Search

The cultural challenge of educating Haitian rehabilitation professionals was identified by a Canadian francophone university which collaborated in the implementation and organization of international internships. Ethical cross-border internationalization should ensure reciprocity for partners. With this as a central value and in a context of pedagogical resource scarcity in Haiti, an intercultural educational partnership involved Haitian and Canadian university students situated in their respective countries in a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) course. Teachers and students applied principles of decolonization of health pedagogy principles were applied by teacher and students throughout this cross-border virtual synchronous PBL course. The aim of this study was to determine the feasibility and to identify facilitators and obstacles to conducting a cross-border virtual synchronous PBL course and its perceived benefits in the development of professional competencies. Five Canadian students and five Haitian students, all volunteers, took part in a 3-week cross-border virtual synchronous PBL course. Deductive qualitative content analysis of the transcripts from a 120-minute focus group discussion held one week after the course and a logbook kept during the project was conducted. The criteria deemed important to successfully replicate this project relate to: 1) The attributes of the students and teachers involved; 2) pedagogical preparation activities; and 3) the use of multiple communication strategies and connectivity plans. In addition to the acquisition of course content not readily available in Haiti, the student interactions inherent in the PBL method supported the acquisition of competencies such as collaboration, communication, and change agent advocacy promoted by the Canadian association of occupational therapy which contribute greatly to strengthening the students' professional identity.

Snyder's hope theory depicts hope, through the frame of positive psychology, as a cognitive construct with the perceived sense of goal-directed, pathways, and agency thinking (Snyder et al., 1991). Hope levels have been measured in various countries; however, no research to date focused on Haitians. This study, conducted in Petit-Goâve, Haiti, addressed this gap by investigating hope, pathway, and agency levels derived from 135 Haitian-Kreyol adult literacy course participants. This manuscript reports scores of illiterate Haitians' hope levels utilizing Snyder's Adult Hope Dispositional Scale; the scores are explained by Snyder's hope theory taking Haitian cultural and social landscapes into account. Despite the challenging environment and illiterate conditions, Haitian participants reported just below average hope levels, average pathway levels, and low agency levels. These findings suggested this population garnered hope in their everyday lives, despite difficult obstacles.

This article contributes to understanding the effectiveness of early grade reading interventions in low-income-country contexts and how and why such interventions vary in their effectiveness across schools. It presents the results from an impact evaluation of an early grade reading intervention in Haiti with a mixed-methods analysis of factors that explain variation in program effects. We study program impact using a randomized controlled trial experimental research design and find significant treatment impact on students' literacy skills, including on students' reading comprehension in Creole. We use a mixed-methods design to explore variation in program effects across school sites. Key factors that explain variation in program effects include the frequency of instructional coaching visits; the dosage and uptake of treatment, which was linked to student and teacher absenteeism and the exclusive use of the treatment curriculum; the behaviors of school leaders; the fluency and quality of lesson delivery; and the remoteness of schools.

Fútbol Más, which began in three communities in Santiago, Chile 17 years ago, is now a global program that has had a direct presence in 11 countries around the world. Originally, the intention was to develop an intervention through which a social worker professional and a physical education professional would promote life skills and build resilience--all while children played on their neighborhood football field. In order to exponentially increase the impact, what was originally intended for community neighborhoods was adapted to work in contexts of natural disasters, with populations in migration contexts, with children in protection shelters, and eventually in capacity-building with professionals around the world. But the bigger milestone of the program adaptation started in Haiti 10 years ago, where the "Schools" program was first initiated. This article describes how Fútbol Más adapted from community to school environments, including working with teachers and building partnerships.

