Teachers creating anti-colonial futures: Exploring curriculum conversations with teachers through autobiographical reflection

Abstract

Teachers’ understanding of their personal histories is beneficial to their understanding and conceptualisation of their roles as teacher professionals. Insights from such understanding in post-colonial societies help to shape teachers’ consciousness about how they can run their own course (curriculum) to create liberating experiences for themselves and those they teach. This paper draws on the autobiographical method of currere to deconstruct stories of four in-service teachers about their teaching and learning experiences as students in Jamaican classrooms and how these experiences intertwine with their current professional practice. Findings derived from the teachers’ written reflections revealed that perceptions about types of schools and the associated consequences remain the largest area of complexity and representation of coloniality for teachers. Linked to this is the skills teachers themselves demonstrate and the positive and negative emotions those skills evoke for students. The teachers also expressed their responsibility towards advocating for self and their students as opportunities to create change and resist coloniality. The paper therefore offers recommendations for teachers and teachers of teachers (teacher educators) on how to build anti-colonial futures through curriculum conversations with their students.

Introduction

As beneficiaries of a colonial education system, teachers’ professional practice may entail conscious and unconscious practices that inculcate biases that they may implicitly and explicitly pass on to their students (Campbell, 2006; Stewart, 2015). Several authors have noted that colonisation has direct implications on how teaching occurs and the knowledge construction of once colonised people (Moon, 2022; Bristol, 2012; Campbell, 2006; Miller, 1999). Bristol (2012) also notes that post-colonial societies such as Jamaica often perpetuate colonialism through the ways in which schooling is structured, the content that is taught, and the use of pedagogies that usually perpetuate the ‘superior - inferior’ dynamic established by the colonisers on plantations. For instance, Jamaica operates a structure of schooling that still mirrors that of the British who ruled prior to Jamaica’s independence (Miller, 2016; Patterson, 2021). Jamaica operates a centralised education system with the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Information as the central authority. Schooling is highly stratified and offered publicly and privately at the early childhood (3–5 years old), elementary (6–11 years old), secondary, and post-secondary levels (Roofe, 2020). At the elementary level, public schools are referred to as primary schools and private schools are referred to as preparatory schools. Schools operate on a highly examination-oriented culture that stratifies students from the elementary level of schooling through to post-secondary. The effect of colonialism impacts schooling most at the exit point of elementary schooling where students are placed in secondary schools based on their scores on standardised tests. This examination-oriented structure perpetuates a dual education system that functions as the most powerful gatekeeper of the status quo (Task Force on Educational Reform, 2004; Patterson, 2021). This dual education system manifests itself in diverse types of schools at the secondary level that perpetuate a classist and elitist structure (Espeut, n.d.; Patterson, 2021).

Schools at the secondary level exist as government owned and operated secondary schools and secondary schools owned by churches or trusts but funded by the government. Secondary schools that are owned by churches and trusts and existed prior to Jamaica’s independence in 1962 are the preferred schools of choice at the end of elementary school for many students and parents (Maxwell and Roofe, 2020). These schools tend to receive the students with the highest exit examination scores from elementary schools, have better resources, and offer a more grammar type education (Jennings and Cook, 2019). These schools are often referred to as traditional high schools. Secondary schools established after Jamaica’s independence rely heavily on funding from the government, are perceived as having inadequate resources, overcrowded classrooms, students of varying ability levels, and students suffer from a wide range of sociological disparities (Patterson, 2021). These schools are referred to by the populace as non-traditional high schools. As noted by the Patterson 2021 report from the Education Transformation Commission, Jamaica, despite its best efforts continues to perpetuate a system of schooling that can be classified as the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ (Patterson, 2021). Therefore, teachers not the least among other categories of educators who are products of such a system will need to undergo personal examination and deconstruction of thought and practice. This is needed to help shift mindset and actions where necessary to aid the building of anti-colonial futures (LeGrange, 2021).

