Negotiating worlds (yards, shantytowns, ghettos, garrisons): Inequality maintained and the epistemologies of social factors Influencing stratification and education in Jamaica

•Historical legacies are weighing down the nation’s chances for educational reform.•Jamaican schools are strangled by a colonial educational curriculum.•Jamaica is predominantly a Black country, yet, an unequal class system exists that is far worse than socioeconomic conditions in the urban wastelands of the United States.

This article shows how social factors, such as poverty, and the education system have long been on a collision course with class structure in the Jamaica. There have been several studies done on Jamaica’s education system. However, scholars have situated their work on the question of social factors and Jamaica’s education system in either an examination of a particular policy or what happens in the classroom. There have been none that bridges several policy initiatives with history (colonialism) and situates the social stratification of the Jamaican society within the history educational system while engaging with different types of sources (Former Minister of Education and her cabinet). This study (which is part of a larger study) employed interviews and document analysis to collect data. Three requirements for the nation are discussed. First, this study shows that parental involvement in education is needed. Second, there must be an attempt to improve education and school facilities in impoverished areas. Third, the nation must begin to step outside the boundaries erected by historical legacies in order to address the stratification created in part by the education system.