Education and Social Change: A Community-Based Model in Rural Ghana

• In Event: Comparative Research Perspectives on Educational Reform Initiatives in Developing Countries and Indigenous Peoples in Developed Countries

Abstract

In recent years, there have been two schools of thought with regards to achieving social change with both treated as binaries: one posits a power based/community organizing approach where citizens organize to wrest and redistribute power, the other argues that social change is only achievable through strong, caring and respectful relationships within communities (Shragge, 2003; Alinsky, 1971; Minkler, 2012; Rothman and Tropman, 1987). Using a model of a heavily subsidized private school in rural Ghana as a case study, this paper aims to understand what low-cost schooling means in Ghana today. It also seeks to explain why the provision of low cost quality education within impoverished communities, can act as a catalyst for social change (Warren & Mapp, 2011). While the concept of low cost private schooling in African countries (such as Ghana and Nigeria) has been studied (Tooley, Dixon and Amuah, 2007), the challenges in using the community context to inform educational models, while ensuring that social policies are sound are yet to be highlighted. This paper explores education’s role as a primary pillar of social change; will subsidized community based education be able to synthesize and short-circuit differing theses on social change, by building the capacity of communities to collectively solve local problems, whilst reorganizing policy and power?

Author

• Mary Ashun, Redeemer University College