluralist socie
ty were not upheld and respected.
5
Even within the more successful democracies including the United States, Canada,
Britain, Australia, and
countries of the Anglophone Caribbean, there is growing evidence, such as low vo
ter turnout at general
elections, and escalation in the rates and intensity of crime and racially motiv
ated attacks, of the need for a
renewal in the area of citizenship education predicated on the ideals of democra
cy. In the Anglophone
Caribbean, similar trends can be identified: in St. Kitts, the influence of the
drug lords threatened to undermine
the country’s security and political systems; in Trinidad and Tobago, the attempte
d coup d’etat by Abu Bakr and
the Muslimeen led to the temporary collapse of democracy (see Ryan, 1991); and i
n most Caribbean countries
there has been an increase in the number and intensity of crime, to which the un
acculturated, criminal-minded
American-West Indian “deportees” have added a new and frightening dimension; also in
most territories the
youth, especially the males, are said by officials to be in crisis. Young people
are, for example, playing an
increasingly significant part in the murders, assaults, theft, and sexual abuse
which have become chronic in
many Caribbean and other nations.1 These and other trends including globalizatio
n, the growth of technology,
and the increase in individual civic responsibilities make the need to teach cit
izenship education in the Caribbean
an urgent imperative.
This urgent need for greater emphasis on citizenship education is, in itself, al
so a need or justification for the
teaching of social studies which has as an important objective, the promotion of
the full range of democratic
ideals as the basis of its thrust to achieve effective citizenship education. It
was this need which led the NCSS
(1997, p. 225) to issue a call for action in the social studies profession that
would foster public virtue and moral
character among youth. This brings us directly to the central question of this p
aper, that is, how or in what ways
can the social studies achieve the goal of citizenship education? This question
may, in fact, be expressed in a
more detailed and explicit format which asks, how can the social studies achieve
its other goals of the promotion
of knowledge, skills (thinking, study, interpersonal, and political), values, an
d attitudes conducive to increased
social participation and, in the final analysis, citizenship education? The vali
dity and relevance of posing the
question in this latter format lies in the fact that the extent to which the soc
ial studies can achieve these other, or
“lesser,” goals will principally determine how effective it is in achieving the over
arching goal of citizenship
education.
Social Studies and Attainment of Citizenship Education
Answering the above central question necessarily requires an integrated analysis
of: (a) the goals of social
studies, that is, what knowledge, what skills, and what values are needed to ach
ieve active and meaningful social
participation in the Caribbean; (b) what factors adversely or positively affect
the development of social studies in
the Caribbean, at both the theoretical and, more importantly, the practical or i
mplementation levels; and (c) what
proactive but feasible methods, strategies, and changes might be effectively uti
lized to enhance social studies
and, therefore, the maximum attainment of citizenship education in the Caribbean
. As noted earlier, there are at
least eight approaches or schools with different emphases in their conceptualiza
tion of citizenship education.
This situation may complicate the efforts or task of social studies to deliver e
ffective citizenship education.
Nevertheless, these schools of thought may be effectively engaged to help shape
the social studies curriculum
and provide goals or guidelines in its quest to deliver citizenship education. T
his consideration is important
because as Brophy and Alleman (1993) note:
A curriculum is not an end in itself but a means, a tool for accomplishing educa
tional goals.
These goals are learner outcomes- the knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, and
dispositions to
action that one wishes to develop in students. Ideally, curriculum planning and
implementation
decisions will be driven by these goals, so that all elements selected- the basi
c content, the
ways that this content is represented and explicated to students, the questions
that will be
asked, the types of teacher-student and student-student discourse that will occu
r, the activities
and assignments, and the methods that will be used to assess progress and grade
performancewill
be included because they are believed to be necessary for moving students toward
accomplishment of the major goals. (p. 27)
A similar point has been made by the NCSS (1993) which notes that:
6
...a powerful social studies curriculum is unified by its purposes and goals [an
d that] all of the
components of such a curriculum- not only its content, but its instructional app
roaches,
learning activities, and evaluation methods- are included in the curriculum beca
use they are
viewed as means for helping students to acquire important capabilities and dispo
sitions. (p.
215)
The point should be reiterated that the capacity of social studies to deliver ef
fective citizenship
education is not based solely on the curriculum but, equally, on the teaching an
d learning strategies
employed. And in this regard, one should note the NCSS (1993) dictum that social
studies teaching
is powerful when it is meaningful, active, challenging, value-based, and interac
tive. It is in the light
of these points about the curriculum and the teaching of social studies that any
analysis of the ways
in which social studies can achieve the overarching goal of citizenship educatio
n, must be located.
Creating Knowledgeable Citizens
One of the main ways social studies can achieve the goal of citizenship educatio
n is through the creation of
well informed or knowledgeable citizens. As noted earlier, the type of knowledge
offered by social studies is
distinct from that provided by other subject areas in that it focuses, in an int
egrated manner, especially on
knowledge of social issues and of events taking place in the society. By drawing
strategically from the social
sciences and the humanities, social studies is able to impart to the student kno
wledge which is relevant to his or
her social context and, at the same time, use the dynamic of change implicit in
the construction of knowledge to
bring meaningful analyses to social issues. To have the right type of knowledge
is to have power.
