The CTS is a peer reviewed journal that focuses on research and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) with particular relevance to the Caribbean region. Journal articles include original research papers using qualitative and/or quantitative methods, position papers and essays (grounded in literature and existing research) and book reviews.
The Educational Research Association (ERA) is conceptualised by The University of the West Indies (UWI) as an umbrella body with a focus on research in all disciplinary areas of education (e.g. engineering education, history education, teacher education, vocational education, business education), and at all levels (e.g. early childhood, primary, secondary and tertiary) within the national (Trinidad and Tobago) system. The Association views Education in its broadest sense to include, for example, policy, teaching and learning, administration and leadership.
The primary goals of this Association are to provide a common platform for discourse within the educational community, encourage and facilitate a national education research agenda, and to provide mechanisms for the dissemination and promulgation of relevant research findings. By promulgating and disseminating relevant research findings, we adopt an approach to education decision-making that is reflective of best practice. The Association recognises Education as a discipline in its own right, the best practice of which, as for any other discipline is supported by research and empirical evidence. A strong view of the Association is that educational research must be studied and structured based on evidence of the culture, social environment, resources and the context of practice. The Association's motto is: Education Research for Best Practice, Best Policy.
The Caribbean Teaching Scholar is indexed by Scientific Indexing Services (SIS) and the Educational Research Abstracts online database (ERA). Abstracts from The Caribbean Teaching Scholar are also included in the journal Research in Higher Education Abstracts.
History
The CTS Journal has a rich history dating back to its launch in April 2011, under the stewardship of the Instructional Development Unit (IDU), which later evolved into the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) in 2014. This transition signified the Unit's growth into a comprehensive Centre dedicated to advancing teaching and learning excellence. However, after a successful run, the CTS Journal temporarily went on hiatus in 2018.
We are thrilled to announce the relaunch of the CTS Journal in September 2023, representing a renewed commitment to fostering the scholarship of teaching and learning not only at The University of the West Indies but also across the broader Caribbean region. This revival signifies our dedication to providing a platform for educators, researchers, and practitioners to share their insights, research findings, and innovative teaching practices. We look forward to once again facilitating the exchange of knowledge and ideas that will contribute to the continued improvement of higher education in the Caribbean and beyond.
Focus and Scope
It is critical for Caribbean educators and educational institutions to situate teaching and learning in the region within the context of the wider world. This can only be accomplished if there are systems by which work can be shared, explored and validated internally and externally. The proposal for The Caribbean Teaching Scholar is grounded in the need to respond to the limited research and emergent theories about teaching and learning in the Caribbean context, as well as to provide the impetus for engaging practitioners in practice that is based on research and theory. This forum for research expression will encourage practitioners at the tertiary level to become more reflective and scholarly in their approach to the discipline of teaching and learning and to facilitate scholarship. The conceptualisation of this journal also recognises the need to meet rigorous research standards that address the transparency, systemization and accountability issues that are common characteristics of today's educational arena. This journal will then move us beyond a parochial approach (largely underpinned by personal anecdotes and experience with little reference to research) to conceptualisation and practice of the teaching and learning discipline.
Establishing this journal will provide the basis for informing higher education policy and will serve to further distinguish The University of the West Indies as a premier institution for leadership and scholarship in higher education research in the region and encourage networking among institutions in the region and beyond.
Peer Review Process
Reviewers for this journal are drawn from a wide range of regional and international practitioners, researchers and administrators with expertise relevant to teaching and learning in higher education. Reviewers would be required to commit to this aspect of their professionalism and agree to complete a review within three weeks of receipt of the manuscript. To ensure the review task is not onerous, it is anticipated that each reviewer would be required to review a maximum of two articles per year and preferable one.
Publication Frequency
The journal will be an annual publication that becomes available in December.
The journal continues to be managed by the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL), St. Augustine Campus, with the three heads of the CETLs serving as executive members of the Editorial Baord. Their responsibility is to ensure that the journal and journal submissions are in keeping with the prescribed guidelines and standards as defined and agreed to by the Editorial Board.
Preparation for the journal commences in September prior to the August publishing date. The call for papers will extend from late September to mid-November at which time the abstracts will be screened by the Editorial Board. Full papers will be required by the end of January. Each article will be blind reviewed by two reviewers. Feedback/notice of decision will be given to authors by late March. Corrected/revised manuscripts must be submitted by mid May to prepare for publication.
Open Access Policy
The copyright policy of the Caribbean Teaching Scholar Journal is aligned with the principles of open access and knowledge sharing. The copyright of any article published in our journal remains with the respective author(s). As a condition of publication, authors are required to release their copyright under a shared license, specifically the Creative Commons - Attribution International 4.0 (CC-BY) License. You can review the details of this license here: CC-BY License.
Under this license, anyone is granted the permission to reproduce articles from the Caribbean Teaching Scholar Journal without incurring any cost and without the need for further permission. This permission extends to various forms of distribution, including printing, sharing, and other dissemination methods. The only requirement is that proper attribution must be given to the original author(s) and acknowledgment of the journal as the source.
We believe that this open-access approach fosters greater knowledge dissemination and encourages the exchange of ideas within the educational community and beyond.
This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.
Sponsors
- The Educational Research Association