This paper therefore draws on the autobiographical method (Khaled, 2020; Pinar, 1994) to offer stories of four in-service teachers about their experiences as students in Jamaican classrooms and deconstruct how these experiences intertwine with their professional practice as teachers. As argued by Pinar (2011), the autobiographical method of inquiry relates to the 21st century movement of creating anti-colonial futures as it prompts individuals to examine the history of their education from the past, present, and future. Thus, revealing the ways in which each individual is different and that each individual is affected by things differently (Le Grange, 2021). Therefore, the autobiographical method of inquiry should help teachers shift their focus from curriculum as a predetermined course to run to curriculum as how each individual runs his/her own course. Consequently, in this paper the stories of the in-service teachers seek to provide insights for influencing how teaching and learning are carried out in K-12 classrooms and teacher education programmes in Jamaica.

Theoretical perspectives

To aid the understanding of issues underlying the stories of the teachers, I offer here explanations of some key concepts.

Teachers and anti-colonial futures

Understanding how teachers can create anti-colonial futures requires an understanding of anti-colonialism. According to Dei and Asgharzadeh (2001), anti-colonialism interrogates the power configurations embedded in ideas, cultures, and histories of knowledge production, validation, and use. It seeks to raise consciousness by interrogating and challenging the foundations of institutionalised power and privilege and the accompanying rationale for dominance in social relations. In the context of this paper, anti-colonialism helps to decipher the foundations of beliefs, power, and privilege in teachers’ understanding of their roles as teacher professionals. In this sense, the lens of anti-colonialism is used to interrogate the connection between the personal and the professional by understanding what dominant ideologies are within teachers’ own experiences and histories. Furthermore, the anti-colonial theory acknowledges the role of institutional structures such as schooling in producing and reproducing endemic inequalities. Within such acknowledgement, it offers to the colonised an opportunity to question, challenge, and subsequently weaken oppressive structures of power and privilege in thought and practice. It therefore calls on teachers to operate as transformative intellectuals in deriving ways of knowing and being that reduce systemic biases, oppression, privileging, and imposed meanings (Dei and Asgharzadeh, 2001; Giroux, 2011). Teachers are also called upon to strengthen indigeneity by acknowledging and utilising knowledge and practices that are unique to the identity of the people, places, and spaces in which they practice. As transformative intellectuals, teachers engage in scholarly reflection and practice to question, interrogate, and educate students to be thoughtful and critical citizens (Giroux, 2011). However, for teachers to inculcate these habits they will need support in firstly recognising coloniality and then taking actions.

Social justice

As argued by Shields and Mohan (2008), social justice identifies and challenges issues of power and inequity in schools. It seeks to ensure that there is a fair share of benefits for the least disadvantaged. Roofe et al. (2018) argue that social justice teachers demonstrate through their practices that each student has an indefensible claim to all opportunities, resources, and benefits regardless of gender, socio-economic status, ethnicity, or ability levels. Consequently, social justice provides a principle for how humans should live and treat each other as members of a society. Teachers who operate on the principle of social justice can therefore create anti-colonial futures by examining how their professional practices adhere to such principles. Hence, in deconstructing the stories of the four in-service teachers a social justice lens is used to examine how their experiences as students and teacher professionals portray inequities and how power manifests itself in these experiences. Additionally, the social justice lens provides an opportunity to explore whether such issues of inequity and power are being reproduced in teachers’ professional roles because of their personal histories as students (Miller et al., 2019). Furthermore, combined with ideas from anti-colonialism, social justice is used to propose and advocate for strategies that aid the removal of any barriers and challenges that reduce students’ access to resources, benefits, and opportunities.

Currere as autobiographical research

Autobiographical research is an inquiry into the lived experience to re-present that experience in a form that provides a story entailing rich detail and context about the life (or lives) in question. Engaging in autobiographical reflections brings to the fore the beliefs, values, skills, attitudes, and assumptions embedded in teachers’ role and practice. It helps the teacher to go through a process of deconstruction and reconstruction (Khaled, 2020; Pinar, 2004) as an understanding of the self is achieved. Autobiographical reflections therefore provide an understanding of self to create in this instance curriculum (how individuals run their course). The provision of this understanding helps others to see how the individual sees, experiences, and understands the world around. In the context of this paper, currere is used as the autobiographical method to disclose the curriculum of the teachers. As argued by Moore (2013), currere allows for teachers to mind the in-between spaces of their former lives as students and their lives as teachers. It provides an opportunity to build bridges between difficult emotions while uncovering sources of insecurities and internal oppression (Garcia, 2021). The method of currere therefore requires teachers to go beyond what is in the planned, prescribed, or predetermined curriculum and embody what is known as the lived curriculum (Pinar, 2011; Aoki, 2005). Embodying the lived curriculum is an opportunity for intellectual freedom where teachers are able to admit to self the basis of their beliefs, ideologies, and motives. It also offers to them and their students thinking that challenges status quo and thinking that seeks to respond to contextual peculiarities rather than prescriptions (Pinar, 2011; Aoki, 2005).

