This study investigated the relation between the entering characteristics of the 1,210 students who entered the seven residential teachers’ colleges in Jamaica in September 1976 and their subsequent performance in college. There were 41 predictor variables (encompassing biographical data, previous education and work experience, and general and specific performance in public examinations) and 33 criterion variables (specific and average grades in compulsory and optional examination. subjects, teaching practice, internship and individual study).

In this paper I advocate a critical reorientation of the way we think about the practice of teacher education in Jamaica. I suggest this as a strategy for challenging the resilience of traditional, teacher-centred pedagogy in our schools. To make my case I share the findings of a study that used the theoretical discourse of critical pedagogy as a conceptual framework to examine teaching practices in a Jamaican teachers college.