ABSTRACT
When I first set out to conduct a case study of the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College, I was responding to a recommendation emanating from a Pan Commonwealth meeting on post-secondary colleges in the small states of the Commonwealth that was held in St. Lucia in 1988 by the Human Resource Development Group of the Commonwealth Secretariat. I was then associated with the host institution in an administrative capacity, and was therefore a member of the group that was enjoined to prepare a practical handbook on the establishment and development of multipurpose colleges. This would be based on the findings of the meeting and include case studies drawn from the participating countries (Commonwealth Secretariat, 1988). As a national researcher, therefore, the main issue seemed to me to be one of raising questions about familiar topics. I had envisaged a study that would draw upon the views, perceptions and perspectives of those persons who were intimately involved in the planning, establishment and development of the national tertiary institution. Inquiry would be structured around themes or focus areas, along the same lines as those used by participants at the Commonwealth meeting. This would provide a common framework for future comparative analyses across the range of small states, should the call for case studies of national colleges be taken up by other researchers.