Pinar therefore offers a four-stage process of currere that involves going through different stages of intellectualisation. These stages are regression, progression, analytical, and synthetical (Pinar, 2004). The regressive involves returning to the past through reflection and remembering. It involves identifying important and significant moments in both personal as well as educational experiences and reflecting on how those past experiences motivated one’s development. For teachers, this provides an opportunity to focus on past experiences with education and any past impressions that affected them and their view of teaching and learning (Khaled, 2020). Through the regressive process, teachers may discern how they have been products of coloniality and or their stage of complicity in promoting colonial/oppressive beliefs, assumptions, values, and acts.

The progressive stage provides an opportunity to imagine the future. It involves reflection that focuses on the future self and what one believes is likely to happen in relation to goals, visions, and aspirations. At this stage, the teacher is allowed to go ahead of time and imagine where he/she will be and how one sees him/herself in the future. Reflections at this stage should allow the teacher to imagine a future that provides opportunities that allow both teacher and students to experience freedom in learning. It should also allow for an unshackling of the personal assumptions and practices that seek to develop homogeneity. Further, it should allow them to imagine ways in which coloniality can be resisted.

The analytical moment juxtaposes past, present, and future and creates a ‘subjective space’ that penetrates the lived past and gives freedom to return to the present (Khaled, 2020). It involves distancing or bracketing oneself from the past and future to then examine how the past and present are connected. The analytical therefore allows the teacher to examine the present and make connections with memories and future self and as such provides the teacher with an expanded understanding of self. Reflections at this stage provide opportunity for liberation as it helps the individual to take a step back and objectively thinks about coloniality and how it is embedded or connected in the memories, present understanding, and thoughts of the future self.

The synthetical stage allows one to combine all experiences together and reflect on how these have influenced the totality of the individual at present as well as how these experiences inform the decisions the individual makes. For teachers, this would include examining present self and teaching and learning practices as well as determining how all experiences have impacted decisions about teaching and learning. Such decisions include the teaching and learning methodologies utilised, relationship with students and colleagues, assessment practices employed, dispositions and assumptions one hold as true, and how one perceives the self in relation to context and others. Pinar emphasises that in this synthetical stage, one should ‘extract the existential meaning of the present and integrate the three other forms of intellectualisation (regressive, progressive, analytical) into a comprehensive whole that includes the physical self’ (Pinar, 1975, p.1). Pinar (1975) argues that this provides a deeper and wholesome understanding of the present. Consequently, at this stage, teachers through a renewed understanding of self and actions of coloniality determine what actions to undertake to transform self and teaching and learning practices as resistance to coloniality, thus, leading them into creating anti-colonial futures.

The four stages of currere should aid teachers in seeing curriculum as largely a representation of the educational experiences of both teachers and students (Pinar, 1975). When teachers begin to see curriculum in this way, they begin to see the individual responsibility embedded in undertaking activities that create anti-colonial futures (Le Grange, 2021). Recognising this individual responsibility is crucial as Maldonado-Torres (2006) argues that all of us live and breathe coloniality every day and so all of us must engage in this process of unlearning and relearning. This is an ongoing process and as such should be viewed as cyclical and lifelong.

Methodology

An autobiographical research design using the method of currere was used to examine aspects of the journey of four in-service teachers. It comprised the use of written reflections by teachers to document memories of their journey as students in primary and secondary schools in Jamaica and themselves as current teacher professionals. This design was selected for its benefits in helping teachers understand how their social, political, and cultural realities influence their practice (Alshareefy, 2017). In particular currere was used as the autobiographical method because of its focus on the relatedness between life experiences, school knowledge, thinking, and intellectual development to enable growth and transformation (Kanur & Glor, 2006). Additionally, the design is useful in helping teachers move beyond the normative understanding of curriculum as prescriptions/directives from the Ministry of Education in Jamaica to curriculum as lived experiences.

