The Caribbean Educational Research Initiative (CERI), officially referred to as “The Research Initiative for Supporting Education in the Caribbean” or RISE Caribbean is a partnership between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), The University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill Campus, The University of South Florida (USF), the Eastern Caribbean Joint Board of Teacher Education (ECJBTE) and Ministries of Education (MOEs) in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean. Leading this dynamic international partnership are Dr. S. Joel Warrican who serves as Principal Investigator of the initiative at The University of the West Indies and Dr. Patriann Smith who serves as Principal Investigator at the University of South Florida.
The Caribbean Educational Research Center (CERC), launched as part of the initiative in 2021, is designed to serve the Eastern Caribbean islands which consist of six independent countries – Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines– and also, three British Overseas Territories — The Virgin Islands, Montserrat and Anguilla. This Center is housed at The University of the West Indies Cave Hill campus in Barbados, with the capability to generate and utilize robust data for improved decision making in basic education throughout the region. The Caribbean Educational Research Center draws on research expertise from the UWI School of Education, UWI’s other campuses, the University of South Florida, Ministries of Education, and the teacher education divisions of the national colleges in the Eastern Caribbean and the teachers’ college in Barbados. In harmony with the aim of building research capacity in the region, the Center provides assistantships and internships for graduate students pursuing research degrees in education and related fields, and staff from the Ministries of Education, and the national colleges, who work with classroom teachers to investigate classroom phenomena.
The RISE Caribbean initiative is expected to ultimately establish a repository for education data for the countries in the Eastern Caribbean and Barbados, conduct demand-driven research and analysis to inform policy and planning for Ministries of Education and other stakeholders in education, build capacity for research and training with students and educational stakeholders, conduct and support comparative and collaborative research with Higher Education Institutions in and outside of the region, and strengthen research culture through publications, public lectures, and other means of sharing research findings.
One of the major activities of the RISE Caribbean initiative is an annual research conference designed to support the Center’s Research Fellows and Research Assistants as part of the RISE Caribbean initiative’s Cross-Cultural Research Mentorship Network (CCRMN).
Over fifteen (15) Research Fellows and Research Assistants function and seven (7) USF faculty have worked together in the CCRMN for the past two years on research to be showcased at this year’s annual conference. Each Research Fellow and Research Assistant has received year-round support, mentorship and training from designated University of South Florida Research faculty who serve as Faculty Coordinators, Research Mentors and Research Instructors to the Fellows and Assistants every year. The USF faculty Research Mentors and Instructors attached to the RISE Caribbean initiative are Drs. Constance Hines, James King, Robert Dedrick, Deirdre Cobb-Roberts, Eun Sook Kim, and Jennifer Wolgemuth.
To this end, the RISE Caribbean 2023 conference, “Building Solidarity Across Educational Communities: Cultivating Spaces Where Students Thrive” aims to harness the power of community, interconnectedness, and inclusivity in our collective efforts to create and sustain educational spaces for students to succeed. While the RISE Caribbean conference includes sessions that imagine possibilities around which we can plan collectively to improve the experiences, well-being, and educational outcomes for all children, especially those for whom achievement, equity, and justice have long been withheld.
This RISE Caribbean conference highlights scholars who are integral to the work of the RISE Caribbean initiative and the RISE Caribbean Conference hosted at the University of South Florida Tampa May 30 through June 1, 2023.