School of Education awarded USAID grant
06 October 2021
After being awarded a US$3.6 million grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Director of the School of Education, Professor Joel Warrican said the grant runs for three years from March 29, 2021 to March 28, 2024, and they are undertaking this initiative with the University of South Florida (USF) as a sub-awardee.
He credits fellow colleagues at the School of Education, Dr. Coreen Leacock, Senior Lecturer in Mathematics Education and Research Methods; Dr. Verna Knight, Lecturer in Social Studies Education; and Dr. Patriann Smith, Assistant Professor at the College of Education at USF, who are all co-authors of the winning proposal.
“We had a vision for educational research in the Caribbean. We felt that the region lacked homegrown investigations of issues that have an impact on education outcomes, and we felt strongly enough about it to persevere with the proposal for the grant. We really want to thank USAID for sharing our vision and for having the confidence in our institution to provide financial support,” he said.
Commenting on the award, Regional Representative of USAID/Eastern and Southern Caribbean, Clinton White said, “For decades the American people, through USAID, have been partnering with the Caribbean people to move education, health, economic development, and prosperity forward, so they are able to have opportunities to better their lives and to promote stronger and vibrant communities. We are pleased to contribute to the establishment of the educational research center at the University of the West Indies as education helps promote stronger, safer, and more prosperous societies.”
Warrican lamented that often research which informs educational policy and planning in the region, comes from outside the Caribbean and may be carried out in contexts that are quite different from what exists here. He explained that the vision is for the centre to undertake investigations that are relevant to the countries in the region, carried out by researchers who understand local education systems and who have a vested interest in seeking evidence-based solutions to challenges that we face. “I believe that a major strength of this initiative is the involvement of key stakeholders in education in the region,” Warrican added. “We are working along with partners such as Ministries of Education, the local community colleges and agencies such as the OESC Commission and CARICOM. These are all members of the Eastern Caribbean Joint Board of Teacher Education, a premier body that regulates teacher education in the region.”
He also praised the contribution of USF. He stated that this institution has a cadre of faculty with experience of carrying out research on issues that affect the Caribbean. He explained that the USF team brings expertise that complements what already exists at the Cave Hill campus and that researchers associated with the centre will have the opportunity to benefit from the experience that USF brings.
According to Warrican, the programme, called “The Caribbean Educational Research Initiative,” will initially target the OECS countries and Barbados. He explained that the research undertaken by the centre will be approved by a committee, the Regional Research Advisory Committee, that will consist of representatives of key education stakeholder groups. This committee’s role is to ensure that research done by or supported by the centre are of benefit to education in the target countries.
The centre is expected to have an interdisciplinary research focus where research supports decision making and policy development for educational innovation and development in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean. Warrican stated that in meetings held throughout the grant writing process, education stakeholder groups identified some priority areas that will be among the first that the centre will investigate. These include factors that influence student achievement in the region; the influence of COVID-19 pandemic on the academic, social, and psychological development of students, as well as on teachers; and the impact of technology on teaching and learning in schools. There will also be interdisciplinary investigations into areas such as pedagogical and leadership practices from the colonial past and their impact on education with a view to informing innovative policies that can benefit young people in the region.
“We have already started the initial work: the hiring of research fellows, seeking research assistants and looking at all the activities that we have mapped out in the agreement… We have started and we anticipate that this is going to be quite a successful initiative because we have the support of not only the campus, but also of the wider University community and key education stakeholders in the region,” Warrican said.
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