This paper provides a comparative analysis of the writing performance in English of African heritage students in Birmingham, England and Kingston, Jamaica. The study explores the effects of language use on the written production of English among African heritage students in two geographical locations, Birmingham, England and Kingston, Jamaica. Particular attention is drawn to the effects of Jamaican Creole usage in Jamaica and Creole/ Black British Talk in England, on the achievement levels of African heritage students.

The Journal of Education and Development in the Caribbean was first launched in Guyana twelve years ago.

The psychosocial environment in a classroom impacts on the experiences of all students. That environment is mostly influenced by the emotional stability of the teacher. Teachers with mental health problems can hurt their students. It is therefore critical that teachers’ mental health and wellbeing be considered as an important area for research.

Following up on a research project in which concerned citizens, members of the artist community, academics and curriculum officers were interviewed, this study sought teachers’ perspectives about the culture/curriculum nexus, given the persistent perception that the curriculum is culturally irrelevant. A survey instrument was developed and validated and the findings from the questionnaire reported.

Although a wide body of research on school violence exists, much of the work is concentrated within westernized contexts, particularly within the American context, and is focused on the types of violent behaviours exhibited, the causes of the behaviour, and solutions to reduce the behaviours. Within the local context, research has identified root causes of school violence and possible solutions. These local studies neither purposely focus on the unmet needs of the secondary victims of school violence nor devise programmes to address the needs of this group of victims.

Through the ages, storytellers have known that well-told ‘complicated stories’ are, first and foremost, a source of entertainment for people of all ages. However, research suggests that, even as we are entertained by fiction, we benefit from listening to or reading fiction in other ways as well. Fiction illuminates ‘imagined-worlds,’ and socially constructed perspectives of identity and culture as it guides readers into critiquing portrayals of self and others, minimizing the caricaturing of the ‘Other’ (Clifford & Kalyanpur, 2011).

 This study raised questions about the extent to which an environmental module on bird ecology could influence environmental attitudes of urban Trinidadian elementary students. Research suggests that children’s attitudes to the environment are shaped by multi-sensory, inquiry-driven learning experiences in nature. The author therefore predicted that there was a high probability of students’ environmental attitudes and local bird knowledge increasing after exposure to the module.

In this paper, we examine the efficacy and relevance of constructivist pedagogy within the Jamaican schooling and educational contexts. We recognize that it is an educational topic that has received a fair amount of attention in Jamaica, one which has been discussed and written about by numerous scholars and educators who have focused extensively on areas of curriculum, teaching, and learning (Down, 2008; Evans, 2006; Figueroa, 2010; Gentles, 2006; Jennings, 2007).

This paper is based on a research project which provided an assessment of the value and contribution of the e-Learning Jamaica professional development training in the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on teachers’ classroom practices. A questionnaire was used in a survey of teachers from ten schools in Kingston and St Andrew to investigate teachers’ rating of the e-Learning training and its influence on their classroom practices.

Extensive information exists regarding the university choice process for some students, but little is known about the process for students who do not move directly from high school diploma to higher education. In this article, we explore the process that these nontraditional students take to earning a university education.