Haiti is among the most climate-vulnerable nations in the world, and Haitian youth face disproportionate risks to their health and well-being. Yet, to date, few studies have partnered with young people to position them as agents of change addressing climate change impacts in their communities, particularly in Global South contexts. As a step toward addressing this important gap, the present study used in-depth interviews (N = 6) to explore the multi-faceted behavioral developmental impacts on Haitian students (ages 20-30 years) who took part in a participatory environmental education program focused on access to clean water in Jacmel, a coastal city in Southern Haiti. The program combined hydrology and ecosystem education with youth-led water quality testing, community surveys, and data mapping--enabling students to collect, analyze, and visualize locally-meaningful data with real-world significance. Thematic analysis (TA) of post-program interviews conducted with program staff (n = 2) and students (n = 4) resulted in three major themes describing program-based developmental impacts equipping youth to address climate-driven threats in their community: (1) learning and skills development: Youth gained a deeper knowledge of hydrological and ecological systems, as well as research, digital, and technology skills; (2) health and environmental behaviors: Youth were experiencing and advocating behavioral shifts associated with preventing waterborne illnesses and protecting local ecosystems; and (3) civic engagement: Youth were developing a critical mindset regarding power relations and social change and were simultaneously motivated to disseminate local data to raise community awareness and engage with local authorities to improve environmental conditions. Findings shed light on the transformative potential of environmental and civic science education to engage young people as key actors in building adaptive capacity and reducing climate vulnerability. Implications for developmental science are discussed.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of health program implementors and research analysts across seven low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) alongside Boston-based collaborators convened to implement data-driven approaches for public health response. An intensive statistics and data science training short course was developed to ensure that in-country researchers could implement the necessary statistical methods for COVID-19 surveillance. The main goal of the course was to enable interpretation of findings from time series analyses and flag potential data issues. This manuscript summarizes our experience teaching this course, including a detailed course overview, participant feedback, and thoughts on how targeted, online courses can be used to support statistical capacity building in LMICs.

Recently, Chile has experienced a significant increase in linguistically and culturally diverse immigrants from Haiti. However, little is known about how Chilean teachers cope with this issue. Using Haworth's (2009) model of contextual layers of teachers' work as a conceptual lens, this article reports the findings from two case studies. Findings show that participants often struggled to teach their culturally and linguistically diverse students. These difficulties were attributed to teachers' low levels of professional preparedness to work with these students and limited in-school support. The article offers several implications for different stakeholders.

Doctoral education is often lauded as a site of academic socialization and research training for nascent scholars. However, discussions of socialization seldom problematize the dangers of intellectual imperialism and methodological nationalism inherent in doctoral researcher socialization. As such, the traditional socialization practices for doctoral students in the United States (U.S.) must be interrogated and expanded to move towards equitable practices for research, especially for students conducting international research. Using social and spatial positioning as our conceptual framing, we problematize and question current approaches and practices to doctoral researcher training in the U.S. We use the academic hood, which is granted upon successful completion of doctoral studies, as a metaphor to reconsider how to reflect upon and navigate power dynamics and knowledge production within the U.S. academy.

Using perspectives drawn from recent work in the anthropology of learning as socially situated practice, alongside attention to multimodality as a lens for exploring learning, this article analyzes patterns of meaning-making among children engaged in small group learning during an after-school Creole literacy program in Haiti. Ethnographic analysis of an extensive corpus of video data reveals a powerful role for embodiment, wide attention, and distributed participation in children's learning, processes that in turn channel wider systems of meaning in Haitian society and culture. The article suggests that attention to the multiple affordances and cultural resources children use during engagement in socially situated learning offers a resource for thinking more deeply about education as social practice, especially in contexts where schools and society are shaped by social inequalities.

This article provides a case study to examine a partnership involving Haitian and Canadian organisations to address Sustainable Development Goal 4, Quality Education, and Sustainable Development Goal 17, Partnerships. Data collection included interviews with leaders of a professional development initiative for teachers in northern Haiti, participants in the initiative, and observations of participants. Findings from three key components of the case study are explored: understanding context and partner needs, monitoring progress by incorporating research and evaluation activities, and mobilising change at the local school level. The article raises important consideration for partnerships to support the Sustainable Development Goals including trust and relationship-building, meeting localised priorities, and the involvement of government actors in fragile states. The article contributes to the limited literature that examines how partnerships, the focus of Sustainable Development Goal 17, can support the advancement of education in fragile contexts such as Haiti.

