Classroom Caffeine
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A Conversation with Bethlene Ferdinand: RISE Caribbean Special Series
Bethlene Ferdinand is known for her work in the areas of educational leadership and health and wellness. Ms. Ferdinand is from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, an island west of Barbados. She holds a BA in Linguistics, a Postgraduate Diploma in the Teaching of English and a Masters of Education in Educational Leadership from the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill. Bethlene has worked for eight years as a secondary school Educator and was the Head of the Modern Languages Department of a secondary school in St. Vincent and the Grenadines for six of those years before joining the team at the Caribbean Educational Research Centre. Bethlene aspires to complete a PhD in the field of Education Policy and the characteristics surrounding teaching and learning in St. Vincent, the Grenadines, and the Caribbean. Bethlene is a Research Assistant in the Caribbean Educational Research Centre at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill.
To cite this episode:
Persohn, L. (Host). (2023, May. 30). A conversation with Bethlene Ferdinand: RISE Caribbean Special Series (Season 3, No. 27) [Audio podcast episode]. In Classroom Caffeine Podcast series. https://www.classroomcaffeine.com/guests. DOI: 10.5240/6A29-4A11-11B9-8236-7938-D
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Hello classroom caffeine listeners, we are hosting a special series of episodes to share with you some of the work involving past classroom caffeine guest, my colleague and friend Dr. Patriann Smith. This special series is intended to share work associated with an upcoming conference. Specifically, these episodes shine light on research taking place in the Caribbean islands with both specific contextual nuance and universal applicability. Dr. Smith, with many others is involved in the Caribbean Educational Research Initiative officially referred to as the Research Initiative for Supporting Education in the Caribbean or RISE Caribbean. This initiative is a partnership between the United States Agency for International Development, the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus, the University of South Florida and the eastern Caribbean Joint Board of Teacher Education. The Caribbean Educational Research Center launched as a part of the initiative in 2021 is designed to serve the Eastern Caribbean Islands, which consists of six independent countries Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and also three British Overseas Territories, The Virgin Islands, Montserrat and Anguilla. This center is housed at the University of West Indies Cave Hill campus in Barbados with the capability to generate and utilize robust data for improved decision making and basic education throughout the region. The Caribbean Educational Research Center draws on research expertise from the University of West Indies School of Education, UW eyes, other campuses the University of South Florida ministries of education and the teacher education divisions of the national Colleges of the Eastern Caribbean and the teachers college in Barbados in harmony with the aim of building research capacity in the region. The center provides assistantships and internships for graduate students pursuing research degrees in education and related fields and staff from the ministries of education and the National colleges who work with classroom teachers to investigate classroom phenomena. The RISE Caribbean initiative is expected to ultimately establish a repository for education data for the countries in the East Caribbean and Barbados. Conduct demand driven research and analysis to inform policy and planning for ministries of education and other stakeholders in education. Build a capacity for research and training with students and education stakeholders conduct and support comparative and collaborative research with higher education institutions in and outside of the region and strengthen research culture through publications, public lectures, and other means of sharing research findings. One of the major activities of the RISE Caribbean initiative is an annual conference designed to support the Center's research fellows and research assistants to this end, the RISE Caribbean 2023 conference, building solidarity across educational communities, cultivating spaces where students thrive, aims to harness the power of community, interconnectedness, and inclusivity and our collective efforts to create and sustain educational spaces for students to succeed. The RISE Caribbean conference includes sessions that imagine possibilities around which we can plan collectively to improve the experience as well being an educational outcomes for all children, especially those for whom achievement, equity and justice have long been withheld. This classroom caffeine special series highlights scholars who are integral to the work of the RISE Caribbean Initiative and the RISE Caribbean conference hosted at the University of South Florida Tampa, May 30 Through June 1 2023. In this episode bethlene Ferdinand to talks to us about teacher and student wellbeing. Bethlene is known for her work in the areas of the impacts of well being on education and educational leadership. Bethlene is involved in planning and presentations at the 2023 RISE Caribbean conference hosted at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. Ms. Bethlene Ferdinand is a research assistant in the Caribbean Educational Research Center at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill. For more information about our guest, stay tuned to the end of this episode methylene thank you for joining me, welcome to the show.
