The Ministry of Education is trying to encourage a research culture amongst schools in order to improve processes.
A new action-research initiative is currently being conducted within Saint Lucian education establishments.
The initiative aims to have teachers apply best practices to situations, observe the outcome and then document the results.
Tracey Dolcy of the Corporate Planning Unit of the Ministry of Education states that the research can be used by other practictioners who can then add to it depending on their own findings following implementation.
“Good policy, good planning, good programming is built on research, and the Ministry is trying to encourage a research culture amongst our schools. So what better way to approach it than to actually take on an action research paradigm,” Ms. Dolcy said. “The whole thrust of action research is different from the usual scientific, social research in that it calls on the practioner to examine what they are doing, reflect, find ways to come up with solutions, implement it and then document it, so that that way there is more interaction between the ministry and other stake holders.”
Ms. Dolcy said that while research conducted by teachers in the past has sometimes been shelved, the implementation of an action research approach will avoid this from happening.
“One of the things that we are going to ensure is that if something comes out of this initiative and it is really good, from the ministerial level we can always consider how we can follow through with it in schools. We don’t intend just to have this initiative and let it stop.”
Teachers will be called on to present their research at a research showcase scheduled for Nov. 2016.