This article focuses on the extraordinary literacies of four Haitian and Haitian American Girls enrolled in a middle grades out-of-school literacy program in Miami, Florida. I examine how the girls narrated Black transnational girlhood through autobiographical writings, classroom discussions, and media analyses. I define the girls' intellectual contributions to the classroom as the superpower of dyasporic dreaming. The concept calls on scholars to affirm the global negotiations of Black transnational girls as literacies. Further, I argue that the superpower of dyasporic dreaming manifested through learning dynamics grounded in Haitian empyreal logics of Vodou and the Diasporic Lakou. Lastly, I make a case for an increased focus on the transnational nature of Black Girls' Literacies, and curriculum specifically oriented towards the Black Global South.

In post-disaster societies, critical events intensify diasporic engagements. This article examines the diaspora as a category of practice that mobilizes energies in furtherance of revitalizing Haiti's oft-neglected higher education sector. With rebuilding efforts dependent upon international assistance, the diaspora emerges as an important actor that engages national and international entities in shaping that agenda. Hence, the research question posed here: "How has diaspora engagement in higher education influenced institutional capacity for recovery and reconstruction in post-disaster Haiti?" Conceptualizing the 2010 earthquake as a threshold event that has reconfigured Haitian society and drawing on a post-structuralist notion of power, this article analyzes contexts of engagement where the diaspora negotiated their cultural understanding of higher education with local practices, within larger competing national and transnational power dynamics. These new opportunities for engagement created conditions for the diaspora to move higher education from the margins of national development to the post-disaster rebuilding agenda.

This paper reflects on the problems faced by refugee students during the COVID-19 pandemic (summer semester 2020) as "calouros," i.e. freshmen during their first year, in a public university in Brazil. Through a content analysis of their personal accounts, collected electronically by their teacher of Portuguese for academic purposes (the first author), we describe how five students (a Syrian, two Haitians, a Venezuelan and a Togolese refugees) (re)visit their experiences, in which several dynamics intersect: being 'calouro', being refugee students, learning the shelter language "in loco," and experiencing social distancing due to the closing of universities. Because learning the language of the host country is not the only factor affected by the pandemic, we also observe how language learning (settings) intersect with other aspects characterising the refugee status: housing conditions, availability of learning materials, and the uncertainty attached to the present and future of their own lives and of other family members.

A lack of cultural competence can negatively affect engagement among students, professionals, and countries worldwide. For the advancement of global health partnerships, pharmacy practice, and education, stakeholders, including pharmacy students, professors, and pharmacists, need to understand the political, cultural, economic, and health conditions affecting populations in all countries involved. This study explores the cultural factors necessary for fostering collaborations, specifically between the pharmacy faculties/schools in Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, and their counterparts around the world. First, it provides general information about Caribbean countries and territories, based on bibliographic research. It then presents cultural and health profiles from Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, aiming to inspire the establishment, enhancement, and support of alliances between these Caribbean nations and others worldwide.

In this article, the authors focus on ways to structure conversations about racism in world history classrooms through a case study of race and racism in Haiti at the turn of the 19th century. Drawing on the events of the Haitian Revolution, the authors describe how identifying patterns of racial hierarchy can provide a framework for talking about race from a world-scale perspective. While pedagogical strategies for teaching about the Haitian Revolution have been discussed before (Peck-Bartle, 2020; Peguero, 1998), the authors emphasize how world history teachers might present the relevance of Haitian struggles for human dignity and self-determination as a way to further develop students' understandings of race. The objective is to support world history teachers in leading conversations about race as a historical and global construct. [Note: The page range (3-17) shown on the PDF is incorrect. The correct page range for this article is p3-27.]

Nursing education in Haiti is in transition. This article describes the teaching/learning experiences of participants in a nursing educational project in Haiti. The project was guided by an integrative framework of the educational collaborative model, constructivism and situated learning theory. Reflections on the experiences lead to the realization of these four lessons: (a) the service provided must supplement, not negate the values and strengths of the host community; (b) it is important to provide sustainable service; (c) methods used by international educators must be respectful and relevant; and (d) international educators must be willing to engage in the identification and application of new and different strategies. This resulted in a paradigm shift which highlighted teaching as a mode of service delivery. The experience revealed service as the mutual giving and receiving of resources and expertise.