In the context of the Caribbean social studies can, for example, draw on knowled
ge of the past and present to
empower young citizens by teaching them of their colonial past, and the struggle
for self-realization by
Caribbean peoples. By extension, also, social studies, by teaching the ideals of
regional cooperation and
integration in the context of democracy, and as a means of preserving and enhanc
ing Caribbean identity and
economic well-being, will be helping to forge the type of citizen the region nee
ds. At the same time, it would be
performing a crucial role of transmitting the ideals of Caribbean social and pol
itical culture. This knowledge of
self can serve not only as the basis for developing confident citizens but, more
over, can also be used as the basis
for understanding the complex class and ethnic differences evident in present da
y Caribbean societies.
Conversely, persons who are not well informed are likely to depend heavily on th
e opinions of others. In this
regard, one should be cognizant of the NCSS’s (1997, p. 213) assertion that the pr
imary purpose of the social
studies is to help young people develop the ability to make informed and reasone
d decisions for the public good
as citizens of culturally diverse, democratic societies in an interdependent wor
ld.
The need to produce informed and perceptive citizens cannot be overemphasized, f
or there is a danger rooted
in the fact that Western hegemonic power is now no longer about repression, but
rather characterized by a
deceptive subtlety capable of undermining Caribbean sovereignty, dignity, and id
entity. In the context of the
region’s multicultural and highly diverse societies, discussion of the relationshi
p between knowledge and power
also raises fundamental and problematic questions relating to citizenship and th
e ways in which it may be
mediated by issues of race, class, gender, and sexual orientation, among other t
hings. In other words, the
informed and uninformed citizen may have radically different conceptions and und
erstanding of the meaning of
citizenship for women, the disabled, and other disadvantaged or discriminated ag
ainst groups in the society.
They may, likewise, have a very different understanding of the effects and impli
cations of the many changes and
challenges being produced by globalization.
Engle and Ochoa (1988, pp. 18-23) list the following as the types of knowledge r
equired by the citizen in a
democracy:
1. Knowledge which enables citizens to see their nation, state, and locality in
terms of their physical and
social relationship to the world and to the universe.
2. Knowledge which enables the citizen to understand how social institutions--in
cluding economic,
governmental, and legal systems, the family, religious institutions, and most im
portantly, the institutions
and ideas that characterize democracy, such as separation of church and state, t
he free press, and
7
freedom of speech--have come about.
3. Knowledge which enables the citizen to understand the nature of culture diffe
rences over time and
throughout the world as well as within their own country.
4. Knowledge which enables citizens to understand something of the striving of h
uman beings throughout
time for reliable knowledge, how after many false starts Western society has gra
dually developed canons
of objectivity and rationality and achieved fuller access to information, which
are the hallmarks of
democracy.
5. Knowledge which enables citizens to appreciate the struggle of people through
out time to be just and
good in their behaviour toward one another.
6. Knowledge which enables citizens to be fully aware of the major problems that
confront society and to
be knowledgeable about them.
In sum then, if social studies is to help create the type of informed and knowle
dgeable citizen alluded to
above it must, out of necessity, impart knowledge which is nuanced and multidime
nsional, reflecting the
complexity of social reality. This requires that fundamental changes be made in
the current approach to social
studies teaching in the Caribbean. The existing problem is well summarized by Br
ophy and Alleman (1993, p.
27) who argue that today’s social studies textbooks feature broad, but shallow, co
verage of a great range of
topics which results in lessons being largely geared toward the memorizing of di
sconnected knowledge. In the
Caribbean, social studies teaching is largely text-book based and, thus, the que
stion arises as to how it might be
possible to use textbooks in a meaningful way to provide citizenship education.
This suggests the need for new
types of textbooks which emphasize meaningful activities. In the Caribbean, many
of the syllabuses focus on
what may be termed “Intake Activities” or low level type activities. Griffith (1995,
pp. 59-60) has noted that
most of the knowledge acquired by students in social studies classes in the Cari
bbean is still transmitted in the
classroom setting and largely through a two-by-four pedagogy. He notes that not
much is facilitated through the
use of surveys, community projects, and other “out-of-class” activities which percei
ve of, and use, the
community itself as a major resource.
Alleman and Brophy (1994, p. 262) have emphasized that these out-of-school learn
ing activities are
important because they could complement what goes on in school by exploiting com
munity resources and
environments. Students could, for example, be asked to reflect on and collect in
formation about how social
studies concepts learned at school apply to family situations, and also be allow
ed to feed their findings back into
subsequent class discussions. In this way social studies would become less borin
g, (as it is widely perceived to
be) more personal, and more relevant to students. Obviously, the more effective
social studies is the greater its
chances of achieving the goal of citizenship education.
That the general practice in the Caribbean seems to be on knowledge intake is al
so reflected in the type of
questions and requirements of exam questions which, usually, mainly require stud
ents to regurgitate what they
have learnt. If social studies is to effectively deliver citizenship education t
hen it is also necessary that a
reassessment be done of the ways in which students are examined or tested. Only
a limited number of
competencies are tested by current examination practices. There is, therefore, n
eed for new and innovative ways
of assessment. The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) School Based Assessment
(SBA) scheme is a step
in the right direction. However, students engaging in these SBA projects are usu
ally encountering such projects,
for example, doing surveys, for the first time in their educational life. Thus,
there is need to introduce these types
of activities from Form 1 so that they would have developed a high level of comp
etence by the time they reach
the CXC level.
