The Latin American reality reflects a continent full of contrasts where youth is expected to play a key role in the transformation of society. Demographic studies indicate that the percentage of young people in Latin America is greater than at any time in the past. These young people have witnessed a significant increase in opportunities for higher education in Latin America, especially in Venezuela, where student enrolment has doubled in less than two decades.

The study seeks to determine school constituents’ rating of the leadership dimensions of high-performing principals based on school types. A questionnaire developed surrounding nine dimensions was distributed to school constituents from 125 schools across Jamaica which included classroom teacher, grade coordinator, senior teacher, head of department, vice principal, board chairmanship, PTA president and education officer. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) generated four dimensions or factors that conceptualized leadership performance in effective principals.

International research supports the view that principals play an integral role in ensuring the effectiveness of educational programmes for students with disabilities through assuming the role of instructional leaders. This research is qualitative and utilizes phenomenology to explore principals’ experiences and decision-making practices in assessment, curriculum and instruction in special education. The researcher conducted indepth interviews, analyzed transcripts using content analysis, and grounded theory to extract themes which characterized principals’ practices at the four schools.

There is today an urgency to infuse technology into the curriculum, as technology is viewed as a pedagogical tool ideal for facilitating improvement in student performance and achievement (Bebell & Kay, 2010; Desai, 2008; Vrasidas & Glass, 2005; Yeung, 2010). The benefits identified are many, among them the possibility of providing varied, engaging and flexible environments for learning and increasing access to meaningful and effective resources (Yeung, 2010).

Data-driven decision making (DDDM) is an increasingly important innovation at all levels of the education system, including early childhood care and education (ECCE). This multisite, qualitative case study was designed to investigate the practice and ideology of data use at early childhood centres in the Caribbean island of Tobago. We analyzed DDDM using a sociological lens of practice and ideology as described by Lofland, Snow, Anderson, and Lofland (2006).

This paper discusses the technical, humanistic, and critical paradigms presented by Plumb and Welton (2001) in making the case that all three dimensions are essential to the education of individuals who will function effectively in a context of rapid social and technological change and numerous social problems.

This issue of the Journal of Education and Development in the Caribbean contains articles that use a variety of methodologies and span countries in both the English-speaking Caribbean and Latin America. The article by Garcia Pena, Da Silva, Angelucci and Csoban, in fact, compares youth in higher education in Latin America and the Caribbean. Two of the articles were originally presented at the Biennial Conference on Education held at the University of the West Indies on the St. Augustine campus in Trinidad and Tobago in 2013.

The words of the Guyanese poet Martin Carter in “Death of a Comrade” seemed quite apt for the time of grief, bereavement, and remembrance of the woman to whom the paper is dedicated. This paper is writen in memory of a woman who became a lawyer and patriot, and who pursued justice to the end of her days. She was one of those Jamaicans who went to England as a child and returned as a professional to build her homeland. She returned and contributed in many ways at the University of Technology as a lecturer, as a human rights campaigner with the United Nations and in the field of legal aid.

In a journal such as this that includes ‘development’ in its title, it is important that from time to time a6ention is paid to what that word ‘development’ actually means outside of common educational practices. It is a concept that does need some focus as the Caribbean moves forward to introduce a more complex approach to our national and regional preoccupations. One relevant theme which we have not addressed before in approaching the development stance of this journal is that of the Caribbean diaspora.

Using a post-colonial lens, this paper describes the changes and constants in Jamaica’s educational system between the 19th and the early 21st century using academic literature and secondary data from the Ministry of Education. High schools initially emerged in Jamaica for the upper and middle classes only, based on the families’ income level, thus excluding children from the lower income bracket. Over time, breaking the glass ceiling for lower-income students became more possible as education included students moving from elementary to high school based on merit.