Dr. Delroy Pierre
Dr. Delroy Pierre is an educational and organizational change scholar who holds a Ph.D. in Creative Leadership for Innovation and Change from the University of the Virgin Islands. He has worked as an educator at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels; as a primary school principal and as a mathematics coach. His work experience in education includes teaching stints in Dominica, St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Panama and the United Arab Emirates. Currently, as an educator and researcher at Creative Leadership and Innovation Management Bureau (CLIMB) in St. Maarten, he is engaged in a wide variety of educational research and educational activities.
Research Area and Approach
His primary research interest lies in educational leadership and change, with a specific focus on equity and social justice within educational systems. Educational systems in the Caribbean are navigating unprecedented periods of social and technological transformation. Consequently, educational leaders must adeptly guide their teams towards enhanced learning and adaptability while ensuring that educational practices are equitable and inclusive. Dr. Pierre believes that as Caribbean schools strive to increase equity within their educational processes, complexity can be effectively managed through participatory approaches, sensemaking and creativity. Such an approach can lead to the creation of unique Caribbean education systems built through the authentic engagement of education practitioners in their unique contexts.
Current and Past Research
In line with his focus on equity, he has carried out research leading to the finalization of the St. Maarten Special Needs and Inclusive Education Policy. In another study, Restricting change? leadership influence on participatory action research during educational change at a school in Sint Maarten, he shows that school leadership is an important factor in creating the conditions for successful school transformation using PAR.
In his most recent work, Decolonizing Education through Sensemaking in Educational Change, he argues that for educational change to be truly emancipatory, it must be decolonized, ensuring that the voices of those most impacted are given the greatest value. This can be achieved through participatory and critical methodologies that empower indigenous and local educational change leaders, enabling them to examine their mental frameworks and actively confront embedded colonial values and approaches.
Dr. Pierre continues to work on an educational change model that incorporates sensemaking and creativity within a professional learning community framework. The hope is that such a model will allow education change leaders to increase the probability of successful change by leveraging follower creativity and contextual factors – especially those in the Caribbean.
Recent Publications
Pierre, D. (2024). Restricting change? leadership influence on participatory action research during educational change at a school in Sint Maarten. International Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Studies, 11(1), 70–80. https://doi.org/10.22259/2394-6296.1101004
Pierre, D. (2024). Decolonizing education through sensemaking in educational change. In S. S. Scatolini (Ed.), Towards fairer geo-spiritual ecosystems: Decolonial education, language, and spirituality (pp. 89–109). Cambridge Scholars Publishing. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=_f40EQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA89&dq=delroy+pierre&ots=3Z2Ys5_1aB&sig=4c0554m0IMIIzyH_sOm–LBnibQ