The problem of the shallow content of social studies textbooks also requires tha
t, in terms of instructional
strategy, social studies teachers adopt what is known in social studies as an is
sues centred approach. An issues
centred approach may be justified on the basis that people tend to look at issue
s in a general and broad sense as
opposed to looking at an issue from a narrow perspective. The adoption of an iss
ues centred approach would
allow for a flexible curriculum which is subject to change as issues change. It
would also allow students to focus
on and investigate these issues in a problem-solving and innovative manner throu
gh the use of, for example,
cooperative learning strategies. In the final analysis, however, the effectivene
ss of social studies in imparting
8
citizenship education will depend on whether the teachers are willing to go beyo
nd what the limited syllabus
suggests is to be done.
Developing Skills
Another major way in which social studies can achieve the goal of citizenship ed
ucation is by helping
students to acquire the skills (thinking/cognitive, study/academic, political, a
nd interpersonal/social) necessary
for functioning in today’s increasingly complex and global environment. In other w
ords, by helping them to
develop civic competence. Academic skills mainly refer to those skills required
for conducting research such as
identification of sources and interpretation of data. Cognitive skills refer to
mainly, but not exclusively, critical
thinking and related interpretative skills which enable students to process the
vast volume of information in
today’s world. Interpersonal skills relate to the ability required to get along in
a non-conflictual way with other
members of the local and international community regardless, for example, of the
ir ethnic, racial, or class
background. Political skills refer to the abilities required to participate effe
ctively in the political processes of the
democratic or other political system in terms of, for example, pursuing power an
d influencing government.
Engle and Ochoa (1988, pp. 24-25) are quite correct then in arguing that citizen
s in a democracy require more
complex skills than those skills including map-reading skills, library skills, c
ommunication skills, and group
work skills, which are usually listed for social studies. These limited skills,
they observe, are primarily
concerned with retrieval and recall of information whereas the skills required b
y a citizen in a democracy focus
on the utilization of knowledge in making decisions and implementing one’s decisio
n in the social and political
arena. The specific skills which they see as being important include:
1. Being able to size up a problem and identify the real point of conflict or th
e real issue, including the
underlying values that are at stake.
2. Being able to select the information which is relevant to the problem and to
relate it logically to
proposed solutions; being able to judge the reliability of various sources of in
formation, including
firsthand experience as well as research-based information.
3. Being able to see a problem in its broadest possible context including the va
lue considerations involved.
4. Being able to build a scenario of likely consequences regarding any proposed
solution to a problem.
5. Being able to make reasoned judgements where the evidence is conflicting or w
here there is conflict
between desired values.
6. Being able to empathize with people whose points of view with respect to the
problem differ from yours.
7. Being able to choose a solution which, though less than ideal, is politically
viable and makes progress
toward resolving an impasse possible.
8. Being able to exercise political influence toward implementing justifiable de
cisions; being able to
organize others and to work in organizations to achieve justifiable political go
als.
Whatever the conceptualization of, or approach to, social studies (social action
, life adjustment, inquiry,
multiculturalism, or cultural transmission) (see Janzen, 1995, pp. 134-140), the
se skills may be regarded as being
indispensable to the citizen in democratic states such as those of the Anglophon
e Caribbean. Importantly,
however, if social studies is to develop these skills in the citizen, teaching c
annot be classroom or textbook
based. Rather, it must seek to involve students in real life exercises which req
uire them to engage the issues
relating to society in ways, or through activities which are meaningful, and inv
olve active interaction with the
community.
Developing Appropriate Values
A third way in which social studies can achieve the goal of citizenship educatio
n is by helping to inculcate in
students values consistent with and supportive of democracy. Democracy, accordin
g to Engle and Ochoa (1988,
p. 65), involves attention to values. They see democratic values as involving re
spect for the welfare of others, the
right to dissent, the right to participate in decision making, and equality of o
pportunity for each individual,
9
among other things. These values are usually rooted in or reflect wider universa
l values, but are also based on
the culture specific to the given society and its political system.
Engle and Ochoa (1988) provide the following sound advice for conceptualizing an
d teaching values in social
studies:
It should... be obvious that values are never fixed entities which can be handed
down intact
from adults to children. How a value such as freedom is to be taken clearly depe
nds on the
circumstances. It must be reinterpreted case by case and generation by generatio
n. Its
application is very much the same kind of problem for intelligent and well infor
med adults as
for children. The exact circumstances of its application in one case are never r
epeated in
another. We must abandon the idea that values can be taught, in the abstract, as
fixed entities
without substance. Such an effort results only in the mouthing of empty words ra
ther than real
commitment. Even if one is really committed to a value, it is intelligently and
morally
respectable to have some doubt about that value. Nor can the teaching of values
be treated as
incidental to otherwise purely factual social studies. Value examination, value
commitment,
and value use in resolving social problems cannot be carried out without facts,
any more than
facts can be made meaningful without recourse to values. (p. 120)
A major problem, however, is that quite often social studies curriculum, activit
ies, and teaching practices
display an ambivalence or outright neglect of the important role of values in fo
stering understanding and
resolving social problems. This criticism is particularly applicable to social s
tudies conceptualizations which are
rooted exclusively in the social sciences. In this respect, it could be argued t
hat values are best taught when they
derive from a combined use of the social sciences and the humanities, a strategy
which is more apt to reflect
social reality or real life situations. In the context of the Caribbean, the pro
blem of neglect of values in teaching
is exacerbated by the fact that because of the small size of the countries, amon
g other reasons, teachers and the
education system as a whole are often subjected to the direct influences of the
political establishment. This fact
often precludes any meaningful classroom discussion of issues regarded as being
politically sensitive,
controversial, or even politically incorrect.