With the steady increase in the English Language Learner (ELL) population in the U.S., this case study was aimed at capturing elementary teachers' perceptions of how well their teacher preparation program was prepared to teach ELLs. This work utilized the case study design, and included five North American elementary teachers as the subjects of the research who were teaching ELLs in a small Christian Academy located in southern Haiti. All of the teachers were fluent in English, and two of the teachers from Canada were also fluent in French. All of the elementary students spoke Creole. The instruments in the case study included a questionnaire, two interviews, and classroom observations of teaching. The data was coded and triangulated. The results of this study supported existing research, and specifically included a desire for explicit coursework on how to teach reading to ELLs within their teacher preparation program, as well as increased time instructing ELL students in high ELL population schools that utilized inclusive instruction during their student teaching placements. Required second language coursework was also recommended, as the teachers believed it would have enhanced their understanding of the complexity of language acquisition and develop empathy for ELL students.

Ethnic identity (EI) can facilitate racially and ethnically marginalized youths' academic achievement but the mediating process by which it exerts its influence is unclear. This study examines how EI is associated with academic achievement through academic beliefs in a sample of Caribbean first and second generation immigrant adolescents whose identities are connected to cultural groups outside of the U.S. Youth (N = 128; 12-18 years old, M = 16.32, SD = 1.81; 69.3% second generation; 58.6% Black) reported on their EI affirmation and belonging and EI achievement, academic self-efficacy, academic aspirations, and grades. Results of our serial mediation model showed that stronger EI achievement was associated with higher academic self-efficacy and in turn higher academic aspirations, and higher grades. These findings offer potential targets (i.e., academic self-beliefs) for supporting the academic success of Black and Hispanic Caribbean immigrant students and have implications for their boosting educational outcomes.

This targeted, qualitative study examines language attitudes, educational language policy, and literacy in an underrepresented segment of Haiti's multilingual society. Drawing on decolonizing theory, we take a critical stance, arguing that colonial language ideologies that privilege French and disempower Kreyol are reproduced in the marginalization of Kreyol in Haitian schools, which results in low literacy levels and exacerbates postcolonial power dynamics and socioeconomic inequalities. Most Haitians are monolingual speakers of Kreyol, but most schooling is conducted in French, a language spoken only by an elite minority. Previous studies on Creolophones' language attitudes have not focused on beliefs about community language use and have excluded the voices of Haitians who are non-urban and who have basic literacy or are illiterate. This study is an important first step in addressing this gap. Thirteen participant interviews were analyzed using content analysis. Findings revealed a complex set of attitudes and orientations toward Kreyol, French, and educational language policy, with participants at times resisting and at times aligning with colonial ideologies. Overall, the majority displayed positive language attitudes toward Kreyol as a language of cultural identity, and believed Kreyol should be used for literacy education. Preliminary implications for language policy and future research are discussed.

Education in some form has existed as long as people have. The earliest learning experiences involved children informally absorbing the values, customs, and ideologies of their communities. As societies evolved, this learning became more formalized; buildings went up, curriculums were developed, processes were created, and structure was established--all leading up to a modern-day standardized education systems. However a failed education system is often a result of collective failure--teachers fail students; school leaders, policymakers, and administrators fail teachers; and the entire community fails the children. As the problems start and end with community, so do the solutions. This article examines Anseye Pou Ayiti (Teach for Haiti) (APA), a human-centered movement of civic leaders advocating for education equity in Haiti's underserved communities.

Recognition of prior learning features at the top of the policy agenda in many countries because recognition of prior learning (RPL) has proven effective in some parts of the world; and there is much policy learning taking place. Therefore, many countries want to gain the advantages associated with RPL. It brings benefits to individual end-users and countries as a whole. Whether RPL should be identically implemented everywhere is more questionable. This paper proposes a reflexion based on experience: It looks at what RPL is about, at what it took to implement the validation des acquis de l'expérience (VAE) system in France and its potential transferability. While it is important to learn from one another, transporting a system from one national context to another is unlikely to work because the necessary social and cultural context is never transferred along with the technical apparatus. This is not new, but this paper emphasises the need for appropriate adaption whenever systems are borrowed.

