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Integrating Student Voices to Promote Inclusive Curricular Practices in Post-Colonial Education Systems in the Anglophone Caribbean

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Achieving Inclusive Education in the Caribbean and Beyond

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Abstract

Practices of inclusive education are often disconnected from aspects of education policy in ways that exclude the perspectives of students. This chapter examines how the inclusion of student voices in curriculum review and educational change can enhance the process and lead to greater inclusiveness and an improved curriculum. Additionally, it identifies the potential challenges to inclusion in postcolonial societies in the Anglophone Caribbean that are still encumbered by colonial educational structures and consequently, unequal power relationships in schools and classrooms that marginalize different groups. This situation makes it difficult for student voices to break through the authoritarian orientation that largely influences the curriculum. Two research studies are used to illustrate the argument advanced. Data from the first case study clearly show the difficulties students have when they are taught using a teacher-centered model that is employed in most primary and secondary schools, and when they are subsequently taught at university using a more student-centered model that is substantially different from what they previously experienced. In the second case study, the data show how changes in curriculum based on student voices can lead to greater course satisfaction across different student cohorts.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Trinidad and Tobago, Arima, Trinidad and Tobago

    Roland Birbal & Iris Hewitt-Bradshaw

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  1. Roland Birbal
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  2. Iris Hewitt-Bradshaw
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Correspondence to Roland Birbal .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, The University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus, Bridgetown, Barbados

    Stacey N. J. Blackman

  2. School of Education and Professional Studies, State University of New York at Potsdam, Potsdam, NY, USA

    Dennis A. Conrad

  3. Department of Educational Foundation and Leadership School of Education, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Launcelot I. Brown

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Birbal, R., Hewitt-Bradshaw, I. (2019). Integrating Student Voices to Promote Inclusive Curricular Practices in Post-Colonial Education Systems in the Anglophone Caribbean. In: Blackman, S., Conrad, D., Brown, L. (eds) Achieving Inclusive Education in the Caribbean and Beyond. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15769-2_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15769-2_12

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