The implications for the teaching of value-laden issues in Caribbean schools sho
uld thus be clear, especially
given that value issues are by nature inherently political and controversial. Ho
wever, some sense of balance can
be brought to discussions of value issues such as HIV/AIDS, or freedom and justi
ce, if they are properly taught.
Values should be integrated into the regular lesson topics in social studies rat
her than attempting to teach them as
discrete topics, for the reason that in the latter case students tend to learn t
hem as an intellectual exercise with no
sense of commitment or application, while the former approach helps the student
to confront, in an active
participating way, the realities of learning, of the classroom and school commun
ity, of the local society, and of
social problems. In this sense, social studies, through values clarification, ca
n serve to help students make the
necessary life adjustments required to function effectively in a democratic soci
ety. The importance of the
teaching of values clarification ought not to be understated because as Murray (
1976, p. 9) observes, the mass
media (especially in this age of globalization and technologies like the Interne
t) is constantly bombarding
students with many conflicting values.
Fostering Social Participation
In all the ways listed above (creating knowledgeable citizens, imparting skills,
imparting values) the social
studies can help to achieve citizenship education in the Caribbean. These ways b
y themselves are, however, not
enough to effectively achieve the goal of citizenship education. Griffith (1995)
explains:
Social studies instruction in the Caribbean has ... traditionally tended to focu
s almost
exclusively on the first three goals of knowledge, skills and attitudes-- and th
is mainly in an
academic/intellectual sense and almost exclusively within the artificial confine
s of the
classroom. Further, with respect to the skill objectives, the emphasis has been
more on
academic skills-- for finding and decoding information, with rather less attenti
on being paid to
cognitive and thinking skills-- for analyzing information, and to social skills.
The bigger goals
10
of social participation and citizenship education have been studiously neglected
, in any explicit
forms, in the social studies curriculum and in instructional practice, --althoug
h, implicitly,
there are constant references to these in national statements of educational phi
losophy....
While the first three goals are clearly important, it is equally important that
they be seen as
mainly providing a sub-structure, or foundation, for the two major goals and as
being, to that
extent, subsumed under these latter. Stated differently, while the foundation is
critical, yet it
remains as part of the building and does not constitute the entire and completed
structure. The
restrictive emphasis on goals thus represents a social studies pedagogy which is
clearly less
authentic, powerful and effective. (pp. 52-53)
For these reasons Griffith quite justifiably argues that there is a rather compe
lling need for social studies
instruction in the Caribbean to move beyond the basic but first-level goals and
to address the higher level and
bigger goals of the subject area through the adoption of a new paradigm in which
knowledge, skills, and
attitudes, are applied in certain ways in order to facilitate the achievement of
the higher goals, and thus of
powerful social studies teaching and learning.
In this respect, it could thus be argued that the single most powerful way the s
ocial studies can achieve
citizenship education is through fostering an inclination for positive social pa
rticipation among students. Social
participation, according to Griffith (1995), may be defined as:
participation, by students, in active roles in performing certain social tasks a
nd activities, and
demonstrating certain capabilities and dispositions, both in and outside of the
school, which
strengthen their knowledge, skills and values, and which involve the life applic
ation of what
they are learning [and is] a vehicle for engaging students, at the classroom lev
el, in social
criticism and authentic deliberation on issues of public concern, and for bringi
ng these issues
into the learning environment in the form of real-life situations. (p. 50)
Even though there might be some controversy about the specific nature and extent
of the social action
required on the part of the student or citizen, this conceptualization of citize
nship education believes that
students do not really understand the notion of citizenship unless they become a
ctively involved
in the social and political affairs of local communities [because] democratic th
eory is.... both
personally tested and understood by students as they become active participants
in civic
endeavors. (Janzen, 1995, p. 135)
The clear implication of this conceptualization of citizenship education is that
if social studies is to deliver
authentic and meaningful instruction in the Caribbean context, it must no longer
be textbook and classroom
bound. It must rather engage in challenging real life exercises or activities wh
ich directly link the school and
community realities. This, of course, will require greater support and funding f
or the social studies in the
Caribbean. It will also require further acceptance on the part of examination bo
dies such as the CXC that “the
mere collation of marks from pencil-and-paper tests in social studies precludes
the adequate and effective
examination and understanding of value questions and social problems and any acc
eptable resolution of these”
(Griffith, 1993, p. 150). There will need to be an application of more clearly f
ormulated criteria for evaluating
reflective participation, civic-mindedness, and greater recognition of the fact
that the learners’ experiences ought
to be an integrated factor in assessment.
From the above discussion it ought to be clear that citizenship education is an
urgent and much needed
requirement in the Caribbean and international context. This section has argued
that even though social studies is
not the only subject area which can impart citizenship education, its unique thr
ust, approach, and goals make it
ideally suited to perform such a task. However, if social studies is to effectiv
ely achieve the critical goal of
citizenship education in the Caribbean context, certain fundamental changes will
need to be made to the way the
subject is conceptualized, supported, financed, perceived, taught, and examined,
among other things. Likewise,
in view of the challenges being produced by globalization, there may have to be,
as the following section which
focuses on the Barbadian experience shows, a reconceptualization of the goals an
d objectives of Caribbean
social studies.