Bethlene Ferdinand:Thank you, Lindsey for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you.
Lindsay Persohn:So from your own experiences and education, will you share with us one or two moments that inform your thinking now?
Bethlene Ferdinand:Okay, well, today I'm here to talk about well being and as a teacher well being is not something that you consciously are aware of, or you consciously think about. And I think what brought me to this place was being able to be the best that I can be for students with without demonstrating what I'm going through. And I think that is typically something that teachers struggle with. How do we, as educators come into the classroom neutral without bringing any problems, or any situations that we may have going on at home. And what brought me to this place is there was this time when I was not in the best mental health. But I was still turning up to work every day, I was aware that I was not in the best place. But I knew that I couldn't stay home that I had a responsibility to educate my country's my nation's children. And so I would get up and go everyday, but it was tumultuous, it was very difficult. And I think that it affected my practice. It affected my practice in a large way. And that's why I'm here today.
Lindsay Persohn:I think you're right, Bethlene. And I think that so many teachers can relate to this feeling of not really being, whether it's whole or ready, or in a calm and focused state of mind. And I think there's so many factors that can contribute to that, whether it's challenges, you know, within ourselves or family challenges, I even think now, sometimes political pressures can really get in the way of showing up right, and really being there every day, because you've been in a classroom, you know, just how much energy it takes to be there and to really be in the game. So I think this is such an important topic.
Bethlene Ferdinand:Definitely. And we are also humans, with situations that we can control. And I think the perception is that teachers are a superheroes. And because we make it look so easy, you know, yes, wellbeing is very important on behalf of students as well. As educators, you know, we go into the classroom, and we have to be so much more than just the teacher. We play so many roles as an educator. And I just want to raise the point that it's equally important for us to recognize the challenges that we face in classrooms, I've had challenges where students have broken down in tears, for whatever reason, in the classroom, I've had students who are reserved in a corner, not speaking because of whatever they're going through. I've had students without books, because they don't know how they also deal with their frustrations. But the issue there is that, from my experience, I was not trained or equipped to deal with the pressures that comes from students in the classroom. So I just wanted to share that as well. So it goes both ways. It's not just about teachers. It's not just about students, but it's about both of us and how we can enhance and improve our experiences in the classroom.
Lindsay Persohn:Absolutely creating that positive and supportive culture for everyone in the room. Yeah. So I hope you'll tell us a bit more about what you've been learning about wellbeing in the classroom for teachers and students in response to this next question, what do you want listeners to know about your work?
Unknown:Okay, well, first, I have to say that I am an intern at Sur, which is the Caribbean Educational Research Center here in Barbados at the UWI The University of the West Indies. And to be honest, wellbeing is not something that I would have delved into if I was not interning here. But since I am interning here I was exposed to health and well being and wellness. And what I must say is that conducting research in the Caribbean, you realize its limitations. In the Caribbean, we don't have many publications on well being relationship with education on well being and the factors that can influence well being in the classroom, we don't have a lot of literature on wellbeing. So what we're doing now is trying, we're trying to establish that to publish this literature in the Caribbean, so that we can have richer contents in Caribbean education is that so one role that served is to produce a lot of research that is Caribbean based because that's where the limitation is. So what I've learned about well being is what we go through as educators in the classroom, we don't have a lot of official labels attached to them. We go through situations every day in the classroom, but we're not conscious about it being labeled or having a name or there's actually literature or theory based on what we were experiencing. You know, we talk about well being talk about the happiness of the student. What makes that Happiness on that subjective well being. It could be societal, it could be sociological. But we're labeling it now. And we're trying to explore the things. And we're trying to find, or to legitimize why it's so important to talk about wellbeing and its relationship to education. I hope I answered that question.
