School inspection as a tool for monitoring public education has a long history in the Caribbean having been practised from the time of colonial rule. Although school inspection has been widely researched, the focus has largely been on the relationship between inspection and school improvement as well as on accountability. However, less attention has been devoted to highlighting the role of the key personnel who conduct the monitoring on behalf of Ministries of Education.
In this thesis, I explored perceptions of the education officer’s role in supervision and inspection of education in Barbados. I argue that lack of clarity of the education officer’s role, changes in policy over the last fifty years which resulted in changes in the structure of the education system, and the influence of the plantation society and economy have impacted perceptions of the education officer’s role. These occurrences may have rendered the officer’s role and the supervision and inspection process less effective.
Qualitative methods, consisting of semi-structured interviews and document analysis, were used to collect data for the study. Twelve (12) persons from three levels of Barbados’ education system (primary and secondary schools, and the Ministry of Education) were selected based on their involvement in the monitoring process to comprise the study’s non-probability purposive sample. Through the use of a grounded theory approach, the participants’ responses were examined and analysed for emerging theories as well as recurring themes.
Based on my interpretation of the findings of the study, I concluded that perceptions of the education officer’s role were both positive and negative across the three groups of participants. Additionally, slight differences were found in the perceptions of teachers at the primary and secondary levels and between teachers, principals and education officers. Furthermore, I found that there is a lack of clarity of the education officer’s role.