In my capacity as a teacher educator with over 17 years of experience and having utilised autobiographical reflection in my own self engaged professional development, I understand its benefits. As the Lecturer for the Curriculum Studies course in which the in-service teachers participated for 13 weeks, my role was that of a facilitator of the method. This course was taught having received approval through the university’s curriculum quality assurance processes. The concept of currere was taught to the in-service teachers as an aspect of the course. Lecture notes, personal experiences of the Lecturer, the use of scholarly journal articles focussing on application of the method, and complemented with class discussions were methods used for teaching delivery. Following this exposure to the concept, the in-service teachers were asked to document their currere (autobiographical reflection) within a 3-week period. Their documented reflections were guided by seven questions reflective of each stage of the currere process. These seven questions guided the teachers in recalling their past as students, examining their present as teacher professionals, and thinking about their future professional practice (see Appendix A for a sample of the questions). The writing of the reflections lasted for 3 weeks. These 3 weeks included intervals for me to check in with the in-service teachers on their progress and for them to raise questions and share any difficulties they were experiencing in using the method. As the Lecturer, my task was to facilitate them in understanding the method and using it without any constrictions. Following the writing period, the in-service teachers were asked to share orally aspects of their currere and how they felt about using the method. Oral sharing was carried out to assist the in-service teachers in having conversations with each other and to understand each other’s stories without judgement (Kanu and Glor, 2006). Without such sharing Belenky et al. (1986) note that individuals become isolated from each other. It is also important to note that the autobiographical reflections are not intended to offer complete depictions of the self but to provide opportunities to theorise a particular moment, conversate, and examine possibilities for change (Stenberg, 2005). Consequently, as I worked with these in-service teachers, I tried to minimise hierarchical power dynamics by identifying and sharing with the in-service teachers my own experience of being in their roles using the method. During intervals of the written reflections and oral sharing, there was no attempt on my part to change the ways the in-service teachers languaged their experience and each in-service teacher was always encouraged to listen to self, speak with others, and write their experiences. These actions were carried out to show valuing of the in-service teachers, reduce othering, and to honour the student–teacher relationship I shared with the in-service teachers (Doucet and Mauthner 2002). Additionally, though the in-service teachers were participating in the curriculum course as part of acquiring qualifications they were always reminded that the aim of engaging with autobiographical reflection was about showcasing the importance of experience and its relationship to learning and teaching.

The currere of four in-service teachers were therefore selected for sharing in this paper. They were selected based on the in-service teacher’s willingness to have their stories shared and the detailed recollection and narration of memories. Each in-service teacher was also asked to sign an informed consent form and reminded that they can withdraw their currere at any moment without any adverse consequences. Pseudonyms are used to protect their identity. These participants also had varied years of teaching experience. Adane has been teaching for 23 years while Camarie for 14 years, Karone for 10 years, and Joy for 5 years.

The written reflections were first organised and grouped by me into categories based on similarities and differences in response to the seven guiding questions. Following this a group session was held with the in-service teachers during which clarifications were sought on areas to ensure accurate reading and meanings by me (Glesne et al., 2011). This then led to further analysis of each autobiographical reflection using thematic analysis (Creswell, 2012) guided by the seven questions. For this structural coding was used to identify and assign first level in vivo codes and conceptual phrases to segments (Saldana, 2016) while latent coding was used to identify second-level codes and phrases. Codes were then clustered to further develop categories (Creswell, 2012). These categories were then examined to derive themes. These themes are in turn used to present the findings along with narratives as snapshots of different aspects of the teachers’ experiences.

Findings and discussion

The presentation and discussion of findings from the four in-service teachers about their experiences as students in Jamaican schools and how these experiences intertwine with their professional practices as teachers are used to demonstrate how currere can be used to ignite curriculum conversations with teachers for anti-colonial futures. Three themes are presented; experiences with types of schools and the meanings they may convey, how teachers’ teaching skills influence students, and awakening teachers’ consciousness through self-conversations. Each theme describes and illustrates the shared experiences of the in-service teachers.