11
PART 2
Globalization and (Barbados) School Reform
Introduction
More than most subjects taught in Barbadian secondary schools, the challenge for
social studies educators in
a world marked by complex cultural transactions, technological change, and new t
rading rules is to encourage a
global perspective, inventiveness, industriousness, and a national sense of belo
nging. In this increasingly
complex global environment, every area of social studies discussed in the preced
ing section (conceptualization,
financing, perceptions, role and function, pedagogy, examination) will necessari
ly have to undergo close
scrutiny, and be challenged to change, if the subject area is to remain relevant
and effective in meeting the needs
of democratic society in the new century. Notwithstanding the importance of thos
e objectives of schooling that
are vocational, or are related to the social and cognitive development of the in
dividual, officials in the Ministry
of Education, activists, and public commentators have long seen civic education
as the most important objective
for schooling. Indeed it was in the mid-1960s, just prior to political independe
nce, that the then Errol Barrow
Administration introduced free education, not so much to ensure the imparting of
a basic set of academic
competency skills and behavioural attitudes toward white collar work as to prepa
re the young for citizenship.
Since the early 1990s, however, public policy officials have become increasingly
concerned about the
adaptability of the Barbadian economy and its workforce to changes in the world
economy. Indeed, new
technologies and global capitalist intensification are having a flattening effec
t on Barbados’ social and political
coordinates.
Technological upgrading at the industrial base of the world economy registers ad
versely on strategies aimed
at offering foreign capital basic skilled labour-intensive platforms. Since 1996
, as well, Barbados has
experienced a fall-off in tourist arrivals from North America; cuts in the count
ry’s sugar quota to North America
are imminent in the wake of new trade rules; and the benefits of docking onto an
offshore financial sector
strategy seem unclear as international consensus moves towards re-regulation. Wh
ile there has been growth in
the Barbadian economy from the mid-1990s--the result of an upsurge in commercial
activity and European
tourist arrivals--continued over-investment in non-tradable sectors has forced g
overnment to tighten credit
controls. Altogether, with a premium placed on free trade and export-competitive
ness, the commercial-dealing
nature of the local economy ultimately runs up hard against its own self-generat
ed limits. This coincides with a
lack of cohesive spiritual and social values, and unrestricted acquisitiveness i
n Barbadian society; this ruling
social passion is tied to a peculiar conception of “freedom,” one shaped by highly i
ndividualist perceptions and
impulses around crass indifference and materialism.2
In order to restore social cohesion, economic viability, and competitiveness in
the international economy, a
more direct link is called for between a reformed educational system and a more
productive economy. A new
equation has thus been added to the school reform agenda, that is, the problem o
f how to ensure the continued
viability of accustomed meritocratic principles like excellence and equity, in t
he context of a dramatic shift in the
world economy. Parallel to this is an ongoing dialogue among public commentators
and educators on
underperforming males in academic work, increasing lawlessness, the relationship
between the needs of capital
and secondary school education, and the need for a strong technical and vocation
al component in educational
programmes. The resulting portrait has generated the fuel for the latest school
reform initiative known as the
Education Sector Enhancement Programme or “EduTech2000.” This initiative is discusse
d following the section
below on Barbadian educators’ perception of the material and cultural challenges c
onfronting the school system.
Interviews were conducted with three senior teachers, one of whom is in the prim
ary school system and two
principals in the secondary school system. They were questioned mainly in areas
about the relationship between
“globalization” and education up to secondary school. This included discussion on th
e impact of the computer on
the labour process the changing commodity and labour requirements of the nationa
l and global economy, student
12
preferences and business studies in the school curricula, the efficacy of curren
t instructional programmes, and
the premise and promise of EduTech.
Economic Change and the School Reform Impetus
For the past decade, there has been debate concerning the probable effects of gl
obalization on Barbados’
development. In some cases, this issue was nested in research on the impact of n
ew information technologies on
the labour process and the wider population. The challenges facing trade unions
following the salary cuts and
lay-offs of public sector employees in 1991, and the tide of growing youth viole
nce and lawlessness provided the
backdrop to these discussions and debates. Lawrence Nurse’s (1992, p. 119) industr
ial relations study, for
example, referred to the need for managerial flexibility and skill enhancement o
f the local labour force in the
wake of technological change. This resonated with recommendations flowing from a
1992 national survey on the
socioeconomic conditions of youth in Barbados (Brathwaite & Carter, 1993). On th
e issue of the relevance of the
system of secondary education to the needs of contemporary society and the youth
, one of the researchers, a
leading sociologist advised: “In order to function in the information era of the f
uture, ..[the] youth...must begin,
and in the case of the more fortunate, advance, the process of computer literacy
leading to proficiency.” He
further added: “New ideas must also be forthcoming with respect to vocational trai
ning and for creating new
vistas for the polytechnic institutions and continuing education programmes....’ (
see Lewis & Carter, 1995, p.
