Ramona Archer-Bradshaw appointed as Chief Education Officer

A new Chief Education Officer has been appointed to the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training. She is Dr. Ramona Archer- Bradshaw, who holds a Doctorate of Philosophy in Education with High Commendation from the University of the West Indies.

Dr. Archer-Bradshaw will begin her tenure tomorrow, Wednesday, August 18. She is on contract for three years.

She is also the recipient of a Postgraduate Diploma in Public Sector Management with Distinction and graduated as valedictorian.  She was the most outstanding student within her programme and most outstanding student overall on completion of her Post Graduate Diploma in Education with Double Distinction at Erdiston Teachers’ Training College.

Dr. Archer-Bradshaw has over 20 years of teaching experience and is passionate about education.  To this end, she has publications in elite (Tier 1) international educational journals in the area of teacher quality and scientific literacy.

She continues to conduct research, publish and present internationally, regionally and locally.

To date, Dr. Archer-Bradshaw has presented several papers on education and has represented Barbados at conferences of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), which is the largest American interdisciplinary research association devoted to the scientific study of education and learning.  She attends conferences worldwide and has presented erudite papers in Canada, Texas, Washington D.C. and Chicago.

She was also the Secretary/Treasurer for the Caribbean and African Studies in Education Special Interest Group of the AERA, a position that she held for two consecutive terms.  In addition to presentations made within the US and Canada, Dr. Archer-Bradshaw has presented papers at the UWI Biennial Conference and the Higher Education Development Unit’s International Conference on Higher Education.

Additionally, she was nominated to represent Barbados at the UNESCO Sandwatch Adapting to Climate Change and Educating for Sustainable Development Conference in Trinidad and Tobago in 2017, and the China-CELAC Conference on Science and Technology in Ecuador in 2015.

In addition to her scholarly work, Dr. Archer-Bradshaw has spent many years honing her craft as a teacher and educational leader.  She has spent over a decade cultivating her practice in the classroom as a teacher of Physics at the secondary level and has trained teachers, and performed numerous teacher observations across nursery, primary, secondary and tertiary institutions in her roles as Tutor, Senior Tutor, Deputy Principal and Acting Principal of Erdiston Teachers’ Training College.

While at the College, she has been a member of several committees, including the Strategic Planning Committee and the Steering Committee for the Registration/Accreditation Process.  She also chaired the Academic Board at the College and has coordinated programmes and various workshops for teachers and educational leaders.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Archer-Bradshaw selected and chaired the committee responsible for transitioning from face-to-face to remote teaching and learning at the Erdiston Teachers’ Training College.  With the assistance of her team, she was able to facilitate a seamless transition across modalities so that teaching and learning could continue unhampered at the College.  Moreover, in her role as Acting Principal, she has been able to secure grant funding for the College to assist with its operations and has explored and fortified local, regional and overseas linkages to leverage the College and its offerings.

Dr. Ramona Archer-Bradshaw has a strong interest in science and technology and has sat on the planning committee of the Caribbean Science Foundation for its first Junior Robotics Camp in 2015.  Having worked closely with Professor Cardinal Ward, she is the champion for Coding and Robotics implementation in schools in Barbados and, with the assistance of Mrs. Catherine Gibson at Erdiston Teachers’ Training College, has introduced SCRATCH programming and educational robotics to over 700 teachers and educational leaders.

She continues to be a member of the American Education Research Association, a volunteer for the Caribbean Science Foundation and a reviewer for regional and high profile international peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Archer-Bradshaw is also a wife and mother, and enjoys swimming, playing steel pan, billiards and singing karaoke. Her philosophy is that the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step (Lao Tzu, n.d).