See below for selected member biographies.
The Education in Small States Research Group has a core membership in Bristol and is also establishing a network of interested colleagues. Membership of the Education in Small States Research Network is open to all who are interested. We are, therefore. building up a global network of colleagues from education systems within the Caribbean, South Pacific, Indian Ocean, South Atlantic, Africa, the Mediterranean Basin and Central/Eastern Europe – in addition to interested personnel from UK and other universities world-wide. Should you wish to register with us, then by all means contact us via M.Crossley@bristol.ac.uk.
Senior educationalists from small states, who are currently undertaking Masters or Doctoral degrees in the University of Bristol Graduate School of Education, participate actively in the Research Group and lead presentations in our courses and research seminars. The latter are an integral part of the Research Centre for International and Comparative Studies (ICS) termly series of meetings.
Doctoral research student members of the Research Group have, in recent years, focused upon issues such as:
- tertiary education policy in St Lucia / the Caribbean (Louisy);
- school / community partnerships in Botswana (Tsayang);
- vocational education in Fiji (Sharma);
- globalisation, educational policy and educational reform in Papua New Guinea (Webster; Ako);
- critiques of modes of educational research and postcolonial theory related to St Lucia (Holmes);
- studies of the international transfer of educational management policy and practice in the Solomon Islands (Galo);
- post-compulsory education in UK Overseas Territories, with case studies of Montserrat and the Cayman Islands (Fisher);
- higher education in small Gulf States (Watson);
- patterns of power and justice in secondary education in Trinidad and Tobago (Mills);
- pupil recruitment and retention in the Turks & Caicos Islands (Fulford B);
- human resource development and staff appraisal systems in the Turks & Caicos Islands (Fulford H);
- school retention in rural ethnic minority areas in Botswana (Pansiri);
- curriculum policy and practice in Papua New Guinea (Le Fanu);
- learner centred pedagogy and educational reform in Mauritius (Colin);
- educational aspiration in Jamaica (Stockfelt);
- assessment policies and their impact upon group culture in Armenia (Sprague);
- The Use of social software as a tool for mathematical growth and understanding in St Lucia (Frost)
- Mathematics Education in St Lucia (James)
- Development of Tertiary Education in the Maldives (Aminath)
Professor Crossley's long-term collaboration with colleagues in countries such as Papua New Guinea, Belize, Botswana and St Lucia underpins a collective rationale that generates a shared commitment to supporting local research and evaluation capacity building, and the strengthening of small state voices and perspectives in international policy arenas, organisations and agencies.
This reflects a broader collective recognition of the importance of cultural context in educational research and educational development; and the dangers of the uncritical international transfer of educational policy and practice in an increasingly globalised world.
The Education in Small States Research Group, therefore, welcomes increased contact with others engaged, or interested, in such work. We would be especially pleased to develop further working partnerships with others engaged with issues currently commanding policy attention within small states themselves.
Selected Education in Small States Group biographies
- Cathryn MacCallum - Belize and Zanzibar
- Clermina James - St. Lucia
- James Frost - St. Lucia
- Collin Tjitemisa - Namibia
- Michele Mills - Trinidad and Tobago
- Terra Sprague - Armenia
- Mindy Colin - Mauritius
- Guy LeFanu - Papua New Guinea
- Beatrice Louise Fulford - Turks and Caicos Islands
- Hubert Adolphus Fulford - Turks and Caicos Islands
- Graham Fisher - Cayman Islands and Monserrat
- Gabrielle Hogan-Brun - The Balkans
- Nkobi Owen Pansiri - Botswana
- Albert Beltran - USA
- Thomas Webster - Papua New Guinea
Cathryn MacCallum began her career in development as a cheese-maker on a coconut plantation in Tanzania. Passionate about rural development (Northa and South) she became involved in the development education movement. She has more than 20 years experience of working as a research and programme manager in international development and development education, she has co-written a number of text books aimed at secondary school students on learning for sustainable living for the Zanzibar Government and Welsh Curriculum.
She is currently a Director of Sazani Associates, a small international NGO based in Wales (with offices in Zanzibar and Belize) that supports sustainable livelihoods through participatory approaches to rural development. In 2009 she was put on the WGgreen list for her work in international sustainable development and sits on the UNESCO UK committee. She is also lectures on an MA in Development Education at the Institute of Education where her doctoral research is in the relevance of global social justice in sustainable rural development in small states.
Clermina James completed an MSc in Education at Bristol University a few years ago, and has recently returned to pursue a PhD in Mathematics. Clermina is am from the island of St. Lucia in the Caribbean, and worked there for a number of years in roles as educator at all levels - from primary to tertiary, as well as establishing a Maths Center for students as the subject remains one of the challenges for students particularly at the secondary level.
