Vena Jules

Who is Vena Jules?

Vena Jules is an educator from Trinidad and Tobago. She is the new Senior Programme Executive for Curriculum Development at the Catholic Religious Education Development Institute. A CIDA scholar and graduate of Queen's University, Canada, Dr. Jules obtained her Ph.D. at the University of the West Indies. Prior to her CREDI appointment, she was a Senior Lecturer at the School of Education of the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, where she served from 1983 to 2008. In 2004, she was one of four lecturers who was awarded the Guardian Life of the Caribbean Premium Teacher Award for excellence in teaching at the University of the West Indies. Hers is an extensive career of commitment, spanning some 48 years at all levels of the education system in Trinidad and Tobago.

Her research focus is on students, their classroom experiences, their perceptions and teaching/learning strategies that empower students as learners and give them voice and agency in the classroom. She has published extensively both independently and in teams including, but not limited to, refereed journals, books and reports. With Professor Peter Kutnick, she has researched and published works on the Trinidad and Tobago students' perceptions of a good teacher, with analyses and findings providing both longitudinal and gender perspectives.,