This paper discusses a small scale research study concerned with answering the research question: “What perceptions are held by students regarding networked learning and social media interactions?” This question was part of a wider research focal question: How do digital technologies and digital learning resources mediate Communities of Practice to support participation and learning?

The genesis of this study began with the understanding that there are many Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) public, government, and private schools and institutes in Jamaica at the secondary and tertiary education levels. At the time of this research, there was no specifically designed TVET principal/director preparation program or specialized qualifying credential.

The inclusion of papers from the Third International Conference on TVET in the Caribbean which was held during May 10-12, 2017 and embraced the theme “TVET for Sustainable Regional Development” is a testimony to the commitment of the University of the West Indies to the development of TVET at the tertiary level. In this issue of the Caribbean Journal of Education, four papers successfully met the targets established by the Journal for publication.

This double issue of the Caribbean Journal of Education offers a special section with papers from the Third International Conference on TVET in the Caribbean, held in May 2017. As Professor Halden Morris writes in his introduction to Section Two, the papers speak “to the importance of the development of TVET at the tertiary level and the preparation of the workforce to effectively engage the economic challenges faced by countries in the Caribbean and other developing regions as a whole.”

This qualitative study investigated the factors influencing the transition from teacher to principal, the challenges encountered, and the impact of mentorship and prior leadership experiences. A convenience sample of 20 newly appointed principals was interviewed. The factors which influenced smooth transitions included mentorship from former principals, previous leadership experience, and cooperative staff; while difficult transitions were blamed on poor school plant, strained interpersonal relations, and lack of buy-in for the principals’ vision.

School-based assessments (SBAs) were introduced to improve the validity and authenticity of public examinations across the globe. However, associated with this addition were issues related to teacher involvement, lack of effective material support, and student competence. There were also issues related to reliability and validity in SBAs which led to the conclusion that while reliability is a pre-condition for validity, it is also in tension with it.

An evaluation of the Dip. Ed. programme (2004-2009) using fourth generation methodology revealed the expectations, claims, concerns, and issues of stakeholders; including Ministry of Education (MOE) personnel and (School of Education) SOE staff, who were concerned that graduates of the programme reverted to practices employed before training. In response to that evaluation, this research investigates the current status of Dip. Ed. graduates’ practice.

This study presents the findings of a survey of faculty across the disciplines at the University of The Bahamas (UB) regarding the types of writing they assign students in their classes and the value they place on certain aspects of students’ writing when assessing student work. A major goal of the study is to build background knowledge about the state of writing instruction across the disciplines at UB to support the growth of a possible Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) initiative.

Using ethnographic field-notes as stories and applying a critical perspective, the study in this paper locates school violence in communities, in relationships, and in school procedures. The author contends that the symbolic violence that surrounds how schools operate often goes unrecognised and uncontested. The findings displace the conventional notion that violence starts and ends with individual students, to show how community contexts, social relations and structures, and school procedures intersect to re-inscribe violent behaviour among some students.

This study investigated the perceptions, preparedness of, and the challenges encountered by teachers of English as they implemented the CSEC English SBA in Jamaican secondary schools for the first time. Data collected through a survey of 124 randomly selected teachers of English and analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-Tests, ANOVA, and crosstabulations showed that teachers had a predominantly negative perception of the CSEC English SBA. This negative perception was strongly and positively associated with the teachers’ being unprepared to implement the English SBA.