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This Institute is not only a department
in the University—though it is one, with all the rights
and privileges enjoyed by other departments. It has the special
character of being also (in association, in which the University,
the governments, the training colleges and the teaching profession
come together to pool resources and help one another to achieve
the highest professional standards in the educational services
we give to our several communities.
But over and above the function and the organization, the
spirit of the Institute is important. It seeks to stimulate
and inspire. Its activity is always with rather than to or
from. It recognizes that its aims and intentions are the same
as those of teachers and education officers everywhere and
at all levels. But it has the advantages, on the one hand,
of being free from the administrative preoccupation of the
Ministries and the exhausting cares of the schoolroom, and,
on the other, of being part of the University, with all that
that implies in respect of standards and the accessibility
of knowledge. It is able in consequence to concentrate its
attention on professional quality and ways of achieving it,
and to act as a catalyst in the educational processes of the
region.
Hugh Springer, first Director of the Institute of Education,
at the Conference on Teacher Training, St. Augustine, Trinidad
and Tobago, 1964
The Institute of Education, Mona, established in 1963 by the
University of the West Indies at the request of contributing
governments in the Caribbean region, celebrates its 40th anniversary
in 2003. This publication seeks to record some of its achievements
by
- Highlighting the research and development work of staff
members during the past five years
- Celebrating the founding of the Institute forty years
ago
- Commemorating the founders and first directors and staff
members who laid the foundations and charted the Institute’s
course during its early years
Hugh Worrell Springer
Elsa Walters
Reginald Murray
Dudley Grant
The Beginning
In 1945, the West Indies Committee of the Commission on Higher
Education in the Colonies recommended that within the proposed
University College, a strong department should be established
to train secondary school teachers, granting them a postgraduate
Diploma in Education. Although the department would not be
able to train elementary school teachers as well (they were
then being trained at pre-university level in teachers colleges
throughout the region), it would support that effort by setting
examination papers and conducting examinations, issuing a
Certificate in Teaching to successful graduates of the teachers
colleges. This certificate would be recognized throughout
the Caribbean.
Department of Education
In 1952 the Department of Education was established and the
training of university graduates for teaching (at the secondary
level) began. Then in 1955, with funding from the Carnegie
Foundation, the Centre for the Study of Education was established
within the Department to carry out work with the teachers
colleges, training teachers at the elementary level. During
the nine years of its existence, the Centre laid the groundwork
for the development of teacher education in the region. Among
its achievements were the Boards of Teacher Training, established
at the request of ministries of education in Jamaica and the
other Caribbean territories, to advise the governments on
the training of teachers and to administer teachers college
examinations.
However, the Department of Education found it difficult to
combine its work with the elementary school teachers in the
teachers colleges with its main task of preparing teachers
for the secondary schools. It soon became clear that the structural
relationship between the Department and the Centre was hampering
the work of both. In 1957, the Regional Conference on the
Training of Teachers in the British Caribbean called for an
Institute of Education to be established as part of the University
College of the West Indies. The governments, by then clamouring
for more assistance from the fledgling university college
for primary education and teacher training, agreed in 1961
that an Institute of Education should replace the Centre for
the Study of Education.
Institute of Education
Finally established in 1963 with funding from the Ford Foundation,
the Institute of Education replaced the Centre for the Study
of Education and was a separate entity from the Department
of Education. The Institute’s goal was to promote excellence
in teacher training throughout the region and to undertake
indigenous research. It was separately funded by the contributing
territories, and enjoyed a close and special relationship
with the governments through
- ministries of education
- the Institute Advisory Council (established under University
Ordinance 14 (3)
- The Institute Board of Teacher Training, established
in 1965 under Ordinance 14 (4), which was later replaced
by the Joint Board of Teacher Education.
Change and Change Again
In 1972 the Faculty of Education, which had been created
to embrace both the Department of Education and the Institute
of Education, was reorganized to create a School of Education.
The Department of Education became the Teaching Section, while
the Institute of Education saw its resources carved up to
create a Teacher Education Section to carry out the work with
colleges, and a Research and Curriculum Development Section.
The Extra-Mural Department, formerly a part of the Faculty
of Education, was detached and made independent under the
Senate.
Twelve years later, in 1984, the three remaining sections
of the School of Education were replaced by two departments,
the Department of Educational Studies and the Teacher Education
Development Department. The experiment had failed. After another
twelve years, however, in 1996, the Teacher Education Development
Department reverted to its former name, Institute of Education,
a name that it was felt, was more suited to its actual functions
and role.
With the creation of the St. Augustine Campus in Trinidad
and Tobago and the Cave Hill Campus in Barbados, the Institute
is no longer required to serve the whole region. From time
to time, however, the department and individual staff members
provide services to other parts of the Caribbean at the request
of governments and other organizations, as well as the other
campuses. The department has endeavoured to respond directly
to the needs of the teacher education systems in the territories
that it serves.
This direct responsiveness is facilitated in part by the
structural relationship between the Institute of Education
and the Joint Board of Teacher Education (JBTE). The JBTE
is the certifying and accrediting body for nongraduate teacher
education in the Western Caribbean, while the Institute carries
out the activities which support these functions as part of
its mission to promote excellence in teacher education. Through
the JBTE, it is envisaged that the Institute of Education
can have a positive impact on the quality of education in
early childhood, primary, and secondary schools. Its strategic
goal is—through teaching and research—to provide
the population of the region, and in particular the teacher
education sector, with access to high quality academic programmes
that are effectively delivered. These teaching and research
functions are envisaged in figure 1.
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