Dear Editor,

There is a widely held view that the underperformance of the education system is rooted in an outdated educational philosophy that supports a teacher-centred pedagogy. There is a prevailing ideology that is rooted in the belief that the Jamaican education system encourages the weaponisation of various elements, such as the appointment of senior teachers. Unquestionably, some principals tend to use this to divide and command blind loyalty among the teaching staff.

Teachers must be encouraged to exercise their academic freedom; a freedom which is based on the idea that the free exchange of ideas on campus is essential to good education. Academic freedom means that both faculty members and students can engage in intellectual discourse without fear of censorship or retaliation by the powers that be.

Having a preconference with a teacher creates an agreement on what to observe. Having done the preconferencing, it is important that a post-conference takes place in order to provide the teacher with feedback.

It appears at times that there is a disconnect between teacher appraisal and the overall health of the education system. The National Education Inspectorate (NEI) 2019 report revealed that Jamaican schools have scored improvements across all eight indicators when compared to the baseline performance established in 2015. Yet school leadership continues to be a major area of concern in the education system.

Observing and supervising teachers do not mean catching teachers off-guard. The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) has provided a number of best practices in the area of teacher supervision and evaluation. Among these are the principals or their designate must hold preconference sessions with teachers prior to scheduled classroom observations. The preconference enables teachers to describe special circumstances that might affect the observation, such as having an overcrowded class or an excess of non-readers in a class, as well as assess plans for the upcoming lesson. At this time, principals must review with the teacher the observation forms to be used for the evaluation.

Effective teaching and learning is grounded in a principle of consensus-building. Principals must be present in the classroom for the entire lesson to legitimately use the observation for a formal evaluation. This means principals can’t miss the beginning or the end of a lesson. Principals may still make casual and unannounced visits to classrooms, but they may not use such observations for evaluation purposes.

Principals must share with a teacher everything recorded during an observation. Teachers may challenge or clarify an evaluation by attaching their own written report to the principal’s document. In most cases, a teacher’s signature on an evaluation report indicates only that the teacher has read and received a copy of the report; it does not mean that a teacher agrees with the evaluation.

Teacher appraisals are here to stay and should be used as diagnostic instruments to help scaffold the teacher in areas such as the curriculum, teaching style, classroom management, and student outcome. Principalships that avoid preconferencing could be cited for unethical behaviour.

There is also the sore issue of out-of- field teaching. Requiring teachers to teach classes for which they have not been trained is likely to harm the teacher and his/her students as well as the education process. Very few stakeholders have recognised this problem, largely because of an absence of specific data.

Out-of-field teaching occurs when a teacher is assigned to teach a subject without specific training in that subject area. Unfortunately, few have spoken about this issue due to its ubiquity. The practice is also unprincipled.

Highly qualified teachers may actually become highly unqualified if they are assigned to teach subjects for which they have little training or education. Out- of-field teachers should be concerned about the negative impact their teaching might have on student learning, such as lower achievement scores. Out-of-field teachers are usually overstretched and stressed. Sadly, little attention has been given to the effects of out-of-field teaching on the teacher’s well-being, as well as on student attainment and participation.

Without a doubt the issue of out-of-field teaching will only worsen in years to come as the low remuneration of teachers will continue to contribute to the exodus of teachers from the profession. It would be useful to hear from the Jamaica Teaching Council concerning this matter, especially as it relates to the pending licensing of teachers.

Wayne Campbell

waykam@yahoo.com