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Teachers in Barbados need to completely change how they teach if they want to shape the future of education.
That was the message from Dr. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, a professor at Columbia University in New York. She spoke during the recent graduation at Erdiston Teachers’ Training College, held at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.
Dr. Sealey-Ruiz said the education system in Barbados was not neutral. It was built on ideas brought by colonisers who didn’t value Black people’s intelligence or local knowledge. But she told graduates that their success was a chance to open a new door.
She reminded them that being a teacher means being a leader. “You’re not just getting a degree,” she said. “You are shaping a new story.” She encouraged them to learn their teaching skills so well that they could change the system from the inside.
The professor urged the graduates to stop waiting for permission to lead. “Don’t ask, ‘Who am I to make a change?’ Instead, ask, ‘What can I do to free myself and my students from old, harmful stories about who we are?’”
Dr. Sealey-Ruiz, who has Barbadian roots, also spoke about her father, Edgar Allen Sealey. He brought her to Barbados many times when she was young. She said he would be proud to see her return to the island through her work in education.
Barbados does already have a national school curriculum, and it includes the teaching of colonial history. The history syllabus at both the primary and secondary school levels covers Barbados’ colonial past, the transatlantic slave trade, plantation society, emancipation, and independence.
However, critics—including some educators and cultural commentators—have argued that the curriculum has traditionally reflected a Eurocentric perspective and ought to more fully explore the experiences and contributions of enslaved Africans, the impact of British colonial rule, and the struggles for freedom and nationhood from a Barbadian point of view.
Efforts have also been made to integrate more Afro-Caribbean content and to encourage critical thinking about colonialism’s lasting effects. These changes are part of a wider regional push—echoed by educators like Dr. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz—for decolonising education across the Caribbean.
Source: Barbados GIS.
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