Experiences with types of schools and the meanings they may convey

In post-colonial societies such as Jamaica, schools convey particular meanings of power and may help perpetuate inequalities. In this study, the teachers recalled how the type of school they attended conjured particular feelings and experiences.

Teacher Karone expressed,

I was previously attending a Prep school and my parents agreed to get a divorce. I remembered vividly a phone call from my father explaining he would no longer finance my school fee at Prep School and just like that I was enrolled in a primary school. I could remember the difference attending this primary school, the noise, all the time there was noise. At first this seemed fun to me things were different there. The teachers were not as strict, and I could seemingly get away with certain things. From that point on I was trapped, lost trying to figure out who I am and where I belonged (Teacher Karone).

Embedded in the narrative of teacher Karone are the elements that are perpetuated by the structure of schooling in societies that were once colonised. Such structures communicate the expected norms of different groups and in subtle ways convey to students their place in society (Evans, 2001). The recollection of teacher Karone hints at some of the structural inequities that are embedded in how education is practiced in Jamaica. Lamotely (2021) argues that though education is valued in the Caribbean as a pre-requisite for upward mobility, how education is practiced continues to hold back the people of the Caribbean. For instance, as noted in Karone’s experience there is a difference in how elementary education is managed as noted by the types of elementary school (public/primary elementary school vs private/preparatory elementary school). Students who attend preparatory schools (private elementary schools) have more resources available to them as it relates to smaller class sizes, more facilities for teaching support, and standardised examination results are higher (Patterson, 2021; Dodman, 2021). Resulting from such differences is usually a perceived feeling of being ‘better off’ or ‘less than’ and as noted by Karone being conflicted because of what results as two different worlds. Such inequalities also extend to students being marginalised because of the school they attend. Teacher Karone’s narrative further highlights this when she expressed what happened when she transitioned from primary education to secondary-level education.

In grade six I had passed for a non-traditional High School. The feeling of indifference immediately overtook me. This was all because of the negative things I had heard about that school. I remember sitting at my desk and crying for as long as the school day progressed. I cried until I lost my voice………of course my worst fears were realized upon attending the school as there were a lack of educational resources, and some teachers did not show up for class (Teacher Karone).

While currere is not a panacea for resolving such structural inequalities, it serves as a starting point for aiding teachers to use the power that resides in their roles to advocate for changes. Advocacy in this sense may take the form of critical conversations with students, parents, and school administrators instead of remaining silent. Advocacy about this issue is critical because the teachers also noted how the type of school, they attended influenced subjects they pursued, thus, giving rise to issues of social justice. Teacher Adane who attended a traditional high school noted,

The area of my natural talent was never offered at the schools that I attended in my earlier years. It was always about finding self and meaning outside of the curriculum as was planned. If I used my lived experience as a map, this may lead to several questions. What are the implications for students who are currently in school, but their area of interest is not offered? Will they enjoy equity in education? Will they have a fair chance at becoming? Does that curriculum effectively cater to the needs of all learners in such instances? In my view, all subjects play an important role even if the area being taught is not to be pursued by a student in the future (Teacher Adane).

The answers to the questions raised by Adane are crucial for ensuring that inequality is not being reproduced, ensuring that barriers that reduce students’ access to resources are removed and ensuring that each student is given an equal opportunity to be successful (Miller et al., 2019; Roofe et al., 2018).

Using the narratives of teacher Karone and Adane as a backdrop, each type of secondary school (traditional or non-traditional secondary) conveys particular meanings. For instance, a traditional high school communicates perceptions of superiority, elitism, grammar school, available resources, and ‘being bright’, while non-traditional high schools communicate inferiority, undervalued, limited resources, and ‘being not so bright’ giving rise to a range of sociocultural demarcations (Dodman, 2021; Miller, 2016; Stewart 2015). These demarcations have resulted based on the evolution of schooling in Jamaica from the British colonial rule where schooling under the colonial rule was organised based on a classist/elitist structure that inculcated attitudes and habits of inferiority and superiority (Bacchus, 2006). Perceptions of schools thus seem to manifest themselves in all forms of curriculum (hidden, formal, and enacted curriculum) and then determine how people view themselves. These narratives also underscore the argument made by Campbell (2006) that colonial education helps to inculcate in people from a young age the feeling of being undervalued or worthless.

