Origins of the Joint Board of Teacher Education
In 1945 the West Indies Committee of the Commission on Higher Education in
the Colonies [British] recommended that within the University College of the
West Indies (UCWI), a strong department should be established to train secondary
school teachers, granting them a post-graduate diploma in education on
completion of a one-year course.
Although this department would not be able to train elementary school teacher
as well (they were then being trained at pre-university level in teachers'
colleges throughout the region), the proposed department would support that
effort by setting examinations papers, conducting examinations, and issuing a
Certificate in Teaching to successful graduates of teachers' colleges. This
certificate would be recognized throughout the Caribbean.
In 1952 the Department of Education was established at the UCWI and the
training of university graduates for teaching (at the secondary level) began. In
1955, with funding from the Carnegie Foundation, the Centre for the Study of
Education was established within the Department of Education to carry out the
support work with the teachers' colleges that trained teachers at the elementary
level.
Boards of Teacher Training
Among the Centre's achievements were the Boards of Teacher Training
established at the request of Ministries of Education in Jamaica and other
Caribbean territories. These Boards were designed to advise the governments on
the training of teachers and to administer teachers' college examinations. Dr.
Elsa Walters was Chairman of the Board of Teacher Training in Jamaica for eight
of the nine years of its existence.
Institute of Education Established
The Department of Education found it difficult to combine the work of
training secondary school teacher within the University College with the work of
moderating standards for colleges training primary school teachers throughout
the region. It soon became clear that the structural relationship between the
Department and the Centre was hampering the work of both. The governments by
then began clamouring for more assistance from the fledgling University College
for primary education and teacher training. In 1961 the governments and the
University College reached and agreement that an Institute of Education should
replace the Centre for the Study of Education.
The institute of Education was established in 1963 within what had now
become the University of the West Indies (UWI), with funding from the Ford
Foundation. The Institute was established as a separate entity from the
Department of Education. Its mandate was to
- Promote, facilitate and support teacher training throughout the
Caribbean
- Undertake indigenous research
- Report on teacher training needs
Institute Board of Teacher Training Two years later, in
1965, most of the Ministries of Education of the participating countries
abolished their Boards of Teacher Training and devolved their
functions to the Institute Board of Teacher Training, which became the
certifying body for teacher training in the region. The exceptions to
this were Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, which retained their Boards of
Teacher Training. The secretariat of the Institute Board was housed in
the Institute of Education, and the staff of the Institute assumed the
academic, professional and administrative tasks formerly carried out by
the Ministries of Education. The transfer was announced by the Minister
of Education of Jamaica at a ceremonial meeting of the Board of Teacher
Training held in the Council Chamber of the UWI on January 22, 1965. Dr.
Hugh Springer (later to become Governor General of Barbados, and former
University Registrar) became the first Director of the Institute and the
Chairman of the Institute Board.
|
Hugh Springer
(1965 - 1966) |
Chairpersons of the
INSTITUTE BOARD
and
JOINT BOARD OF
TEACHER EDUCATION |
|
Reginald Murray
(1967 - 1973) |
Gwendolyn Gbedemah
(1977 - 1981) |
Don Wilson
(1985 - 1991);(1995 - 1996) |
|
Dudley Grant
(1973 - 1977) |
Errol Miller
(1982 - 1985);(1991 - 1995)
(1996 - 2003) |
Joan Tucker
(2003 - ) |
Joint Board
of Teacher Education
In 1971 the name of the
Institute Board of Teacher Training was
changed—it became the Joint Board of
Teacher Education (JBTE) to better reflect the partnership between governments, the colleges,
the
Institute of Education and the teachers' organizations, which were all
represented on the Board.
Institute of Education
For more than 40 years the
Institute of Education (IOE) (known as
the Teacher Education Development Department from 1972 to 1996)
has provided leadership in teacher education in the teachers' colleges
throughout the Western Caribbean, viz.,
Jamaica, The Bahamas and
Belize, and more recently, the Turks and
Caicos Islands. Before the
establishment of the Cave Hill and St. Augustine campuses of the
University of the West Indies, the remit of the Institute was Caribbean-wide, and in the early years the Institute supported the establishment
of
teachers' colleges in several Eastern Caribbean islands.
Major
activities of the Institute of Education are:
1. Research on issues and problems in
education,
2. Development of curricula for teacher education in concert with
teachers' college faculties.
3. Analysing and making recommendations on teacher education policies.
4. Certifying teachers from the colleges through the Joint Board of
Teacher Education, formerly the Institute Board of Teacher
Training.
5. Managing projects for new initiatives in teacher education and other
education sectors.
6. Promoting teacher educators' professional development through
workshops and the provision of graduate programmes.
7. Publishing textbooks, handbooks, and course modules to
support the
teachers' college curricula and school curricula. The research work of
the IOE academic staff is published in a variety of local and overseas
journals and books. IOE itself publishes the Institute of Education
Publication Series, which replaces the earlier series, the IOE Annual,
and the theme books, such as Dimensions of Teaching and Learning
and Transforming the Educational Landscape Through Curriculum
Change.
The IOE also manages the publication of the Caribbean Journal of
Education on behalf of the School of Education. The research work
published in this journal has served to inform educational decision
making in the Caribbean.
A Symbiotic
Relationship—Institute of Education & Joint Board of Teacher Education
The Institute of Education, through the mechanism of the Joint Board of
Teacher Education, carries out its examination, accreditation and
curriculum development activities in teacher education. The activities
of the IOE and the JBTE are facilitated through the structural
relationship between the two entities, which was retained when the
Institute Board was renamed the Joint Board of Teacher Education. The
relationship has the following features:
-
Like the IOE, the JBTE is a part of the UWI.
-
The Director of the IOE or his/her nominee is the Chairperson of the
JBTE.
-
Members of staff of the IOE serve as Chairpersons of the two
standing committees of the JBTE, the Curriculum Committee and the
Examinations/Accreditation Committee. They also serve as members of
the Boards of Studies, and as Chief External Examiners in setting
and grading external examination papers for student teachers, and
for examining their teaching performance.
-
The Secretariat of the JBTE is a part of the IOE, and is supported
for the most part from the IOE budget.
|
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Joint
Board of Teacher Education
MONA
