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The anatomy of ICT policies for development and education implementation - the case of secondary schools in Ghana

Awuku, Samuel Kwaku; (2018) The anatomy of ICT policies for development and education implementation - the case of secondary schools in Ghana. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London). Green open access

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Abstract

Research on the integration of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the Ghanaian secondary schools tends to focus on computers and the potential benefits of using them. This study proposes a way of understanding ICTs in the Ghanaian secondary schools by examining the work of two ICT policies: Information Communication Technologies for Accelerated Development (ICT4AD) and Information Communication Technologies in Education (ICTED) in terms of the process of the formulation and the impact of the formulation process on implementation. By understanding policy as a collection of texts and discourses that include objectives and intentions mostly known only to the policymaker and rarely known (if at all) to the policy implementer, this study proposes a culture of policy formulation that is inclusive of implementers, as well as a technology culture that is implementer centred. The intention of the ICT4AD and ICTED policies of Ghana, launched in 2003 and 2008 respectively, was to equip the citizenry with the capability of using the ICT skills they acquired both formally and informally to effectively perform in the global knowledge economy, thereby transforming Ghana into a knowledge economy. This intention, as this research confirmed, is now far from being achieved within the 12-year period set in the ICT4AD policy. The reasons for the unsuccessful implementation of the ICT4AD and ICTED policies, as this research unveils, include, non-engagement of policy implementers (secondary school teachers) from the outset of the policy formulation. In the cases of the schools involved in this study, the intended implementers of the ICTED and ICT4AD policies have never seen the policies. The first time the implementers have actually seen the policies was during my interviews with them. Respondents were also not engaged during the formulation of the policies. The schools, therefore, did not have any policy of their own to guide the integration of ICT into the curriculum. Combining case study, discourse analysis, and grounded theory approaches through semi-structured focus-group interviews, survey and textual analysis data, I conclude that in Ghana, it is important that policy implementers take ownership of policies as facilitators of effective implementation. To achieve policy ownership among implementers and to ensure that such policies so formulated are implemented for the intended purpose, I recommend the use of commonality capital as a currency to drive stakeholder engagement in policy-formulation dialogue from the outset to avoid a situation where policies are formulated and never get implemented.

Type: Thesis (Doctoral)
Qualification: Ph.D
Title: The anatomy of ICT policies for development and education implementation - the case of secondary schools in Ghana
Event: UCL (University College London)
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Language: English
Additional information: Third party copyright material has been removed from ethesis.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10041253
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