Prior to the arrival of Europeans in the 15th century, education existed in the Gold Coast (now Ghana) with the goal of introducing young people into the society by teaching children the traditions and values of the community, as well as the meaning of life. However, Great Britain, during colonization, implemented their own form of education…

In this reflective essay, I examine the impact of corporal punishment in Ghanaian schools by drawing on my experiences as both a victim and a former perpetrator of these practices. Through reflecting on the punitive discipline I endured and later enforced, I highlight the detrimental effects on students' well-being, self-worth, and engagement in…

Child marriage is the practice of marrying an individual below 18 years. The drivers of this practice include poverty, gender inequality, cultural and religious norms among others. While Ghana is one of many countries worldwide in which child marriage is practised, the literature on cultural underpinnings and implications of the practice in Ghana…

This article revisits the thoughts of Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere on decolonizing higher education in Africa. Their critique of colonial higher education centers on the notion that it was designed to promote the economic aspirations of the colonial metropolis, making it socially unjust, culturally irrelevant, and developmentally inapt. For…

Prior to the arrival of Europeans in the 15th century, informal education existed in Ghana with the goal of introducing young people into the society. The traditions and values of the community, as well as the meaning of life, were taught to the child. By using postcolonial theory as a framework for analysis, it is evident that the Western formal…

The higher education sector has become increasingly internationalised over recent decades. This paper examines a range of challenges that can arise where teaching staff in one context support and implement learning and teaching initiatives in another international context--transnational teaching. We use examples and experiences from our own…

We explore associations among interpersonal (thick and thin) and institutional (legislative, executive, and judicial) trust and material hardship outcomes in Ghana. We use data from the 2008 Afrobarometer survey. Material hardship is conceptualized in terms of frequency of going without five basic necessities/consumptive deprivations, each of…

This descriptive study explores the educational system and attitudes toward disability in the Volta Region of Ghana. Traditional, Christian, and Islamic beliefs toward disability are explored. Educators from Accra and three families from the Volta Region with children with special needs are interviewed in an effort to explore the connection…

Inclusion of students with disabilities into the mainstream educational system continues to be a major issue and concern faced by many developing nations. Many individuals with disabilities face the challenge of exclusion from any form of education and failure by society to recognize their capabilities and rights. The educational system in Ghana…

Distance education (DE) is seen as a tool for widening access to education at all levels. It is an educational tool that breaks most of the divides in education--age, gender, race, income, space, time etc. For the past decades, irrespective of the extensive expansion of tertiary institutions in the country, provision of tertiary education in Ghana…

There is increasing recognition of the important role culture plays in the framing and delivery of education and development in the South. Whether this is in the reciprocal and synergistic relationship between theory and practice or the links between research and policy, it is clear that at the heart of successful educational development is a…

This paper is an investigation of the impact of the Shepherd School Program, a non-formal basic education program implemented in seven pastoral communities in northern Ghana. The paper argues that non-formal basic education programs can have an important impact on the educational development of a community. However, for this to be possible, the…