Navigating English Writing Instruction: Teacher Beliefs and Self-Efficacy in Caribbean Primary School Classrooms (Stage 3, 5:05 PM)

• In Event: e-Lightning Ed-Talk Session 9 - Stage 3

Abstract

This study examines teachers’ self-efficacy for writing instruction in the Caribbean. Drawing on Graham’s Writers-in-Community framework, it explores how Jamaican primary school teachers perceive their ability to support students’ writing development in a context where, amid other contextual factors, English is the language of literacy, but most students speak a linguistically proximate Creole at home. Semi-structured interviews with nine teachers from two rural public schools revealed consistently low self-efficacy shaped by limited training, institutional constraints, teachers’ own insecurities, and deeply rooted cultural narratives about writing. By centering an underrepresented context, this study broadens theoretical and practical understandings of teacher self-efficacy in writing instruction and highlights the need for culturally responsive approaches to literacy teacher education.

Author

• Shawna-Kaye Tucker, University of Toronto