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.

As global concerns increase about the effectiveness of schools in edu Tlcating and developing the human resource potential critical to economic and social advancement, countries worldwide have embarked on a wide range of school improvement initiatives. Central to these is the belief that good teachers are the most critical component of what schools need to do a good job, and good teachers need to benefit from good education programmes (Villegas-Reimers and Reimers 2000).

Stakeholder involvement in curriculum reform is one component of decentralization in the education system. Decentralization manifests itself in various forms, but the general notion is that it refers to the transfer or sharing of authority, responsibilities and resources from centralized bureaucratic systems to involve smaller administrative units (Stewart & Davis-Morrison, 2002).

"Medicine, law, business, engineering - these are noble pursuits, and necessary to sus tain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love - these are what we stay alive for."