Edutocracy: A Model of the New West Indian Plantocracy in Barbados

Abstract

This work draws on a combination of three theories, dependency (economics theory), the inner plantation as a socio-psychological construct, and plantation pedagogy (education theory) to develop its own educational theory called edutocracy, as a partial explanation of the failure of the West Indian education system in Barbados. It employs document analysis as its primary method of data collection and analysis and culminates in the construction of a model of edutocracy. Edutocracy reveals how the current West Indian debate surrounding educational reform of the Secondary School Entrance Exam in Barbados and neighboring islands will, like most previous reforms, net little meaningful change if legislators and educators continue to negate the impact of the socio-historical context on education in this region, specifically the deleterious colonial ideologies which continue to shape education for the Afro-West Indian/Barbadian with the interests of the Euro-American metropole as paramount.

Cause for change: lessons for Black liberation

“…It is, in particular in the West Indian context, a combination of educational and plantocracy ideologies that reinforce European ways of being and epistemologies forced upon predominantly Black West Indian communities (Denny, 2021, p. 2). Citing the work of Laurette Bristol, Denny argued that edutocracy rested in eurocentric ontologies and legitimized imperial and colonial educational structures (Denny, 2021, p. 11). The Emigrant Ambassador's strength—their myopic pursuit of (colonial) education—simultaneously reinforced the plantocracy's caste system of Black Barbadian and West Indian elitism.…”

“…Stacy L. Denny challenges the positive nature of education as the primary means of social mobility in the scholar's analysis of Barbados' education system and her theory of edutocracy. Edutocracy, “speaks to how colonial, plantocratic ideology shapes attitudes toward the purpose of [West Indian] education; attitudes in turn influence policies that emerge as curriculum, inform teaching practice, and affect learning outcomes” (Denny, 2021, p. 11). It is, in particular in the West Indian context, a combination of educational and plantocracy ideologies that reinforce European ways of being and epistemologies forced upon predominantly Black West Indian communities (Denny, 2021, p. 2).…”

The Emigrant Ambassadors: a foundation for present-day Black Liberation

“…She challenges the positive nature of education as the primary means of social mobility and substitutes the notion of edutocracy which 'speaks to how colonial, plantocratic ideology shapes attitudes toward the purpose of [West Indian] education; attitudes in turn influence policies that emerge as curriculum, inform teaching practice, and affect learning outcomes'. 11 Citing the work of Laurette Bristol, Denny argues that, 'edutocracy' is 'a theory of dependency on Western ideas, knowledge, services, systems, and policies based on ideologies of intellectual hegemony, academic power, and legitimacy of imperial knowledge'. 12 the Emigrant Ambassadors' strength -their myopic pursuit of (colonial) education -simultaneously reinforced the plantocracy's caste system of Black Barbadian and West Indian elitism.…”

Longing as Method: A Rant on Yearnings for Our World, Academia, and Utopian Futurities Beyond Liberalism(s)

“…To be honest, some days we throw our hands up and think we might just need abolish academia—or at the very least abolish the conditions under which education has become an unattainable, privatized, bourgeoisie, corporate state apparatus made only for the few. The epitome of Denny’s (2021) fears of edutocracy where imperialist sense-making reins as intellectual hegemony emboldened through co-dependency on anti-intellectualisms, persistent acriticalities, and EDI initiatives that simply support liberal moves to innocence (Tuck & Yang, 2012), rather than unsettle the organizing structures of the machine of empire itself. All moves toward a form of what Bristol (2010) might call, “pedagogy of hopelessness” toward any possibility for truly diverse academic futurities (p. 172).…”

“…As Taiwo (2020) taught, “accountability is all of ours to bear” (p. 4) realizing that if we are to be of use to human and more-than-human alike, it requires us all to acknowledge that our worlds have not been, and are not now , the way they are supposed to be . We must strive collectively toward critical habits that reverse, (re)use, and reorient those tools often relied on for mere performative justice within those spaces in which we find our livelihoods embedded (Becoming Coalition et al, in press; Bristol, 2010; Denny, 2021).…”