Social Entrepreneurship for Inclusion: The Role of a University-Led National Center in Trinidad and Tobago

• In Event: Defining Inclusion: International Perspectives

Abstract

Many countries of the global South have had difficulty scaling-up inclusion policy. Despite multiple attempts since 2003, Trinidad and Tobago remains without coherent processes and structures for special education needs and disabilities (SEND). The inclusive thinking required for sustainable change appears constrained within an elitist education system privileging an entity view of intelligence. In this paper, we describe a bottom-up approach to systemic change-University civic action to develop a national psychoeducational, diagnostic, and intervention clinic (PEDIC). This innovation is intended to improve the SEND provision, thereby catering for the many underserved. The case study’s analytic frame is based upon social entrepreneurship used to describe the vision of system change, resources garnered, actions taken, and predicted impact.

Authors

• Jerome De Lisle, The University of the West Indies - St. Augustine

• Korinne Louison, University of the West Indies

• Elna Carrington-Blaides, The University of the West Indies

• Paulson Abraham Skerrit, The University of the West Indies - St. Augustine