James Frost In 1993 James was awarded the opportunity to work in Saint Lucia as a volunteer through the organization known as V.S.O. Working alongside his counterpart, Clermina James, he was responsible for the training/mentoring of student teachers in the area of mathematics. After two years as a volunteer James was offered a fixed term contract to stay at the Division of Teacher Education (contained within the institution: Sir Arthur Lewis Community College). He worked in this capacity until 2008 whereupon he engaged upon post graduate study at the University of Bristol, gaining a Masters degree in Maths Education. After a brief one year post at Manchester Metropolitan University, again in teacher education, James returned to Saint Lucia in 2010 to resume duties. James has now returned to Bristol University to engage in doctoral studies with particular interest in the use of social software( facebook, youtube, wikis etc) as a tool for mathematical growth and understanding.
Collin’s education career started by obtaining his undergraduate qualification and teaching practices in both Upper-Primary and Junior Secondary Schools in his native Namibia. He then completed his MEd from the Graduate School of Education at The University of Bristol. His MEd thesis focused on the high rate of Grade ten school leavers unemployment among the Namibian youth, in addition a comparative study was preferred whereby similar experiences from Papua New Guinea were drawn upon. Prior to his return to the University of Bristol to pursue his EdD Collin has been a lecturer at The Politechnic of Namibia. Hence his EdD research will be based on the empowerment of higher institutions in Namibia with regard to recent developments (2010), including: the Polytechnic of Namibia bid to be the new University of Science and Technology in Namibia, and; the mergers of the four Teachers Training Colleges with The University of Namibia.
Michele Mills grew up in Trinidad and Tobago where she obtained a BA (Hons.) in English Literature from the University of the West Indies (UWI), Trinidad campus. She later completed the in service Diploma in Education at the School of Education, UWI Trinidad. Michele was a teacher at the secondary level for twenty years, eighteen of these in Trinidad, and two years at the Clement Howell High School, on the island of Providenciales in the Turks & Caicos Islands. Michele has also had a career in journalism, working as the Features Editor with Daily News Limited (Newsday) a national daily newspaper in Trinidad &Tobago which enjoys a wide circulation. It was during this phase of her career that Michele completed her Master’s in Education in 2002 with the Sheffield University Caribbean programme. Michele’s area of interest was the representation of secondary modern schools in one daily newspaper for which Newsday was the case study. She later joined the locally based staff on the Master’s programme as a part time tutor. Michele’s PhD research focuses on the reproduction of power and inequity with specific reference to the placement examination for secondary schooling in Trinidad &Tobago.
Terra Sprague taught English language arts in the United States and was an education advisor with an Indianapolis based Sylvan Learning Centre before working in the small state of Armenia with the United States Peace Corps for three years. In Armenia, Terra taught English as a Foreign Language (EFL), trained EFL teachers in student-centred approaches and supported a special education school in executing a $250,000 capital improvements project. A founding member of Los Angeles based NGO, Focus on Children Now, she maintains ties with Armenia through the organisation’s humanitarian activities. In 2008 she completed her MEd, with a dissertation about standardized examination systems in Armenia. Terra is currently a Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, working on projects with the British Association for International and Comparative Education (BAICE) and in the summer of 2010 completed a project on educational policies and priorities in Commonwealth small states. She began her PhD in October 2010 at Bristol focusing on education policies in Armenia and their impact upon Armenian group culture.
Mindy began her teaching and research career in the bilingual pre-schools of Mauritius prior to receiving a Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education from Brigham Young University-Hawaii and then a Master's in Instructional Technology from Utah State University. Mindy has taught undergraduate courses in classroom technology for pre-service teachers and also helped create the first online courses for the Virtual Centre for Innovative Learning Technologies at the University of Mauritius. Prior to beginning her doctoral studies at the University of Bristol, Mindy worked for Academic Technology Services at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles where she was primarily responsible for campus-wide faculty technology projects, researching student uses of campus technology and leading the Instructional Technology group. Mindy's PhD research focuses on the international transfer of learner centred pedagogy in educational reform in Small Island Developing States, with specific reference to primary schooling in Mauritius.
Guy Le Fanu (guylefanu@hotmail.com)
Guy Le Fanu taught in special and comprehensive schools in the UK before working as an education advisor for Helen Keller International in Bangladesh, promoting integrated and inclusive education for students with disabilities, particularly students with visual impairments. After leaving Bangladesh, he worked for CBM, another international development organisation, in Papua New Guinea for six years. He was in charge of special and inclusive education provision at the University of Goroka, the largest teacher-training institution in PNG, a responsibility which involved organising in-service and pre-service training for several hundred students every year. He also worked with primary schools and special education resources centres in PNG. At present, he is in the process of writing his doctoral dissertation and hopes to continue working in the field of special and inclusive education and development when he returns from Papua New Guinea.