Lindsay Persohn:Absolutely. And I'm, I'm hoping that you might share a bit with us about the content of that work that you're publishing, what are you learning through your research, I'm sure that while you are working to fill a need in a particular context, the end of the day, we're all humans, right? And we all have these human emotions. And so I'm hopeful that she'll share some ideas with us that you're learning through the work that you're doing about wellness.
Bethlene Ferdinand:Definitely, a lot of the research I'm finding is based on students naturally, you know, but the research is telling us about the relationship between how students learn, and their well being. And that's very important, because we need to understand what's best as educators, what is best for our students? How do we reach students who are not performing as we think they can? How do we increase that happiness or that well being within a student's life? How do we combat what's happening at home? In our classroom? How do we how do we increase that happiness, and while researching on wellbeing, it was found that we focus a lot on the pedagogy in the classroom. And it is not enhancing the well being of students when we're just pedagogically structuring our lessons. So in other words, we need to find holistic measures that can increase or maintain that well being of the students. That's on one hand, on the other hand, a lot of educators are not trained, or equipped with facilitating that well being in the classroom. And that's another challenge that we have. So for example, I've been an educator for about eight years. But I've never been equipped formally, with strategies to deal with well being or the lack thereof in classrooms. And that is something that we need to pay attention to the well being of the facilitator of the educator and the well being of the students. And how can we make this relationship work between both of us?
Lindsay Persohn:I would venture to say there are many educators worldwide who don't feel equipped to support a student who may be going through a whether it's a mental health crisis or struggles at home, because sometimes I think that part of the challenge is, well, so many challenges, right? We, we don't always feel we have the time to attend to that. We also sometimes don't know how to deal with delicate situations, or sometimes don't feel we know the full story. And quite often I think that young people who are still developing, even adults have a hard time articulating what is going on. So it definitely is a challenge. Do you have any tips for us that have come out of your research as to how we can support students?
Bethlene Ferdinand:Well, a lot of the research does not bring out perspectives from the teachers view. But personally, while reading I did, I was able to relate the literature to my experiences. So for example, my advice will be to take care of yourself first. You cannot pour from an empty cup. You know, when we go on the airplane, they always tell us if we had to put oxygen masks on that we must put it on ourselves first before we can help the other person. And that's so that we are able to help the other person that we don't face from a lack of oxygen before we get to help someone else. And that's always my first tip is that as educators we cannot enhance or make better unless we take care of ourselves for so I know that a lot usually happens in our lives. And it's extremely difficult for us to leave work and leave work at the work door. Most teachers we carry a lot of extra pressure and load with us it's almost inevitable you know, but there must be a point where we say okay, I have to leave this and I have to take care of myself. If you have problems you have to go speak to someone do it if you have to take a doctor day take it if you have to take a mental health day. Take it if you have to call someone and cry on the phone for hours do it. If you have to travel somewhere Fortunately, I'm in the Caribbean, we have beaches everywhere, if you need to go to the beach before or after work, do it. If you need to drink a glass of wine before bed, do it, if you need to get that favorite novel of yours that you've been itching to read, read it. Because we cannot help students if we ourselves are not in that place, and well being talks about happiness and contentment. And it's very important that we first are content and happy with ourselves, or the place that we are in before we try to share that with our students. So that's my first advice. Um, secondly, we're not magicians, and we can possibly fix every situation, it's impossible. I know, we try to save them all. And it's heartbreaking, but we may not be able to save them all. And so we have to choose our battles wisely. Because in the end, that battle, that means a lot to us, we may not have the energy to fight for. And so it's very important that we choose what we take upon ourselves. And thirdly, do not be afraid to ask for help. I know, as educators, we are very independent, extremely, we try to fix everyone else's problems. But when it's time for us to seek help, we're adamant that we could get it done on our own. And I think that that adds a lot of unnecessary pressure on ourselves. So we're a network of teachers, we have each other's backs, you know, we should reach out, ask for help, you know, YouTube, and tick tock, they have a lot of interesting ideas. And they have a lot of interesting different ways and methods and strategies and so forth. So use the social media, it's available, don't be afraid to use it. And don't be afraid to ask for help.