Despite several efforts by governments at renaming secondary schools to remove stigma/labels, the structural stereotypes continue because the structural issues have not been addressed. For example, the label of junior secondary school, secondary school, and comprehensive high school was removed from the names of non-traditional high schools and replaced with the term high schools as used in the name of traditional secondary schools. It was hoped that changing the names would aid in reducing associated stereotyping and negative labelling of the students who attend. However, funding to address issues in these schools and how students are placed from the primary exit examination into these schools did not change. As a result, the stigma and negative labelling that existed prior to the name change continued.

Consequently, all educators have a responsibility in helping individuals address issues that may emanate from experiences relating to types of schools attended or attending. This responsibility begins with critically examining our own unique experiences and discerning how we can rethink what is offered to students through the curriculum. Our critical examination of these experiences can also aid with rethinking the ways in which we engage students as we attempt to prepare them with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are necessary for life. Emanating from such rethinking then should be the offering of structural provisions that aid each student in valuing his/her unique self. This in turn should then help the individual determine how to run his/her own course (Le Grange, 2021).

Teachers recalling these experiences serve as reminders about the need to interrogate the issues of power and privilege embedded in the structure of schooling which ultimately lead to dominance in social relations (Dei and Asgharzadeh, 2001) among students, teachers as professionals, and among members of the Jamaican society. For instance, teachers need to interrogate their own beliefs about types of schools and how these beliefs manifest in the school at which they are now employed as well as how they relate to students in these schools. Teacher Karone provides for us an example of how reflecting on her past schooling experiences aided her own professional practice. She notes,

….as I recall these experiences I am beginning to formulate new ways of student engagement as I seek to develop a well-defined set of moral values which can be swooned into the fabric of my Currere. In my current context as a Health and Family life Education (HFLE), I seek to understand the root cause of the issue that the students may be experiencing. As my aim is not only to achieve academic success but also the wholistic development of our students (Teacher Karone).

Though this paper targets teachers, it is important to note that teachers cannot be seen as the fixer of all the outcomes that emanate from perpetuating classist and inferior/superior tendencies in education. However, their deconstruction of the social issues embedded in students’ and teachers’ perceptions and realities linked to attending particular types of schools and pursuing certain types of subjects will aid them in implementing strategies that weaken perceptions of privilege that are embedded in such aspects of schooling in Jamaica.

How teachers’ teaching skills influence students

Teachers are influential role models for students. As role models, they manifest conscious and unconscious use of power through implicit and explicit messages (Miller, 1999). One of the ways in which teachers manifest this power is through their teaching skills as they interact with students. Effective teaching skills therefore manifest power through the observation of teachers’ knowledge, decision-making, and action (Kyriacou, 2007). Consequently, the ways in which they consciously or unconsciously demonstrate these skills during the teaching and learning process can shape students’ feelings about schools, what and how students learn, and meanings students derive about the teaching profession (Darling-Hammond et al., 2020; Ranganathanand Swami, 2009). For reasons such as these, several authors advocate currere as a crucial method for seeing more clearly how educational experiences consciously and subconsciously shape one’s future actions (Clandinin, 1987; Kanu and Glor, 2006; Pinar, 1994). Teacher Joy’s narrative provides an illustrative example of the influence that resides in the teaching skills teachers demonstrate.

It was in Grade seven that I created my list on what a good teacher should be; a list based on everything my Grade seven Science teacher was not. I remember cringing just at the thought of Science. I barely passed Science that year as I felt I had no teacher because I had to teach myself. He was lacking in skill, dedication, love and understanding, just all the things I believed a teacher should be. I started hating school and had already started having some low expectations on what teaching entailed. However, I was in for a surprise when I met my Grade 8 Science teacher. She was informative, loving, patient, caring, friendly, understanding, and simply phenomenal, among other things. It was through her that I discovered my love for teaching and also my love for education on a whole. Oddly, the girl who hated education and science fell deeply and passionately in love with both. In fact, I knew then that I had to make a difference because I had already realized the significant and instrumental role that a teacher could play in a child’s life. I had to become the epitome of change; I had to become a phenomenal teacher! My journey had begun (Teacher Joy).