26) Altogether, these ideas merged well with intra-elite discussions on the way
forward for Barbados in the wake
of global changes. Offshore services and information technology have since been
targeted as potential areas for
sustainable growth well into the next century. It is envisioned by Prime Ministe
r Owen Arthur, as indicated in a
1997 address to the local Chamber of Commerce, that with education and other mac
ro-economic reforms, the
island’s production base could shift towards one driven by “informated” knowledge tech
nologies attracting
higher sources of foreign direct investment.
In responding to questions about the scope and preference for business studies i
n the secondary school
curricula, the educators observed that students favour traditional academic subj
ects over those related to business
and technical studies. They share the view that parents discourage their childre
n from selecting technical studies
that do not offer the promise, reward, or glamour of traditional white collar ca
reers. It is not surprising that
parents would act in this way, for cultural perceptions of success and high achi
evement are usually reserved for
those on the academic training track as opposed to those involved in technical t
raining. Moreover, the
introduction of business and technical studies in the newer secondary schools in
 the early 1980s reinforced the
perception that technical training is an outlet for marginal students or academi
c failures. Under these
circumstances, students have harbored the unrealistic expectation that ample whi
te collar jobs and high wages
await them at the end of their studies. The educators also lamented the absence
of consistent programmes or
effective policies to inform connections between the needs of capital and the en
tire school system, including the
Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic. This says something of the nature and charac
ter of the local private
sector.
Commerce predominates in the Barbadian economy, and together with the feature of
continued overinvestment
in non-tradable sectors these ingredients make for a precarious economic foundat
ion.3 For largely
historical and sociological reasons, the wealthy elite remains risk-adverse and
ensconced in import-trading,
banking and insurance, real estate and property development, and other commercia
l endeavours. Since
commercial-dealing capitalists constitute the leading economic class in Barbados
, there is a merchant capital
character to the economy. Indeed, fear of the risks and of failure govern the cu
ltural predisposition towards
business among significant sections of the population. Most students over the ye
ars have pursued careers in the
civil service and commercial private sector, because working for others is perce
ived as a guarantee of job
stability and status enhancement. The upshot of this is that merchant capital ha
s no systematic need for large
numbers of highly trained professional and technical workers. There is, thus, a
disjuncture between what
educators sense as the modern needs of global capital and the need to prepare st
udents accordingly, and the fact
that local businesses make no specific demands on secondary education.
13
Gender Performance in the School System
Generally, the educators acknowledge that large numbers of female students tend
to outperform their male
counterparts. This was attributed to the disciplined approach to academic study
many females bring to academic
work. The reasons offered for this situation, however, were diverse, but most of
the stock arguments appear.
Some pointed to the preponderance of female teachers in the primary school sugge
sting that this was damaging
to the sense of self-worth among boys. Others lamented the absence of positive m
ale role models as teachers
throughout the education system. Another point raised was the seeming bias for f
emale employees in sectors of
the labour market, including occupations once reserved for males, and the impact
this must have on the morale
of males in the school.4
These arguments are problematic insofar as they misconstrue and misrepresent the
role of gender in the
political economy. Women’s role in the political economy of Barbados does not begi
n nor end at the workplace
or point of production, as it extends to their role as mothers, wives, and caret
akers in the household. The point
shared by many social commentators about the preponderance of females in the pri
mary schools and how this
accounts for low self-esteem is a defense of patriarchy and, at any rate, the po
int is lost if we can appreciate that
there is no inadequacy in the biological nature and social roles of women in soc
iety. Cecilia Green’s (1994)
study on issues facing Commonwealth Caribbean females in education, career, and
professional advancement
concedes that there has been a dramatic increase of women in the workforce but t
hat most find employment in
low-paid mundane jobs. She concludes that even where females outperform males in
academic, professional, and
technical fields there remain obstacles to their advancement into senior technic
al, administrative, and managerial
levels.
Beyond the gender question, however, there are several problems of quality and e
fficiency in the education
and training system of Barbados in areas such as inadequate supplies of textbook
s and instructional materials,
deficiencies in the examination and certification system, and the infrastructure
. Recently, President of the
Barbados Union of Teachers, Undine Whittaker, made an appeal for more teachers t
rained to cope with other
problems in the classroom: “Some are dyslexic, a lot need remedial therapy, some w
hose attention span is short,
some who have brain damage, some who are subnormal [sic]; we get a whole range o
f these children within the
school system” (Teachers: We are not to blame, 1999).
Assessing the “EduTech2000 Masterplan”
It is worth noting that the educators consider education reform the key correcti
ve to Barbados’ contracting
economy and ailing society. This resonates with views similarly expressed by Lew
is and Carter (1992) and state
officials. The Ministry of Education, Youth Affairs and Culture’s (1995) White Pap
er on Education Reform and
the EduTech2000 Masterplan (Peled & Peled, 1997) produced by two consultants, Zi
mra Peled and Elad Peled,
together constitute the blueprint to education reform in Barbados. A project lar
gely funded by the Inter-
American Development Bank, EduTech2000 is a five year education sector enhanceme
nt programme involving
the introduction of information technology (IT), pedagogical changes, and change
in the curricular foci. The
document outlines the specific objectives of EduTech2000 as being:
1. To increase the efficacy of the teaching/learning process by encouraging teac
hers to utilize available
technologies in their classrooms.
2. To prepare students for life in a technologically-advanced society by ensurin
g that all students who leave
school in the 21st century have good knowledge of, and adequate skills in the us
e of information
technology.