This study aimed to increase understanding of barriers to cervical cancer prevention and control in Haitian women using photovoice methodology. Consented participants were (1) trained to use a digital camera and encouraged to capture their screening barriers, (2) interviewed to unpack and analyze their images, and (3) invited to participate in follow-up focus groups for refined discussion and data triangulation for content analysis using NVivo software. The sample included women (n = 25) who were on average 42 years (SD = 9.8, range: 26-57) and born and raised in Haiti. Results highlighted multiple barriers, including gendered family responsibilities, concerns about quality of care, financial and time constraints, worries about discomfort and exam efficacy, and emotional deterrents such as frustration. Framed by the PEN-3 model's dimensions of cultural identity, relationships and expectations, and cultural empowerment, women's recommendations to overcome barriers spanned education, evaluation, and empowerment, respectively, across individual, interpersonal, and institutional systems. Study results call for more extensive examination of the diversity present in the groups of African origin to unearth transnational, multifaceted determinants of health by biology, beliefs, and behaviors including sociocultural and socioenvironmental access. Future interventions must include development of proactive policies, which deliberately pressure the government and global community to prioritize health infrastructure while simultaneously educating women about and dispelling fear of cervical cancer, thus empowering Haitian women to live their healthiest lives. Accordingly, this study may contribute to understanding global health equity advances and improving public health infrastructure in underresourced settings in low- and middle-income countries in the Caribbean.

Natural disasters over the past few decades have necessitated mass migration of Haitian immigrants to the United States. Haitians residing in the United States have experienced significant cultural and social challenges. Recent political deportation mandates have increased the systemic challenges that Haitian students and their families are currently facing in the United States. These systemic barriers have fostered an increase in stressors affecting the mental wellness of Haitian students and their families. This article introduces school counselors to the culturally focused, multiphase model of psychotherapy, counseling, human rights, and social justice as a framework to assist Haitian students and their families.

Regional scholars in the Caribbean context have long advocated for quality early childhood education. The majority of their contributions however, focus primarily on curriculum, policy, and to a lesser extent, teaching practices. In this article, we broaden the scope of extant literature by conceptualizing a model for Caribbean early childhood education, one which draws on and supports an anti-colonial and decolonizing perspective. Specifically, we interrogate the enduring legacy of colonialism on teaching and learning practices--and illustrate how these manifest in contemporary schooling processes. Equally significant, we examine and critique underlying epistemologies that frame current regional approaches, and offer an alternative framework that accents cultural knowledges in curriculum, pedagogy and teacher education. In response, we foreground childhood decolonization as integral to the development of positive racial and cultural identity, and in such vein, offer curricula, pedagogical and institutional (i.e., teacher education) suggestions consonant with an anti-colonial and decolonizing approach to early childhood education in the English-speaking Caribbean.

Imagine producing curricula to teach a new language to an audience in a different country that has never had access to computers or the Internet. How will instructional designers and teachers communicate when worlds are so vastly different? Before reading, writing, or speaking, images and movement facilitate communication. This article describes a service-learning design case led by faculty at a southeastern university in the United States. It involved iterative instructional design (ID), development, and a formative evaluation process by which university students created digital games for twenty-three children in Haiti with minimal to no schooling. Lessons learned include how visual literacy (VL) is as crucial for the designers of instruction as it is for the recipients.

Approximately one million international students were enrolled at U.S. universities in the academic year 2015-2016, and the number has been steadily rising since. Although these students aim to increase intercultural communication skills, international knowledge, and critical thinking skills, some international students experience difficulty participating in class discussion. Several studies have revealed a range of obstacles to full participation in in-class discussions, including language, cultural differences, academic differences, and social isolation. Among these barriers, some studies have identified emotional factors that significantly affect learning. This study was an in-depth exploration of the adverse emotional factors that impede discussion participation. Using a qualitative approach, twenty-three international students at one university were interviewed, and their responses analyzed. Students reported that fear, embarrassment, social isolation, judgment and discrimination were barriers to participation. These findings are discussed in the context of a framework for reducing negative emotional states, employing self-efficacy theory. This framework was applied to the interview results and the author's observation of international students' behavior in dormitories and university offices. These findings suggest a possible intervention approach for educators to help international students express themselves in the classroom.