Teacher Joy’s narrative brings to the fore how teachers’ teaching skills can influence students’ emotions, self-perceptions, and their future roles. Through the example of the two Science teachers in Teacher Joy’s narrative, we are reminded that teaching students is not a mechanistic activity but one that is full of ebbs and flows, and varied processes and praxis. Each teacher brings to the process his/her own level of consciousness. Therefore, to be effective teachers must be social justice consciousness to ensure that as much as is humanly possible all students benefit from what they are offering. This is particularly crucial in post-colonial societies since in these societies teachers serve as ideal models of behaviour and representations of a better life (Acosta, 2021; Bristol 2012; Chung Thomas et al., 2021). Good teaching is therefore important to convey learning beyond the planned curriculum, which conveys both to students and teachers that education is much more than a set of rigid instructions. Subsequently, good teaching involves embracing and understanding all our experiences, thereby allowing for the provision of teaching that reconceptualizes to create a better future. This excerpt from Teacher Joy’s narrative further highlights the benefits from teachers embracing and understanding all their experiences.

Remembering and relating to the emotions and the issues I dealt with as a student will also allow me to better empathize with students and be able to put myself in their shoes. As a result, I have learnt to make more informed decisions in the classroom; decisions and planning that involve the experiences and personalities of my students as it is only then that I will be able to develop methods that meet the needs of each student. The classroom should be a place where students are understood, motivated, uplifted, inspired, nurtured, and cared for (Teacher Joy).

Awakening teachers’ consciousness through self-conversations

Awakening teachers’ consciousness through the autobiographical reflective method of currere speaks to helping teachers become aware of the value and meanings inherent in their everyday experiences. Such awareness should then lead teachers to envision various possibilities for the future. The teachers expressed that through the use of the method they were reminded of the reasons they teach, and the reasons students come to school. Teacher Joy shares how recalling her past experiences as a student influences her understanding of what is required of her in the teaching and learning process.

Looking back at my own past experiences has allowed me to understand that our experiences are indeed vital to the teaching and learning process. It has allowed me to appreciate the different personalities of students as I would have wanted more of my teachers to understand who I was as a student. It has awakened my intellectual thought into understanding that our social experiences indeed shape our identity (Teacher Joy).

Teacher Adane notes that the autobiographical reflection has raised his consciousness about preferences he displays in the teaching and learning process. He notes,

I am now aware of some of my preferences or biases that were created through my past experiences. For instance, my learning experiences were shaped primarily by females. From this, I have realized how this has shaped my view of the ‘who’ in the educational process. In general, I am of the view that I do my best with female teachers and this I believe is partly due to the fact that I experienced success under specific conditions with specific persons. Many female teachers exhibited a duty of care to which I now aspire. This influence has greatly impacted my general teaching approach and has provided me with the agency to resist the stereotypical notion that male educators lack the empathy and care that is so crucial in the educational process (Teacher Adane).

Furthermore, both teachers’ and students’ consciousness may be awakened through the subjects in which they engage in the formal curriculum. For example, teacher Camarie recounts experiences with different subjects as a student and how those influenced her future actions.

I remember that in Caribbean History I use to find myself on the plantations trying to understand why one group of people thought that the colour of their skin made them superior, and I would be annoyed. On the other hand, I was in mathematics class counting the hours until the bell rang signalling the end of the sessions. Then and there I was turned off from any subject that incorporated using number, neither was I interested in athletics or anything practical. I was always reading and writing (Teacher Camarie).

Such consciousness is needed to awaken their passion and help strengthen what and how they advocate on behalf of themselves, their students’, and their colleagues (Blair, 2022; Roofe, 2020). Engaging in reflection about their past and current professional practice also awakens their consciousness to the nature of the work that is involved in their personal and professional role. By advocating for self and their students, teachers help to reduce the social divide along lines of subject’s students pursue, careers that are promoted in schools, fairness in resource allocation, and the ways in which students matter regardless of contextual peculiarities. As argued by Kanu and Glor (2006), an examination of teacher’s histories and connections to the past can lead teachers to challenge and transform existing arrangements in public education. To be effective as advocates, teachers should also engage in collaborative dialogue to share experiences with peers, reflect on them individually, and collectively, and learn from each other’s perspectives.

