Principal of the Erdiston Teachers’ Training College (ETTC), Dr. Colin Cumberbatch, believes that continuous teacher professional development must not be an option, but a requirement.
Dr. Cumberbatch expressed this view as he addressed those present for the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Erdiston Teachers’ Training College and Columbia University, at Ilaro Court, last Friday.
He continued: “As teachers, we must view ourselves as professionals who are charged with the responsibility of developing and educating this country’s most valuable and vulnerable resource, its children.
“Teachers professional development has been an area of focus which has not received the level of attention in past years that it requires. The truth is, the type of reforms our educational system requires will necessitate that our teachers and school leaders engage in retraining, retooling, and upskilling of their competencies, so they can continue to be effective or become more effective in the classroom and in the management of our schools.”
Dr. Cumberbatch indicated that the ETTC will continue to play their part in the provision of professional development opportunities by facilitating continuous professional development for teachers and leaders through workshops, courses and programmes.
He added that the collaboration will provide an opportunity for teachers and educational leaders in Barbados to be exposed to professional development opportunities and earn a certificate from a world recognised educational institution while simultaneously raising the profile of the ETTC as it seeks to broaden its regional and global appeal and recognition.
Professor at Columbia University, Dr. Christopher Emdin, who also signed the MOU, expressed his excitement and that of his faculty when he indicated that they are ready to be a part of this initiative.
He stated: “What we’re offering is researchers who have done this work of transformation for all their lives and careers. Everyone who will be a part of this training has taught before, has led before and understands the landscape is deeply entrenched in research. We take the best and the brightest who can do it, and what we’ve said is what is not accessible to everyone in the States will become directly accessible to the teachers and the leaders who are part of this initiative….
“Everyone is super interested in not just transforming education, but the capacity to do so in one island with a teacher’s college and really provide a model for what the Caribbean and the world can look like in partnership.”
Professor Emdin spoke about the agreement between the two educational institutions. “This is not benevolence. Instead, it’s the pursuit of excellence. This is not a gift, one way or the other. It’s a bidirectional accentuation of genius, and a bidirectional accentuation of the magic that the teachers hold and a recognition that they are good because otherwise they wouldn’t have chosen to teach….
“And so, we will equip them; we will train them; we will love them. We’ll support them and we’ll also learn from them because the other part of this is that we don’t come saying we have all the answers let us transform Barbados. We say we have research, expertise, genius, intelligence and resources,” he explained.
He further stated that educational transformation and global partnerships, such as this, would not only transform education through the most amazing resources they have but most importantly, they would be constructing a model for what partnerships look like across the world.