THE CARIBBEAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (CDB) and the University of the West Indies (UWI) Cave Hill campus have entered an agreement where the bank is providing a grant of US$152 000 to fund research in Curriculum Development and Training in Gender Socialisation for Early Childhood Development Practitioners.
The signing took place today at the 3Ws Pavilion. Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Education Dr Jennifer Obidah said: “This is a collaboration between the UWI Faculty of Humanities and Education and the CDB. Both institutions have an avid interest in early childhood care and development so we are serving each other’s interests . . . [where] the primary focus is gender socialisation in early childhood education.”
Obidah said they would be looking at the “stereotypes” under which children were raised which in turn clouded their judgements as to what they would do with their the rest of their lives – for example women in construction or male nurses.
Deputy principal Professor Clive Landis said UWI was no stranger to early childhood education as there was already a programme at the Mona Campus in Jamaica, which was looking at how stimuli given in the first year of life were linked to future success or failure.
Director of the CDB Projects Department Daniel Best said they were happy to partner with UWI in this endeavour as the bank championed gender equality and was interested in how deficiencies in early childhood practitioners impacted children’s lives. (CA)
