TY  - UNPB
N2  - ABSTRACT
Despite almost 50 years of independence and millions of dollars of aid funds
designed to improve education, the situation in the schools in Ghana today has
major problems. Over these 50 years there has been a succession of reform efforts
aimed at developing and improving the education system in the country.
However, it appears that these reforms have not succeeded in achieving hoped for
results, particularly in the rural and disadvantaged schools in the country. This
thesis describes a study of primary teachers' views of their professional situation
and, in particular, their views of a major reform effort, the Free Compulsory
Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) reforms, initiated in 1996 with the goal of
improving the quality of teaching and learning in schools.
The research consisted of two small-scale and exploratory studies, which
combined quantitative and qualitative methods. The first study was a
questionnaire study of a sample of primary teachers in a predominantly rural
district of Ghana, Navrongo district. The second study comprised two in-depth
interview studies. These studies were complemented by the use of documentary
analysis and field notes.
From the data it was possible to see some differences between teachers (according
to gender and age, and therefore route of teacher training) in their experiences and
views of teaching. All the teachers appeared to find teaching stressful and, already
over worked, they perceived additional demands created by the reforms. Although
much of the literature suggests that teachers themselves should be central players
in the implementation of school reform, about one third of this sample had not
even heard of the FCUBE reform and of those that had there was a variety of
understanding. All teachers suffered from the poor conditions and lack of
infrastructure in the schools in Ghana. The data suggest that teachers' experiences
and understanding of policy change in the Ghanaian context are influenced by the
context in which they work, and that teachers are more likely to work better where
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there is an approach that supports them in their continued professional
development, and good systems of communication and support.
The major strength of the study is that the district clearly has many unique features
as an example of a disadvantaged district in Ghana, and that the local in-depth
study focused on the perspectives of primary teachers from these disadvantaged
schools at a time of a major educational reform in an attempt to understand their
professional situation and to learn from them. The study therefore portrays 'what it
is like' to be a teacher working in a disadvantaged district like Navrongo,
explaining the reality on the ground and providing thick descriptions of teachers'
lived experiences of, thoughts about and feeling for, their work situation at this
time of policy change.
The exploratory case study has, therefore, helped to develop an in-depth situated
knowledge that is both unique to the particular context (i.e. primary teachers in a
disadvantaged district in Ghana) but nevertheless enables some lessons to be
learned which may be applied across the district as a whole and indeed the wider
education system both within Ghana and in other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Recommendations are made based on the findings and it is suggested that there is
a clear need both for policy to be adapted to the local context and for local
stakeholders such as teachers to be involved in the development and
implementation of that policy.
PB  - Institute of Education, University of London
Y1  - 2004///
A1  - Kadingdi, Stanislaus Alu
M1  - Doctoral
ID  - discovery10007397
N1  - Unpublished
EP  - 375
AV  - restricted
UR  - http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.415182
TI  - A study of primary teachers' views about their work in the context of the FCUBE reform in a disadvantaged district of Ghana
ER  -