Conclusion

In this paper, I sought to share and discuss narratives of four in-service teachers about their experiences as students in Jamaica and how these experiences intertwine with their professional practices as teachers. The teachers shared both positive and negative experiences of their lives as students in Jamaican schools and how those experiences influence their current and future actions as teachers. Based on the findings, perceptions about types of schools and the associated consequences remain the largest area of complexity and representation of coloniality for teachers. Through their narratives, it was evident that inequalities pertaining to types of schools they attended played a role in shaping their experiences as students and their professional practice as teachers. Linked to this are the skills their teachers demonstrated and the positive and negative experiences those skills evoked for them while they were students. Those experiences of their teachers later influenced their roles as teachers. Teachers in this study also expressed that through reflection on their past experiences they have become more intentional in meeting the needs of their students. They also shared that the autobiographical reflection benefitted their professional practice.

Given the experiences shared by in-service teachers, there are important lessons for the ongoing quest for change and working towards anti-colonial futures. Firstly, all teachers teaching in Jamaica at whatever level will need to identify the privileges embedded in the type of school they attended and discern the ways in which they perpetuate the inferior, superior mentality that is attached to schooling and the type of school students attend. Linked to this, is the need for in-service teachers to examine whether their daily responses to students, their work, and those who lead them are based on being in a particular type of school or whether they are responding based on their professional and personal convictions about what needs to be done to help students succeed. Secondly, in-service teachers need to critique their teaching skills to discern what they communicate and identify any oppressive and or negative elements. This should be carried out through a process of ongoing reflection on what they teach, how they teach, and the systems in which they teach. This should in turn aid them in discerning opportunities for advocacy. This reflection is also necessary to identify how their past experiences are influencing their current actions and to determine what they want to change in relation to their future actions.

Because teacher educators support the ongoing development of pre- and in-service teachers, there are lessons for teacher educators too. Teacher educators will need to interrogate their professional responsibilities as teachers of teachers. This will become increasingly complex for teacher educators as they themselves grapple with rapid changes of overregulation and standardisation that often fragment their work in the teaching profession. Nonetheless, they are called upon to develop intellectual scepticism. With intellectual scepticism ‘instead of doing what one is supposed to do, one can ask why one does it, who benefits from it, and how can it reconnect with a personal project and original thought’ (Said, 1996: pp. 82–83). Such scepticism will enable teachers to become learners of themselves as they question their own practices and challenge the very systems and institutions of which they are a part. This is no easy feat but with self-determination, ongoing reflection, and continuous learning they can begin to teach in ways that they themselves were not taught.

Taking the findings and discussion in this paper into consideration teacher educators could begin by questioning their actions to unearth any biases and assumptions regarding school placement for the teaching practicum. They may need to ask themselves questions such as the following: (1) Do I place certain trainees in particular types of schools based on my perceptions about certain types of schools? (2) Do I place trainees based on the dispositions they need to develop and best fit for purpose or some other criteria? (3) In what ways are my professional practices regarding school placement for the teaching practicum adhering to social justice principles? Additionally, teacher educators will need to challenge student teachers’ thinking regarding perceptions and feelings about different types of schools to uncover any inherent biases and adjust as necessary.

Consequently, to be effective, teacher educators are called upon to use a range of opportunities to help those who they educate to (1) identify and articulate the emotions wrapped up in their schooling experiences as it pertains to teaching and teachers, and (2) imagine and articulate the type of teachers they desire to be and (3) how this type of teacher is connected to their past experiences in both their personal life and their professional practice. Furthermore, to support the self-interrogation of student teachers, teacher educators may need to engage student teachers with readings in their courses that examine power as a construct in the teaching profession, and the ways in which power manifests itself given the nature of the profession. They may also need to engage student teachers in courses such as teacher leadership to further strengthen their advocacy roles.

As argued by Marcus Garvey, the vision of self and the future has been the only means by which the oppressed has seen and realised the light of their own freedom. Teachers represent one such group that has experienced oppression as students in a post-colonial society and are also seen in such societies as gatekeepers to knowledge construction. The hope is that through the awakening of their own critical consciousness, they will deconstruct what they hold as their truths to provide and or support changes that provide liberation for self and others. Consequently, both teachers and teacher educators are being called upon to help lead anti-colonial futures while recognising that in order to do this effectively, they must first envision such a future for self.