In the White Paper on Education Reform, a number of curricular knowledge domains
are listed corresponding
to the official thrust on services development. The fields include: Information
handling; Scientific literacy; IT
literacy; and Communication and collaboration means and strategies. These skills
are geared to meet labour
market demands in tourism, offshore services, and informatics. The pedagogical o
bjectives in the EduTech
report relate to conceptual, curricular, teaching, and learning strategies. The
suggested aim is to transform the
14
education system from one that is ”instructionist” towards one that is constructivis
t or, put another way, one that
is conducive to learning partnerships between teacher and student. Throughout, i
t is expected that an appropriate
use of IT tools will be infused into classroom practices. Constructivism, as exp
lained by the consultants,
involves a change in the relationship and culture of the traditional classroom.
Under the traditional method
(instructionism) the role of the teacher is to manage and convey ”expert” subject-ma
tter information to the
student, but under constructivism, s/he manages and facilitates active and gener
ative learning in an environment
that is intellectually challenging; the student collaborates rather than listens
; the classroom is interactive and
student-centred rather than teacher-centred; and rather than standard objective
tests, the student engages in
performance tasks and criterion-referenced exercises. This explanation notwithst
anding, it is quite likely that the
underlying authority relations of the school will inevitably structure the stude
nt’s experience with computers, as
with other media.
The new reform curriculum emphasizes the importance of socializing students for
the acquisition of a basic
set of social skills, especially those relating to “adaptability,” “self-discipline,” “sel
f monitoring,” and “team
work.” There is scope here for a global perspective to be engendered. To be sure,
the educators interviewed
lamented the very little global content in civic education or general knowledge
programmes today. They each
point to the crowded daily school schedule and the need to meet the standards of
the existing curriculum as
major obstacles blocking the incorporation of global education into any school a
s a separate or a new curriculum.
One of the principals also suggested that very few of the social studies textboo
ks are written with a global view.
If, however, teachers and schools become convinced that the world can be used as
the principal content for their
classroom instruction, a global perspective among students will emerge. Some of
the pedagogical changes
mooted under EduTech clearly offer the scope for more information on the feedbac
k relationship between the
global and local.
After careful reading of the two reports, it does appear that they have been con
structed from a social
efficiency ideology that is intent on re-aligning the educational system in harm
ony with perceived future high
tech and information needs of businesses, both local and foreign. The reformers
are also clearly pinning their
hopes for the sustainability of the Barbadian economy on a high tech, informatio
n-based economy. The
educators, when questioned, also pin the meritocratic dream of “equal educational
opportunity for all” on the
dubious claim that high technology will be a central source of new jobs in the e
arly years of the 21st century.
However, what is the factual basis for their beliefs? Two fallacies are seemingl
y at work. The first assumes that
the fastest growing job categories in the core economies are in high-tech indust
ries. Levin (1984, pp. 33-34), in a
study forecasting the impact of new technologies on the future job market in the
 United States, charges that the
impact of high tech industries and occupations has been oversold. Not only will
high tech industries employ only
a fraction of the nation’s workers, he surmises, but many of the jobs they do prov
ide require little or no
knowledge of high technology. His statistical projections of future employment i
n the United States reveal that
future job growth will favour service and clerical jobs that require little or n
o post-secondary schooling and that
pay below-average wages. This brings us to the second fallacy in this reform equ
ation, which equates high
technology industries with jobs that require advanced education and highly compl
ex job skills. In much the same
way that cashiers no longer need to have mathematical skills because modern cash
registers carry out all of the
necessary computations, Levin notes a reduction in the skills needed by computer
programmers, workers in auto
repair, industrial design, architectural drafting, and other related occupations
.
These points are important in the Barbadian context if we plot trends occurring
in the labour market from
1970 to 1999. There is little beyond marginal participation in services at the l
evel of data-entry work in
Barbados. Divided into two major categories, the types of employment currently f
ound in the offshore sector and
the host economy feature: (a) a continuation of the traditional past clerical, c
onstruction, and professional
employment (with some modifications), plus a burgeoning service economy; and (b)
a small high tech
information/telecommunications sector requiring relatively few highly trained em
ployees. The former will
continue to absorb the vast majority of the workforce in the foreseeable future,
whereas the latter will only make
up a relatively small percentage of the work force. But there is more to this. T
he dangers of overestimating the
benefits of computerization appear very strong in the current discourse.
The justification for computer literacy, especially in the secondary schools, is
based on the notion that these
programmes are vital to prepare students for the job market, and that computer-a
ssisted instruction (CAI) can
15
boost student performance. A few of the earmarked pilot/demonstration schools ha
ve already commenced the
programme. But, as mentioned earlier, predictions of a swelling job market for t
hese skills have dubious validity.
Claims that computer instruction can boost achievement must also be viewed criti
cally. Douglas and Bryant
(1985), observed that programmes for developing courseware tend to be pedagogica
lly primitive. Students are
tested through short answer, matching answer, and multiple choice questions. Acc
ordingly, CAI is simply old
programmed instruction in a flashier package.