Lindsay Persohn:Is there such great tips Bethlene, You know, I can identify a lot with that, that third point, you know, thinking that I'll do it myself, right, I'll manage it myself. You're right, it sort of isn't the nature of a teacher, you just do it. You know, it kind of reminds me of whenever I'm carrying three different bags, and a stack of books and a bunch of papers, and a mug of coffee and a cup of water. And somebody says, Can I help you with that, like I'm used to. I always say that as an educator, you kind of become a bit like a pack mule? Because you do end up carrying everything. And you do think, yeah, I'll just I can just do it all myself. I'm used to doing this all myself. But that's such a great reminder that when we need help, we've got to ask for it.
Bethlene Ferdinand:Very important. It's very.
Lindsay Persohn:What else do you want listeners to know about your work,
Bethlene Ferdinand:I also want everyone else to realize that when it comes to well being and students, students are met with a lot of challenges as well, maybe even more than adults have. And so we need to be aware of this period of time that we are going through that is filled with technologies, a technological era. And these students are so okay with using the technology, we know that they're taken up with the social media, and the social media has a role to play with well being or the lack thereof, because social media produces false narratives to the students. And they feel that they must live up to these expectations. For example, the student may see on Instagram or Tiktok a reel, about handbags about Birkins and Chanel's. And they're taking up with what life should look like. But except that's not what life really is. And so as educators, we have to be aware of that by being on social media as well to see what students are exposed to, so that we can combat these false narratives and expectations that they may have in the classroom. Because they're depressed, they feel like they're not good enough. You know, some students have asked why were they born into this family that they can afford these particular luxuries in life, when social media only portrays that aspects of life it doesn't, it doesn't show you perhaps people have really nice things that are fake, they may not be real, they may be given to them to advertise for free. And they don't show you what these people are eating before they go to bed. You know, and this is something that I want listeners to be aware of. As educators, we're so overwhelmed that it's hard to grow social media, or even be competent with the different platforms that are out there. But I think that that is one important aspects as well, that we be aware of what the students are looking and listening to so that we can help them in the long run.
Lindsay Persohn:Yeah, there are so many young people who are on social media and you're absolutely right there are full story use false narratives, so many unrealistic portrayals of what in air quotes, real life looks like, not acknowledging that most people's real lives look like driving to school during the day, eating a lunch from a plastic tray, you know, picking up, going home, making dinner, doing dishes, picking up, you know, and life really isn't as glamorous as it is often portrayed to be online. And I think that sometimes, you know, young people can feel like they're missing out on something when, when really, that's not what most of us are doing with our time. That's not how most of us look, that's not how most of us act. So it does set a really unrealistic expectation that can lead to all kinds of negative repercussions for young people. So I really appreciate you mentioning that.
Bethlene Ferdinand:Yes, definitely. So that's something I know that we need to be aware of. Yeah, definitely.
Lindsay Persohn:So definitely, given the challenges of today's educational climate, what message do you want teachers to
Bethlene Ferdinand:I would also want teachers to hear that hear you're doing a great job, despite the many negative feedbacks that we receive, we lay the foundation for so many occupations. So please don't ever underestimate what you're doing. I think that it's fabulous that we've chosen this role. And it's this career, it's, it's a beautiful, it comes with many challenges, I know how hard it is, I know how under appreciated, we feel I know I'm here, I've been there. So that's just my first encouragement to you. And also, don't be afraid to improve what you're doing. Now keep reading, I know that your time is limited. Keep reading. Don't forget to find time for yourself. And when you find time for yourself, you find that you're more productive in doing what you must. So if you're bombarded or you're burdened with work, if you find time to take a break, that break actually puts you in the frame of mind to keep going to do better. And try to be as organized as you can. I know as teachers, we get everything done. It may not be in a structured way, most times we do get things done, we have a lot of lesson planning to do. A lot of the weekends are taken over with with with work from school. But I find that if you're able to start planning that that helps. So I was not from experience a planning girl. And eventually I started with writing things down and then that got messy. And then I graduated to a diary. And then it went from a diary. So a planner, and then I started buying stickers and making it pretty and colorful. And then that that helps. Oh, and also I want teachers to remember that they can't pour from empty cups. And so you have to remember that you first must take care of yourself before you're able to take care of someone else. And we have to remember that that is the basis of well being that's that's the whole point is that we become conscious and aware of the state, the mental states, the psychological state that we're in, in that current moment in that current space, so that we can deal with it and take care of it so that we're able to help our students through their difficulties and challenges or even if it's to underscore their contentment and their happiness in that specific time.
