A native of Haiti, Jowel C. Laguerre is Chancellor Emeritus of the Peralta Community College District (PCCD) in Oakland, CA. Following his retirement in January 2020, he founded the Haitian-Creole Language Services, the Modern English Institute (Online learning) and the J.C. Laguerre Education Consulting Firm.
He teaches Haitian Creole at the University of Kansas and the State University of New York University at Buffalo.
Prior to assuming the leadership of Peralta, Dr. Laguerre was President of Solano Community College in Fairfield, CA. Previously, Dr. Laguerre was the Vice President for Academic Affairs at Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno Nevada, and served as Executive Vice President for Academic and Student Services at Montgomery College (Maryland). He also held a number academic and student services positions at Lake Superior College (Minnesota) and taught high school mathematics and French at Schlagle High School in Kansas City, KS and directed the I HAVE A DREAM program in Kansas City, MO. He also taught mathematics, physics, English in Haiti. He was a Haitian-Creole instructor at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Dr. Laguerre is a member of the Advisory Board for the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Kansas. He was the 1988 U.S. Department of Education Kansas Christa McAuliffe Fellow and the 2003 Montgomery County African-American Chamber of Commerce Education of the Year.
Publications:
• Kreyòl Modèn (2020) – Amazon and JCLEC – Three editions
• Haitian-Creole Phrasebook (2010) – McGraw-Hill
• Haitian-Creole Dictionary (1996) – Kansas Haitian Studies Institute
Two other publications for medical professionals in production (2023)
Education: M.A.; M.S.Ed.; Ph.D. (Higher Education) – The
University of Kansas – Lawrence, KS.
Math/Physics Teacher Education – École Normale
Supérieure – Université d’Etat d’Haiti.
Haitian spoken in Saint-Domingue (later Haiti) during slavery
Slaves were not allowed to go to school and thus the language was created and still maintains its authenticity by non-schooled people – but standard throughout the land and filled with sophisticated nature.
French became the official language after independence and was spoken in many homes of learned people.
French was used as the language of instruction when schools started in Haiti.
François Duvalier became president and introduced blackness pride (la négritude) and established an army primarily staffed by peasants and people who did not go to school or far into school: Volontaire de la Sécurité Nationale (VSN) – known as Tonton Makout.
Literacy campaign “Alfabetizasyon” started in earlier governments to teach peasants and Restavèk (child servants) how to read Kreyòl – Lekòl ONAAC
American missionaries introduced songs in Haitian-Creole.
On Chrismas Day 1958 Radio Lumière was founded by Reverend David Hartt. With a progressive approach to preach the Gospel to all Haitians, the radio broadcast in Haitian-Creole, making the language more acceptable and playing an important role in making it legit. It was like something being on the Internet nowadays or social media.
Roger Désir and his team translated the BIBLE into Haitian-Creole in the sixties and seventies or before.
Universities such as Indiana and the University of Kansas (Lawrence) with pioneers such as Albert Valdman and Bryant Freeman introduced Haitian-Creole as a language at their respective universities.
Under the presidency of Jean-Claude Duvalier, a serious Minister of Education, his Excellence Joseph Bernard, introduced the idea of school being taught in Haitian-Creole.
Subsequent to the acceptance of the Refòm Bernard, legislation was passed in the 1980’s.
Jowel Laguerre joined Bryant Freeman at the University of Kansas to start the Haitian Studies Institute.
They published a major Haitian-English dictionary to be followed an English-Haitian dictionary with over 1000 pages.
You gotta get in the soul to know someone. – Paul Henri Thomas “Pòpòl”
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