Schooling and Education in Africa The Case of Ghana Sefa Dei, George J.

Education in Africa today is often said to be in a 'crisis'. The current 'crisis' is in part a colonial legacy of often misguided educational polices and practices (curriculum, texts, pedagogies) that fail to 'speak' adequately to the variety of human experiences or to the diverse history of events and ideas that have shaped and continue to shape human growth and African development. But the problem of African education is more than colonialism. In fact, current educational policies and practices of governments in Africa for the most part are not appropriately contextualized in the local human condition and African realities. Fortunately, in some local communities, scholars have been pioneering new analytical systems based on indigenous concepts and their interrelationships for promoting education. There are of signs of cultural and political renewal and a revitalization of an African cultural resource base to address current social problems. This book addresses how locally-initiated curricula, pedagogical and policy change can inform the search for alternative and viable educational options for Africa. The task of educational transformation in Africa is not simply to reform existing curricular and school pedagogical practices. In fact, for African education to be truly transformative it must address the internal problems of social domination, local cultural negation and political alienation within schools and communities, as well as emphasize on social and cultural values that promote alternative readings of the world. Among the critical questions engaged in this work are: What is the role of indigenous culture, language and social politics in knowledge production? What contribution does local cultural resource base knowledge make to the search for genuine educational options in Africa? How do schools seek out and integrate African-centred resources into the curricula? How do schools take into account students' home and off-school cultures in the teaching, learning and administration of education? What particular educational practices deal with issues of representation! and identity? What is the role of local science and technology in educational reform? And, finally, how do schools address difference and diversity among their student population in the pursuance of critical educational reform practice? This book sees these as key questions and challenges that beg for a systemic and critical examination in the context of post-colonial African education. To help address these challenges this book offers a critical analysis of locally-initiated educational reform strategies and the actual practice of reform in and African context. It contends that the challenge to rethinking schooling and education in Africa is fundamentally a question of ‘re-conceptualizing’ education. That is, genuine educational reform proceeds with a clear understanding and appreciation of what teachers, school administrators, students and parents know and do regarding the teaching, learning and administration of education. Using Ghanaian schooling as a case study, the book explores how research can contribute to the development of a body of knowledge for educational change in Africa.