One of the common threads which run through the reading and rhetoric on education in the English-speaking Caribbean over the last twelve years is the need to structurally relate the education of the region to its socio-economic goals.

Recent comments that the school curriculum of Trinidad and Tobago is “culturally irrelevant” prompted this research project. The research was undertaken through a series of focus group discussions with community artists, curriculum officers and public figures interested in education, to explore the following issues:
1. a definition of and justification for the concept of ‘cultural relevance’
2. evidence of its existence or lack of existence in the current school curriculum

Recent comments that the school curriculum of Trinidad and Tobago is “culturally irrelevant” prompted this research project. The research was undertaken through a series of focus group discussions with community artists, curriculum officers and public figures interested in education, to explore the following issues:

Brazil is said to be one of the most successful racist systems in the world, founded on the exploitation of people, economy, and goods. Hidden behind this success is the notion of “racial democracy,” the ideology that Brazil has harmonious race relations (Guimarães, 2007). Colonization and slavery laid the foundation for what would be a fruitful system of oppression, keeping the elite wealthy and making it seemingly impossible for those who are poor and Black to achieve social mobility.