Lindsay Persohn:That's really great advice. Thank you so much for that. I feel like we can walk away with some really tangible examples of how we can begin to take care of ourselves, particularly for teachers who are feeling drained, who are feeling like they've given all they can give and they're about to give up. I think it's just so important that we take a step back. And like you said, Read that novel, take that walk with a friend, you know, have a good conversation on the phone, eat something you enjoy, drink, something you enjoy. You know, sometimes I think it's those small moments that can help us to reframe, and I know one thing that we didn't talk about that has really been helpful for me when it comes to well being is yoga and meditation. So I think that exercise is also a really important part.
Bethlene Ferdinand:Very important. Yeah.
Lindsay Persohn:Yep. And I know meditation for me has you were talking about how sometimes taking that break is what helps us to move forward. And that's what I find is that if I can focus on the present moment, I'm then much more ready to deal with what's coming next. If I can take a minute to kind of clear my mind.
Bethlene Ferdinand:So yeah, I agree with you I think is important. When I was growing up. My mom is a teacher, and I have several of her siblings. My aunts were also who are also teachers and then I have several cousins. We're also teachers. So it's safe to say that I come from a teaching family. So I have had a lot of experiences, teaching experiences without formally being a teacher before I was. And I've seen my mother gave up time spending time with us so that she can help others. But in the end, she sort of suffered, because you hear her saying things like, I help everyone else's, but not mine. And, you know, she's questioning the value of that, and the decisions that she made were the rights. Could I have had more balance? You know, so it's very important that we have to put ourselves first at some point. I know, as teachers, it's very difficult for us to be selfish or to want to put ourselves first, but I've learned from my mom, that there are instances where I have to put me first, and that's the only way I can be the best for my students.
Lindsay Persohn:That's such a powerful message. Thank you, Bethlene. And I want to thank you for your time today and thank you for your contributions to the field of education.
Bethlene Ferdinand:It was a pleasure being here
Lindsay Persohn:Bethlene Ferdinand is known for her work in the areas of Educational Leadership and health and wellness. Ms. Ferdinand is from St. Vincent and the Grenadines and island west of Barbados. She holds a BA in linguistics a postgraduate diploma in teaching of English and a master's of education in educational leadership from the University of the West Indies. Cavehill. Bethlene has worked for eight years as a secondary school educator, and was the head of the Modern Languages Department of a secondary school in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines for six of those years before joining the team at the Caribbean Educational Research Center. Bethlene aspires to complete a PhD in the field of education policy, and the characteristics surrounding teaching and learning in St. Vincent, the Grenadines and the Caribbean. Bethlene is a research assistant and the Caribbean Educational Research Center at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill. For the good of all students classroom caffeine aims to energize education research and practice. If this show provides you with things to think about, don't keep it a secret. Subscribe, like and review this podcast through your preferred podcast provider. I also invite you to connect with the show through our website at WWW dot classroom caffeine.com where you can learn more about each guest. Find transcripts for many episodes, explore episode topics using our tagging feature, support podcast, research through our survey, request an episode topic or a potential guest or share your own questions that we might respond to through the show. We would love to hear from you. As always, I raised my mug to you teachers. Thanks for joining me