I noted with consternation the recent report of three male teachers at Vauxhall High forcibly cutting a student’s hair. Whether the student’s hair was grown in keeping with his religion, personal choice, or for other reasons is immaterial. This episode paints a startling picture of intolerance and lack of judgement by some of our most endangered and prized educators — our male teachers. It is therefore prudent to explore issues of diversity and inclusion in our Jamaican context to provide insights into why a solvable case by non-violent means could go so horribly wrong.

Coral GardensThe recent re-emergence of the Coral Gardens incident and our prime minister’s acknowledgement that Rastafarians were badly treated and should be compensated signals that we are trying to move on from the prejudices that have been meted out to different groups at different periods in our history. However, every step we move forward seems to trigger a stride backwards to a gloomy place in our past, where legitimate citizens of our country are being forced to conform to our so-called norms through punitive means. Our education system has had its fair share of these episodes. 

Diversity versus conformityI support wholeheartedly that there needs to be rules concerning dress, conduct and other dimensions in our schools and within the Ministry of Education. However, there also has to be equal consideration for diversity and the methods by which conformity is induced in our society.My experience visiting education headquarters at the Ministry of Education suggests that diversity is also compromised in favour of arbitrary dress codes for entering the building. I am quite familiar with the rationale for creating rules for entering these public spaces. Individuals often desire to enter these buildings with little consideration for the office and officials they will be interacting with. However, when these rules are left to the security guards at the entrance of these buildings things often go awry. For example, a woman tastefully dressed in a sleeveless top on a scorching day has no chance of entering any Ministry of Education building, whether she has travelled from North Street or Negril. I have heard horror stories of our citizens being turned away because people of certain religious or moral leaning within our ministry have made rules, and the role — and apparent delight — of the assigned guard is to implement these without any flexibility. Therefore, when I read that the ministry is creating a dress code for schools I could only hope that these regulations reflect a 21st century emphasis on diversity and inclusion. 

Threats and opportunitiesThreats to diversity and inclusion come in many forms within our education system. We find within Jamaican schools there can be religious hegemony, where schools controlled by certain denominations favour students and staff of that denomination. The St Hilda’s head girl saga a few years ago is borne out of that experience.In my own sphere of work at the School of Education, at The University of the West Indies, we also grapple with issues of diversity. A very recent example was a robust debate over whether prayers should be said at an international event being hosted by the school. One perspective was whether we would offend individuals of other faiths (or none at all) by having prayers at the beginning of this event. Another perspective was that prayer is an integral part of the Jamaican culture and our visitors from other faiths should accept and appreciate that. The conversation continued with points about the existence of other religions in Jamaica and rebuttals about the nature of the prayer and efforts to make it as acceptable as possible to those of other religious orientation.While not desiring to sound bereft of a sound religious belief, I do believe that a crucial role of the School of Education is to be a catalyst for change as it relates to diversity and inclusion within our education system. In other words, we need in all professional activities to embrace the notion of multiple perspectives and appreciation of the other in our educational institutions and establishments. 

Is diversity trainingSo, in a society where one modality of grooming, working, speaking, worshipping is favoured over another, how do we negotiate the experiences of our students so that they can experience success regardless of how they enter our institutions? Forcibly cutting their hair or decrying their speech or religion is certainly not the answer.Creating courses in diversity has gone viral in the United States and other countries where one can even acquire a lucrative executive job in a university as a chief diversity officer. To date, that approach has not solved the issues of discrimination and exclusion in these environments. Therefore, Jamaica has to promote diversity training through curricular and extra-curricular emphasis on social, cultural and global literacy. If we are engaged in educational experiences, to appreciate our roles as citizens in a diverse school environment we must become aware that Jamaica is a multicultural society and be adequately exposed to the different religious, social, political, and economic practices around the world, and only then might we be well on our way to discovering the essence of diversity. The naked truth is that there exist multiple perspectives, and our beliefs and practices are not the only ones that exist; we must recognise that our way is not the only way, or the right way. We need to explore major areas where groups and individuals diverge in our Jamaican context (be they gender, sex, race, religion, politics, and even dress) and suggest ways of promoting appreciation and respect for these divergences.Our motto, “Out of many, one people” assessed and prefigured the many opportunities and challenges we might confront as a nation and cued us into a discussion on diversity long before the term was fashionable. The solution to differences in our educational institutions is not to resort to punitive and abusive measures. It is to engage our educators and students in meaningful ways of understanding and appreciating our diversity to promote individual and national growth and development. 

Clement T M Lambert, PhD, is an educational researcher, consultant, and lecturer in language arts education at The University of the West Indies. He leads the Communication and Arts Cluster and coordinates literacy studies at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Send comments to the

Observer or

clementtmlambert@gmail.com.