Chapter 1. Background to the Study

Trinidad and Tobago is a twin-island, independent state in the Caribbean, which was formerly a British colony. Although it gained independence from Britain in 1962, some segments of the education system are still characterised by aspects of British colonialism. The research project reported here focused on one such segment - the system of primary teacher education.

Any attempt to improve the quality of basic education in schools immediately places the preparation of teachers as the point of central focus, since teachers and teaching are accepted as important factors in the success or failure of children. The role of teachers in contributing to the quality of education has been well acknowledged. Joyce and Weil (1972, p. 4) refer to the teacher as the “mid-wife of educational change” who is expected to provide an education that will equip the young to survive and develop to their fullest, and which will provide them with a sense of social responsibility and the ability to make informed choices in a consistently changing complex world. The preparation of teachers must, therefore, be afforded the care, attention, and support needed to ensure that the desired outcomes of the teaching/learning process are achieved.

Teachers have often felt the sting of public upbraiding as, so often, blame for the inadequacies of the system has been focused primarily upon them. But, ensuring the success of teaching requires not just efforts to improve its quality but the recognition that contextual factors may set limits to what can be achieved (Avalos, 1991). The need to shift from the mechanistic, narrowly based skills approaches to an inquiry-oriented and interactive perspective has been acknowledged internationally, but, particularly in developing countries, this shift has been found to be difficult. Avalos (1991) attributes this difficulty to a number of factors. She explains, for example, that the developing world is experiencing a much higher rate of increase in the number of learners, and governments have resorted to cost-effective means of rapidly training the greatest number of teachers. Such a strategy, she claims, is detrimental to any effort to improve teacher education systems. Other factors identified by Avalos as affecting teacher preparation in the developing world relate to the education levels of recruits to the service, the status of teachers, and the conditions of service.

There is little by way of documented research that explores the quality of the primary teacher education programme offered in the developing country of Trinidad and Tobago. It is unclear to what extent (if any) the factors identified by Avalos (1991) as negatively impacting on the quality of teacher education in developing countries are also operating in the Trinidad and Tobago context. This study sought to remedy this situation by investigating the quality of primary teacher education as part of a much larger project organised by the University of Sussex Institute of Education, United Kingdom. The Sussex initiative, the Multi-Site Teacher Education Research (MUSTER) Project, was funded by the British Department for International Development (DFID) and involved research in five countries, including Trinidad and Tobago. The research for the Trinidad and Tobago component was conducted by a team of academic staff members at the School of Education of the Trinidad campus of The University of the West Indies (UWI).

The entire MUSTER Project was organised around four strands: Becoming a teacher, Curriculum, Costs, and Colleges. Each strand was to be investigated through an examination of three arenas, namely, inputs, process, and outputs. Table 1.1 shows a matrix depicting this research design, including research questions that were to be addressed in each of the cells of the matrix. As the research progressed, individual countries participating in the project found it necessary to modify this matrix to deal with the realities of the local context.

This MUSTER country report for Trinidad and Tobago details the research procedures adopted, the findings, and discussions on the findings of the various sub-components of the project as executed in Trinidad and Tobago. Appendix A of the report shows the programme of a symposium held at the Trinidad campus of UWI in January 2002, at which the MUSTER findings were presented to significant stakeholders. A summary of the proceedings of this symposium is presented in Appendix B. The Minister of Education of Trinidad and Tobago gave the opening address at the symposium and subsequently requested a copy of the MUSTER recommendations. A copy of the covering letter sent with the recommendations to the Minister is shown in Appendix C.

Table 1.1. An Overall View of Arenas and Strands