Chapter 20: Advancing Stem Education Reform in Jamaica: Recursive Approaches to Culturally-and Contextually-Relevant Curricula Design

This chapter describes how five researchers from science education, education research, and special education, across different contexts and time zones, created a task group to develop a 3-day STEM education colloquium in Jamaica. We examine the recursive iterative approach that incorporates self-reflection, collective sharing and discussion and drawing on the needs of the local context to cocreate and codevelop a responsive curricular design for professional development. The final outcome of this participatory collaborative approach emphasized three strands: problem-based learning, place-based education and inclusive education, designed to foster collaborative and coachable experiences for participants. The exploratory-study revealed several decolonizing practices that were salient for the members of the task group’s learning and considerations, which is highlighted in the analysis with the goal of drawing implications for teacher education and research.