Abstract
This chapter examines language curricula and related education policy documents in Trinidad and Tobago using Critical Discourse Studies given that CDS can provide “the tools for addressing the complexity of movement across educational sites, practices and systems in a world where equalities are global in scope” (Rogers, Critical discourse analysis in education, 2nd edn. Routledge, p. 2, 2011). Through critical lenses, this chapter traces the development of the National English Language Arts curricula for lower secondary schools in Trinidad and Tobago from conceptualization at the turn of this century, to the writing and enacting of three sets of national documents in 2002, 2008 and 2015. The analytical procedures used for this study were drawn primarily from Fairclough’s (1995) threethree-part model for analysing a communicative event or interaction (the text, the discourse practice, the sociocultural practice), and were further supported by Halliday’s systemic functional linguistics and Genette’s transtextuality model. The analysis highlights the role of education policy documents as ideological constructs, legitimising as well as challenging language education practices with each curriculum revision.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Trinidad and Tobago Sign Language (TTSL) is the natural sign language of the deaf community of T&T and is often mixed with and/or used alongside American Sign Language (ASL). Deaf children are educated at the Cascade School for the Deaf, Audrey Jeffers School for the Deaf, and the Tobago School for the Deaf and Language Impaired, at the primary level, and, if they are successful at the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA), they may move on to secondary school (cf. Braithwaite 2015; Braithwaite et al. 2011). The documents under review were created to serve the needs of hearing children so this indigenous language is not accounted for in this chapter.
- 2.
Of the approximately 60,000 Venezuelan migrants estimated as coming into Trinidad and Tobago over the past decade or so, 19,000 are legally registered and, of this number, 84% are categorised as asylum seekers and 14% as refugees (Chami & Seemungal 2021; USAID 2020). This has had sociolinguistic and educational linguistic implications for the islands (albeit the majority of migrant children are educated at “child friendly spaces” for bilingual education outside the domain of the public school system), but the focus of this chapter is the bidialectal Trinbagonian learner.
- 3.
An additional sum was provided by the Mico Charity Fund (Campbell 1996)
- 4.
Used mainly for content areas to show integration among the six Language Arts strands.
- 5.
These teachers and curriculum officers vary with each edition; only three writers were consistently there throughout each issue. In the list of teachers outlined on the drafts, however, none of them is from Tobago.
- 6.
A main author here is identified as the Director of Curriculum. The teachers are identified as curriculum content writers.
- 7.
An exonym for the Kalinago indigenous people.
- 8.
A mountain village with a small community of Patois (Trinidadian French Creole) speakers.
- 9.
This label is problematic. It does not describe the linguistic situation in the Caribbean of “an exonormative standard [that] still lingers on while awareness of endonormative standards is gaining ground” (Deuber 2013).
- 10.
“An ambitious program that [called] for Trinidad and Tobago to achieve developed-country status by the year 2020” (Elias & Rojas-Suarez 2006).
- 11.
This was further expanded into a Criteria for Assessment of Qualifications for Teaching at the Secondary Level in Trinidad and Tobago document on the MOE website, the latest update being for January 1, 2019.
References
Braithwaite, B. (2015). Deaf perspectives on deaf education: An ethnographic study from trinidad and tobago. Caribbean Educational Research Journal, 3(1), 18–26.
Braithwaite, B., Drayton, K., & Lamb, A. (2011). The history of deaf language and education in Trinidad and Tobago since 1943. History in Action, 2(1), The University of the West Indies (St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago) Dept. of History.
Campbell, C. (1996). The Young Colonials: A Social History of Education in Trinidad and Tobago 1834–1939. University of the West Indies Press.
Carrington, L. D., & Borely, C. B. (1977). The Language Arts Syllabus, 1975: Comment and Counter Comment. University of the West Indies.
Carrington, L. D. (1993). Formulating National Language Policies: Facing the Fundamental Issues [Panel discussion – Third Caribbean Language Conference]. Faculty of Education, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine.
Carrington, L. (2001). The Status of Creole in the Caribbean. In P. Christie (Ed.), Due respect: Papers on English and English-Related Creoles in the Caribbean in Honour of Professor Robert Le Page (pp. 24-36). University of the West Indies Press.