This article develops the claim that the Teacher-Scholar Model (TS), which is used by Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL) to evaluate faculty worktime, is ill-suited for the strategy of comprehensive internationalization (CI). CI aims to enhance global learning by offering academic and non-academic opportunities for greater student engagement with international people and organizations. Because of lower transactions and other costs related to non-research academic collaborations with international organizations and people, they have the potential to expose large numbers of undergraduate students to global learning opportunities. Nevertheless, because the TS Model frequently prioritizes research, this type of collaboration is likely to be discouraged. The basis of research prioritization is the contested association of scholarship with better teaching, and more recently evidence-based practice. This article considers some of the consequences of this prioritization for aspirational learning models such as CI. It proposes an update to the TS Model given the conclusion that even in cases where global learning is enhanced, and collaborators' goals are realized, the TS Model is likely to undervalue faculty work, which threatens to undermine the academic component of CI. The proposed update, the Teacher Scholar-Practitioner Model, (TSP) is consistent with evidence of complex knowledge flows between practice, scholarship, and teaching. This evidence confirms that like research, practice activities can lead to original knowledge and can inform scholarship and teaching. Innovative adaptations to the TS model are explored as guides for advocates of CI.

In this paper, we attend to increasing calls to analyse how difference on the basis of race is fabricated in mathematics education within the context of transnational mobility. Racialisation is a ubiquitous phenomenon closely related to globalisation which contributes to how the ideal global citizen is being viewed. It occurrs via a wide range of mechanisms, practices, and artefacts. Assuming these elements, we examine the process of racialisation in a Chilean school for adults attended by Black Haitian immigrants. Our analysis reveals the existence of a differential system of school mathematics implemented for Black students that functions as a racialising assemblage which dehumanises this student population. Rather than an empowering tool to access the labour market and secure economic stability, mathematics education may contribute to relegate immigrants to second class citizenship in their host countries.

War, natural disasters, and other emergencies regularly disrupt children's education in developing countries. The digital divide has long since affected low-resource and rural schools' responses to crises that necessitate distance learning, often excluding children in remote and rural parts of countries from internet-dependent online learning programmes. In no place is this truer than in Haiti where, prior to August 2020, political unrest combined with the COVID-19 pandemic caused learners to miss 60% of their scheduled days in the 2019-2020 school year with only 45% of Haitian households having access to a power source, let alone internet or a smart device, that would enable them to participate in online learning. This study presents findings from exploratory research on the readiness of the Haitian education system to withstand crises and the impact of COVID-19 on the system and its learners. Through analyses of secondary data and semi-structured interviews with a variety of education stakeholders, the research reveals gaps in the system's readiness; identifies key challenges prompted by school closures in Haiti and shares a handful of innovative responses developed to respond to these challenges. Findings indicate that the COVID-19 health crisis has not created the need for educational reform in Haiti, but rather, by exacerbating pre-existing gaps and frailties within the system, the pandemic has heightened the urgency with which educational reform must be pursued. Salient gaps include a significant digital divide, financial instability and inattention to learning adjacent needs such as nutrition and psychosocial health for parents and children alike. While this initial research has exposed a series of significant gaps and inequalities in the Haitian education system, moving forward, more comprehensive research is needed to determine how such inequalities can be most effectively addressed. Although the Haitian government has a key role to play in addressing these inequalities, findings from this study reveal that governmental responses to COVID-19 school closures and broader digital learning inequalities, were ineffective in their reach and did not reflect the majority of Haitian learners and their families' realities. Findings also identify numerous innovations and assets on the part of non-governmental actors striving to address these gaps. However, these mechanisms were limited in scope and lacked the coordination among one another and the government that would be required to have scalable or measurable impact. Therefore, more research is needed to determine what the most successful mechanisms for addressing inequalities in the Haitian education system are and how they can be most effectively leveraged and scaled to create a more resilient education system moving forward.