Describing and Evaluating Policy Arguments Justifying 11+ Testing in Trinidad and Tobago

• In Event: 61.068 - MTCC Roundtable Session 23
  In Roundtable Session: 61.068-4 - Large-Scale Assessments in the Caribbean: Their Outcomes, Promises, and Challenges

Abstract

This paper analyzes 11+education policy in Trinidad and Tobago using multiple tools for argument analysis. The 11+ remains central to education policy in postcolonial Caribbean states, managing perceived heterogeneity and a highly stratified school system. The examination has proved strongly resistant to change and has been retained despite having achieved universal secondary education. Thirty-seven claims were extracted and refined from policy documents (1960 to present). I then use Scriven’s (1976) open ended reasoning framework, Toulmin’s (1958) heuristic, the Dunn-Toulmin-Modification, and Hambrick’s (1974) classifications to explicate the content and structure of key policy arguments. I evaluate the persuasiveness of these arguments from stakeholders’ perspectives, using Q methodology and social movement theory to develop an ideal typology of belief systems.

Author

• Jerome De Lisle, University of the West Indies