Chami, G., & Seemungal, F. (2021, April 9). The Venezuelan Refugee Crisis in Trinidad and Tobago. Border Criminologies. https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-subject-groups/centre-criminology/centreborder-criminologies/blog/2021/04/venezuelan.
Craig, D. (1976). Bidialectal Education: Creole and Standard in the West Indies. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 8, 93–136.
Craig. D. (1977). Creole Languages and Primary Education. In A. Valdman (Ed.), Pidgin and Creole (pp. 313-332). Indiana University Press.
Craig. D. (1980). Models for Educational Policy in Creole-speaking Communities. In A. Valdman and R. Highfield (Eds.), Theoretical Orientations in Creole Studies (pp. 245-265). Academic Press.
Craig, D. (1999). Teaching Language and Literacy: Policies and Procedures for Vernacular Situations. Education and Development Services.
De Camp, D. (1971). Towards a Generative Analysis of a Post-creole Speech Continuum. In D. Hymes (Ed.), Pidginization and Creolization of Languages (pp. 349-370). Cambridge University Press.
Deuber, D. (2013). Towards endonormative standards of English in the Caribbean: A study of students’ beliefs and school curricula. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 26 (2), 109–127. https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2013.794816
Deuber, D. (2014). English in the Caribbean: Variation, Style and Standards in Jamaica and Trinidad. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139226400
Elias, C., & Rojas-Suarez, L. (2006). From Growth to Prosperity: Policy Perspectives for Trinidad and Tobago. IDB. https://publications.iadb.org.growth-prosperity-policy-perspectives-trinidad-and-tobago&usg
Esposito, E., Perez-Arredondo, C., & Manuel-Ferreiro, J. (2019). Discourses from Latin America and the Caribbean. Palgrave.
Fairclough, N. (2003). Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research. Routledge.
Fairclough, N. (1995). Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. Longman.
Fairclough, N. (2001). “The Dialectics of Discourse.” Textus 14(2), 3–10.
Forey, G., & Sampson, N. (2017). Textual metafunction and theme. In T. Bartlett & G. O’Grady (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Systemic Functional Linguistics (pp. 31-145). Routledge.
García, O. (2009). Education, Multilingualism and Translanguaging in the 21st Century. In A. Mohanty, M. Panda, R. Phillipson, & T. Skutnabb-Kangas (Eds.), Multilingual Education for Social Justice: Globalising the Local (pp. 128-145). Orient Blackswan.
García, O., Johnson, S. I., Seltzer, K., & Valdés, G. (2017). The translanguaging classroom: Leveraging student bilingualism for learning. Caslon.
Genette, G. (1997). Palimpsests: Literature in the Second Degree (C. Newman & C. Doubinsky, Trans.). University of Nebraska Press.
Genette, G. (1992). The Architect: An Introduction. University of California Press.
GORTT. (2008). Central Tenders Board: International Prequalification Notice. https://www.finance.gov.tt/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/intl_prequal_notice_min_of_edu.pdf
Hackert, S. (2016). Standards of English in the Caribbean: History, attitudes,functions, features. In E. Seoane & C. Suárez-Gómez (Eds.), World Englishes: New theoretical and methodological considerations (pp. 85–111). John Benjamins.
Hall, G., & Hord, S. (2001). Implementing Change: Patterns, Principles and Potholes. Allyn and Bacon.
Halliday, M. A. K. (2004). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. Hodder Education.
Holm, J. (1995). The Caribbean. In R. Burchfield (Ed.), The Cambridge History of the English Language. Vol 5: English in Britain and Oversees: Origin and Development (pp. 328-381). Cambridge University Press.
James, W., & Youssef, V. (2002). The Languages of Tobago: Genesis, Structure and Perspectives. UWI School of Continuing Studies/Open Campus.
Kyriaki, M. (2017). Research in the field of inclusive education: Time for a rethink? International Journal of Inclusive Education, 21(2), 146–159. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2016.1223184
Lewis, Y. (1999). Education for All 2000 Assessment: Trinidad and Tobago. Ministry of Education: Educational Planning Division.