Computers can help exercise logical skills and are useful tools for data entry a
nd retrieval, calculating, and
building communication networks. However, it would appear that the ideology of p
rogress through
computerization is strong in current policy dialogues. It corresponds to a promi
se that new freedoms and
opportunities will somehow emerge from using new electronic tools, with no chang
es in social hierarchies or
loci of power. Integrated into a curriculum with a concern for social and cultur
al impacts, the proffered new
courses in IT could perhaps enrich students’ understanding and mastery of the mode
rn world. But “computer
literacy” minus any attempt to bolster and infuse social studies programmes with a
global perspective
subordinates education to the job-oriented demands of the business sector.
Issues, therefore, of globalization, gender, the impact and potential of the Int
ernet and technology, economic
and social change, to name a few, all become social issues to the extent that th
ey will impact significantly on
Caribbean society. As social issues, they clearly come within the ambit of socia
l studies content, and thus have
implications for what must be seen as a legitimate aspect of educating our youth
to be citizens of the new society
of the twenty-first century. Stated differently, social studies programmes in Ba
rbados and the rest of the
Caribbean will need to develop a “global face,” in addition to their local focus and
concerns. Care must be taken
as well that elite reformers do not succumb to over-glib rhetoric coming from hi
gh-technology circles, as focus
may be lost on how to improve cognitive skills beyond mastery of techniques and
designs. The capacity to think
critically is crucial for social and economic transformation.
16
RECOMMENDATIONS
Given the issues and concerns addressed in the foregoing sections of this monogr
aph, the following
recommendations appear to emerge logically and relevantly:
1. That each Caribbean territory explicitly commits itself to a policy statement
for the teaching of social
studies at all levels of the school system.
2. That, in pursuance of this, each Ministry of Education identify and appoint a
suitably qualified and
competent person to function as the Education Officer for social studies.
3. That each territory undertake or facilitate, also as a matter of policy, the
development of relevant
interactive resource materials for the teaching of social studies.
4. That, in the teaching of social studies, specific attention be paid to identi
fying, and developing in
Caribbean children, the attributes of “civic competence.”
5. That the use of out-of-class activities and service learning be officially sa
nctioned as an important,
acceptable vehicle for the teaching of social studies.
6. That the use of on-task activities be sanctioned and promoted as the basis fo
r authentic instruction and
learning in social studies.
7. That the social studies programme in schools be structured to include issues
and concerns of a global
nature (economic, political, and social) that have, actually or potentially, an
impact on Caribbean
society.
8. That the syllabus and teachers be guided to pay specific attention to the lin
kages between developments
in science and technology and their impact on society and social norms and value
s, both locally and
globally.
9. That, in evaluating learning in social studies, teachers be required to pay g
reater attention to evidence of
critical thinking and values.
10. That the CXC examining body include more items and questions that test for v
alues and for social
studies skills.
11. That the current Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE) syllabus
for Caribbean Studies
be restructured as a bona fide social studies syllabus, focusing more on the dev
elopment and display of
certain skills, values, and understandings rather than on the acquisition of dis
parate bits of knowledge.
12. That, in the training of social studies teachers, greater attention needs to
be paid to the fact that social
studies is more about methodology and the process of social investigation than a
bout recall of factual
information.
17
13. That both teacher-trainers and teachers need to be sensitive to the very rea
l impact of their own teaching
style and attitude on students’ learning.
14. That Caribbean governments need to become more sensitive to the value, to th
e nation, of the
development of proper, prosocial work ethic, attitude, dispositions and outlook,
and to the contribution
that social studies, properly taught, can make in these respects.
18
Notes
1. See, for instance, R. C. Carter (1997), Youth in the Organisation of Eastern
Caribbean States: The Grenada Study. Cave
Hill: Institute of Social and Economic Studies, UWI; R. C. Carter (1993), Crime
and Punishment: The Attitudes and
Experiences of Barbadian Youth. Cave Hill: UWI. (Staff Seminar Series); L. Lewis
and R. C. Carter (1995), Essays on
Youth in the Caribbean. Cave Hill: Institute of Social and Economic Research, UW
I.
2. For further discussion on the decline of communal and spiritual values and ri
sing materialism see R. C. Carter (1995),
“Decline of Community, Decline of Youth Behaviour: Causation or coincidence?” In L.
Lewis and R. C. Carter (1995),
Essays on Youth in the Caribbean. Cave Hill: Institute of Social and Economic Re
search, UWI.
3. For discussion along these lines see the various essays by H. Watson in, H. W
atson, Ed. (1994), The Caribbean in the
Global Political Economy. Boulder, CA: Lynne Rienner Publishing; Also, D. Worrel
l (1993), “Investment in the
Caribbean,” Social and Economic Studies, vol. 42, nos. 2&3, pp. 243-259; D. D. Mar
shall (1998), Caribbean Political
Economy at the Crossroads. London: MacMillan.
4. For more on the performance of females in secondary schools and other related
issues see K. de Albuquerque and S.
Ruark (1998), “Men Day Done: Are Women Really Ascendant in the Caribbean? In C. Ba
rrow, Ed. (1998), Caribbean
Portraits: Essays on Gender Ideologies and Identities. Kingston: Ian Randle Pub.
; Mona: Centre for Gender and
Development Studies; E. A. Leo-Rhynie (1989), “Gender Issues in Education and Impl
ications for Labour Force
Participation.” In K. Hart , Ed. (1989), Women and the Sexual Division of Labour i
n the Caribbean (pp. 81-97). Mona:
Consortium School of Graduate Studies, UWI; E. Miller (1991), Men at Risk. Kings
ton: Jamaica Publishing House.
19
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