Beatrice is currently serving as the Director of Education in the Department of Education, Turks & Caicos Islands (TCI). She commenced her professional career as a trained teacher, and served at both primary and secondary level. Whilst serving at the latter, she assumed the positions of Head of the Department of English, and Vice Principal. She was subsequently posted at the Department of Education where she initially served in the capacity of Education Officer, with direct responsibility for Curriculum Development, and later, Deputy Director of Education. She pursued her teacher training and undergraduate studies at Shortwood Teachers’ College and the University of the West Indies, Jamaica, respectively. Postgraduate work was undertaken in Curriculum Studies at the University of Bristol, where she completed her doctorate.
Beatrice was born in the TCI, an archipelago in the Caribbean, and one of the remaining British Overseas Territories. Being a small multi-island state, with a population of approximately 22,000, the TCI experiences a number of challenges, which are no stranger to other countries in the region. The need for the duplication of resources in all sectors of the public service (particularly in education and health) on each of the inhabited islands challenges an economy of scale, thereby keeping capital and recurrent expenditure relatively high. Among the many educational priorities, is the commitment to provide universal education, which must be complemented by a cadre of appropriately trained, qualified and experienced teachers whose commitment to quality classroom performance must be very high. When the demand for these professionals outstrips supply, the economic sustainability of the country is threatened.
Hence, the doctoral research that Beatrice carried out at the University of Bristol, was indeed timely. Through the collection of both qualitative and quantitative data, she examined ‘The factors impacting upon teacher recruitment and retention in small states, and the challenges they pose for education systems, with particular reference to the Turks & Caicos Islands’. In addition to focusing on her own country, she drew upon the experiences of the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands, two small states which confront similar difficulties in recruiting and retaining teachers at a time when student enrolment figures are soaring, and attempts are being made to expand access to, and increase equity in, education.
Hubert is a native of the Turks & Caicos Islands (TCI), an Overseas Territory of Great Britain. Hubert is a career public servant. A career he started in July 1972 as a clerical officer. Today, he holds the most senior position in the public service of the TCI as Executive Permanent Secretary. His tenure in the public service spans more than 36 years. During these years he has held positions as teacher, at primary, secondary and tertiary levels; vice principal; education planner; Permanent Secretary for Education, Health, Works and Utilities, and Immigration and Labour.
Education and development have always been foremost for Hubert. He commenced his teaching career at the E L Simons Primary School in Grand Turk. He has taught in schools in Jamaica, the UK, and Canada. Tertiary education was pursued at Mico Teachers’ College in Kingston, Jamaica, where he specialised in English language and literature and music at secondary level. A BA degree with honours was completed at York University, Toronto, Canada, specialising in music education and Latin American and Caribbean studies. A Master of Arts degree was completed at Columbia Pacific University, California, concentrating on administration and management.
His dissertation ‘Human Resource Management and Staff Performance Appraisal in Small States: A Case Study of the Turks & Caicos Islands’ analyses the impact that staff performance appraisal have had in the TCI and in other small states.
With assistance from the Research Centre for International and Comparative Studies, at the University of Bristol, Hubert is currently in the process of establishing a research unit in the TCI.
Graham has held various teaching and advisory positions in education over a 30 year period. Though several have been in the UK, most have been overseas with, for example, the government of the Isle of Man, St Helena and the Falkland Islands, and the Department for International Development (DFID), with further experience in the United Arab Emirates and Botswana. These roles have centred around the development of upper secondary, sixth form and post-compulsory education.
Graham completed full-time doctoral study in the Centre for International & Comparative Studies, funded by the UK Economic and Social Science Research Council (ESRC). The research topic was: 'The potential and limitations of post-compulsory education in the UK Overseas Territories'. This examined policy and practice in post-compulsory education in eight Overseas Territories, with detailed case studies of the Cayman Islands and Montserrat. A comparative and qualitative approach to research considers the potential and limitations of post-compulsory education, with particular reference to the role of locally based and controlled provision, distance education, different institutional structures, lifelong learning, and the influence of stakeholders' attitudes and perceptions on its expansion. Policy implications for the territories are explored, as are implications for the theoretical and methodological literature. It is argued that the constitutional status of the Overseas Territories creates particular dilemmas for these micro-territories, along with rapid globalisation, the spread of information and communication technology, and the growing commitment to high skills economies and lifelong learning. Expansion of post-compulsory education is seen as crucial for these small territories if they are to fully utilise scarce human resources, improve government and economies, participate in any global sharing and communication of knowledge, and exercise greater control over their own destiny.
