This paper uses a case study of Jamaica to examine the importance of parental involvement in children’s education as a way of improving education and child outcomes as well as of stemming the transmission of conditions of poverty and exclusion across generations. The paper argues that while the involvement of parents is widely acknowledged as critical to the education process, there are systemic and societal barriers which impinge on parents’ exercise of agency in their children’s upbringing.

The Jamaican education system is currently on a path of transformation. As outlined in the recommendations of the Task Force on Educational Reform (2004) report, it is envisaged that by 2015 significant progress will be made in student performance and the education system as a whole. One important plank of this process is the decentralization of the education system. With decentralization being implemented in the health sector and in particular the Ministry of Health (MOH) since 1998 and Local Government since 1994, what lessons can be learned from their experiences?

While educational psychology is normally assumed to contribute scientific, research-based ideas to a better understanding of teaching/learning environments, its concepts can be alternatively considered as products of particular socio-historical contexts whose contemporary application may be neither politically neutral nor pedagogically advantageous. This argument is examined with particular reference to psychology in education policy in Barbados over the past decade, which is expected to transform the society through transforming schools.

Higher education has been positioned as an important contributor to development in low-income countries in the context of the knowledge economy. This paper assesses the potential for building sustainable higher education systems that can contribute to development in low-income countries. The premise of this paper is that developing countries cannot be researched in isolation.