Wednesday, May 31, 2023
1:45 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Patel Center, Room 136
FEATURED RISE CARIBBEAN BREAKOUT SESSION
1:45 – 1:55 p.m.
“Adolescents’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviors towards Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) within the Caribbean Landscape”
The presentation will seek to describe the current state of the issue of Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs) in the Caribbean, illustrate the effects that the burden of NCDs can have on adolescents in the Caribbean, and the probable impact that this may have on educational attainment. Further, an exploration of the potential methods of investigation that are aimed at gathering pertinent information on this important topic; as well as a discussion of the viable benefits research into this issue may yield.
Dr. Allison DaSantos
2:00 – 2:10 p.m.
“Cultivating spaces where all students thrive: Teacher reflections on inclusive practices in the Caribbean“
The Disability Inclusion Policy and Strategy (DIPAS) 2022-2030 serves as a guide for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations General Assembly, 2015). Annex A of DIPAS presents UNICEF priorities as they align with the UNICEF Strategic Plan (2022-2025) and states that an educational goal is to “develop teacher education that allows teachers to reflect on their biases and prejudice, and strengthen teacher capacity in inclusive pedagogy” (UNICEF, 2022). Some research has been conducted on teacher perspectives on inclusion in Barbados, and the Caribbean (Glasgow-Charles, Ibrahim-Joseph, & Bristol, 2017), and the need for teacher training in inclusive practices has been noted (UNESCO, 2020). Further, Blackman (2023) investigated how teachers enrolled in a Master’s program in Inclusive Education incorporated principles from the Learning without Limits (LWL) (Hart et al, 2004) project into their teaching practice. The LWL project promotes a pedagogy free from ability labelling and focuses instead on learner capacity. According to the project, learner capacity can be transformed using three practical pedagogical principles: Coagency, Everybody, and Trust (Hart et al, 2004). In response to the juxtaposition of the international research and research that has been conducted regionally and locally, and results of a study investigating how a sample of teachers from Barbados and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines who have been exposed to the principles encapsulated in the LWL project view their own inclusive practices will be presented.
2:15 – 2:25 p.m.
“Reducing methodological footprints: Radical interdependence, qualitative research, and the knowledge economy“
We propose that all methodologies, in this presentation qualitative ones, create a footprint similar to the carbon footprint. Research requires economic, natural, and social resources that are not equally distributed across the globe. Further, the products, processes, and wastes of research are a function of knowledge and power, situated in the instrumental and individualist logics of the knowledge economy and wrapped up in publication, job searches, tenure and promotion, and other political yet embodied aspects of the academy. We argue that considering research’s methodological footprint enables qualitative researchers, funding agencies, and other bodies that evaluate research to question whether new data, information, evidence are needed. Conducting more research, collecting more data may not be desirable, let alone virtuous. With methodological footprint thinking, research might be evaluated by its potential to sustaining interdependent equitable living and thriving on Earth, as opposed to (only) advancing the interests of individuals, groups, institutions, or nations. We also propose more data recycling, data sharing, open access data, data conservation, and other ecological ways of supporting shared knowledge and monitoring excessive data production.
2:30 – 2:40 p.m.
“The Status of Special Education Needs Research in the Caribbean”
Considering the need for historicizing and consolidating Caribbean discourses on Special Education Needs, this conceptual paper aims to provide a comprehensive meta-synthesis of the status of Special Education Needs Research within the Caribbean. Particular attention will be paid to the historical development of Special Education, the barriers to the advancement of Special Education, the status of Special Education Needs research, and the challenges to conducting research related to Special Education Needs. Through this conceptual paper, it is expected that the outlined advancements, challenges, and proposed solutions will propel and further inform research, as well as, the implementation of data-driven policy and practices related to Special Education Needs within the Caribbean, and by extension, provide transferable considerations for international education partners.