Liasidou, A. (2012). Inclusive Education and Critical Pedagogy at the Intersections of Disability, Race, Gender and Class. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 10(1), 168–184.
London, N. A. (2003). Ideology and Politics in English-language Education in Trinidad and Tobago: The Colonial Experience and a Postcolonial Critique. Comparative Education Review, 47(3), 287–320. https://doi.org/10.1086/378249
Migge, B., Léglise, I., & Bartens, A. (2010). Creoles in Education. A Discussion of Pertinent Issues. In M. Bettina, I. Léglise & A. Bartens (Eds.), Creoles in Education: A Critical Assessment and Comparison of Existing Projects (pp. 1–30). John Benjamins.
Mühleisen, S. (2013). Trinidad English Creole: Language survey. In S. Michaelis, M. Haspelmath & M. Huber (Eds.), The Linguistic Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Languages (pp. 61-69). Oxford University Press.
Pennycook, A. (1998). English and the discourses of colonialism. Routledge.
Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford University Press.
Rickford, J. R. (1985). Standard and non-standard language attitudes in a creole continuum. In N. Wolfson & J. Manes (Eds.), Language of Inequality (pp. 145–160). De Gruyter Mouton.
Robertson, I. (1996). Language Education Policy: Towards a Rational Approach for Caribbean States. In P. Christie (Ed.), Caribbean Language Issues: Old and New (pp. 112–142). The University of the West Indies Press.
Robertson, I. (1994). Linguistics and the Reform of the Caribbean Language Curriculum. Peace Research, 26(2), 50–57. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23607345
Robertson, I. (2010). Language and Language Education Policy. Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Education: Seamless Education Project Unit.
Rogers, R. (2011). Critical Discourse Analysis in Education. Routledge.
Simmons-McDonald, H. (1993). The Case for Creole in Formal Education. [Paper Presentation]. Symposium on “Creole in the Twenty-first Century”, St. Lucia.
Simpson, P. (1993). Language, Ideology and Point of View. Routledge.
Solomon, D. (1993). The speech of Trinidad: A reference grammar. The University of the West Indies Press.
Curriculum Development Division. (2002). Secondary School Curriculum – Forms 1–3. English Language Arts. Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Education.
Curriculum Development Division. (2008). Secondary School Curriculum – Forms 1–3. English Language Arts. Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Education.
Curriculum Development Division. (2015). Secondary School Curriculum – Forms 1–3. English Language Arts. Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Education.
UNESCO. (2001). The Open File on Inclusive Education. UNESCO.
USAID. (2020, July). The Impact of COVID-19 on Migrant Children in Trinidad and Tobago. UNICEF for the Eastern Caribbean. https://www.unicef.org/easterncaribbean/reports/impact-covid-19-migrant-children-trinidad-and-tobago.
Unsworth, L. (2001). Teaching Multiliteracies Across the Curriculum: Changing Contexts of Text and Image in Classroom Practice. Open University Press.
Wassnik, A. B. (1999). Historic Low Prestige and seeds of change: Attitudes toward Jamaican creole. Language in Society, 28(01), 57–92. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0047404599001037
Wigglesworth, G., Billington, R., & Loakes, D. (2013). Creole speakers and language education. Language and Linguistics Compass 7(7), 388–397. https://doi.org/10.1111/lnc3.12035
Winer, L. (1984). Early Trinidadian English Creole: The Spectator Texts. English World-Wide, 5,181–210.
Winer, L. (2007). Badjohns, Bhaaji and Banknote Blue: Essays on the Social History of Language in Trinidad and Tobago. St. Augustine: University of the West Indies, School of Continuing Studies.
Youssef, V. (2004). ‘Is English we speaking’: Trinbagonian in the twenty-first century. English Today, 20(4), 42–49. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078404004080
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Selvon-Ramkissoon, N. (2024). Critical Discourse Studies and Curriculum Development in Trinidad and Tobago: Exploring Discursive Practices in Education Policy. In: Durgasingh, R., Selvon-Ramkissoon, N. (eds) Caribbean Discourses. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45047-1_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45047-1_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-45046-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-45047-1
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)