Tét Ansamn: Putting our Heads Together to Improve Curriculum de L'Ecole Fondamentale, Haiti

The paper by Mary Clisbee of Nova Southeastern University was presented in the ICPGS 2015 conference proceedings. It starts from the view that improving education was identified as paramount to Haiti's recovery after the January 12, 2010 earthquake, and that foreign organizations often ignore the national curriculum developed in the early 1980s. The study is a qualitative case study that draws on interviews with educational experts in Haiti, photographs, personal conversations and archival documents.

The author reports that final analysis was not complete. Preliminary results show a working, standards-based primary curriculum that is not widely followed, that many teachers do not know it exists or have never seen a written copy, and that school directors are the curriculum leaders who pass it to teachers. The paper concludes that foreign entities building schools and training teachers routinely ignore what already exists, and that assistance should be offered in a culturally respectful way.