Gabrielle fosters research on language education policies and practices in multilingual communities, with a special focus on the minority settings in Central and Eastern Europe. She promotes publication and dissemination in this area internationally as Series Editor of Palgrave Studies in Minority Languages and Communities, and as Editor of the international journal Current Issues in Language Planning. She runs the British Academy funded Baltic Language and Integration Network (BLaIN), and (with Will Bartlett) the University of Bristol Institute for Advanced Studies funded Research Workshop Programme From the Baltic to the Balkans. She is also Executive Board member of the International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA), and Editorial Board member of the book series AILA Applied Linguistics Series (AALS), and previously of The British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL) and of the Institute of Linguists. She has guest-edited the special journal issues ‘Language and Social Processes in the Baltic Republics Surrounding EU Accession’, in the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 26/5 (2005), and ‘ Baltic Sociolinguistic Review’, in Journal of Baltic Studies XXXVl/3 (2005).
Nkobi is a lecturer in Educational Management, Leadership and Policy at the University of Botswana reading for the EdD in the University of Bristol - Graduate School of Education. His research interest is on the education of the rural ethnic minority in small states. His doctoral research focused on school retention in basic education for the rural ethnic minority in Botswana. His diverse career in Educational Management includes ten years as a teacher, seven years as a District Education Officer, and seven years as a Principal Education Officer heading the Primary Education Inspectorate in Botswana. He severed as a chairperson for Southern African Development Community (SADC) Technical Committee on Basic Education for four years. He is one of the founding members (and a regular contributor) for the opinion page ‘Issues in Education’, in Mmegi/The Monitor, a weekly newspaper on based in Botswana.
Albert Beltran (external network member)
Albert is undertaking a two-year master's degree in the international education programme at the George Washington University, in Washington, DC, USA. His professional experience in education has been spent teaching. He has taught at nearly all grade levels, the majority of his teaching being in primary schools. Albert is finding his way through the policy and research aspects of international/comparative education, and is determined to follow this path through to doctoral studies. He is originally from San Jose, California, where his family continues to live.
Albert is currently researching education in small countries across the various categories of small states (islands, land-locked, coastal) as well as associated groups (Commonwealth, non-Commonwealth, AoSIS, UN-SIDS) and income and geographical groupings. He prepared a substantial paper/report on education in small countries for the 12th World Congress of Comparative Education Societies Conference in Cuba, and visited Mauritius to attend the UN Conference on Small States in January 2005.
Thomas Webster (external network member)
Thomas is currently the Director of the National Research Institute of Papua New Guinea (PNG), a government funded public policy 'think tank'. The Institute carries out research on good governance, improving law and justice, economic development, education, environmental studies, population studies and social and community development. Prior to this he worked for three years as the Director of the University of Papua New Guinea’s Open College (2002-2004), recipient of the 2004 Commonwealth of Learning Award of Excellence for Distance Education Materials. Thomas worked as Provincial Administrator of Western Highlands Province from 1998-2001 following completion of a Doctoral Degree in Education at Bristol University. Thomas also worked as lecturer in education planning and policy studies at the University of Papua New Guinea, National Education Planner with the Government of PNG and as a primary school teacher and headmaster.
Areas of research interest in education are in education planning and policy studies, analysis of policies and programs to universalize primary education, financing and financial management of resources, distance and flexible modes of education and since the end of 2003. He has also been involved in promoting the participation of girls in education, and research into good governance and improving public sector management.
Despite a major restructure of the PNG education system in the 1990s designed to provide more opportunities for school aged children, participation remains very low. Less then a 40% of primary school aged children attend basic education institutions. The opportunities are severely limited as one progress, eg from primary level to high school (grades 9-10) and secondary school (grades 11-12).
Opportunities for girls are even more limited with only 39% of primary school aged girls in school. Even more worrying is the lack of parental support for girls' education. I have been involved in a program called Accelerating Girls' Education in PNG and our work in 16 pilot schools in three provinces shows that girls are either not enrolling or are dropping out from school because parents are not paying the basics school fees charged by authorities. When UNICEF offered to meet the costs of school fees for girls who had dropped-out from the pilot schools, 445 girls or nearly 85% of those who had dropped out in 2003 and the early part of the 2004 school year came back and completed the 2004 school year. Thomas writes a fortnightly column in the Post Courier, one of the two daily newspapers in PNG on issues affecting girls' education. Through this medium and other fora, the Accelerating Girls' Education Team is pushing for Government to adopt a Free and Compulsory Primary Education Policy.