Post-Truth Education: A Postcolonial Examination of Ghana's Senior High School History Curriculum

• In Event: 43.042 - Reexamining Teacher Efficacy and Politicized Curriculums Through Postcolonial and Decolonizing Lenses

Abstract

Objective
Since Ghana gained its independence from the British, the educational structures, policies, curriculum, and processes continue to be aligned with the colonial system. The educational system in contemporary Ghana continues to propagate European orientation and world-view while delegitimizing indigenous knowledge students possess. As Ghanaians seek to establish pathway forward, it is essential to reflect upon the ancestral symbols such as Sankofa, as a way to reclaim their lost identity. This paper addresses the need for an expunction of curriculum content that legitimizes the heinous crime committed by western colonialist who had no regard and value for the African. We must return to and understand our history, teach, celebrate and pay homage to those that have cleared the path before colonization and those who continue to use ancestral tools to rewrite history or uncover history.

Theoretical Framework
This paper uses post-colonial theory as a framework to critique education and ideologies of former colonial masters. Post-colonial theory emerged from Said’s (1978) work titled Orientalism. In post-colonial theory context, Orientalism sets a binary between the East and the West. It emphasizes the “system[s] of discourse by which the ‘world’ is divided, administered, plundered, by which humanity is thrust into pigeon holes, by which ‘we’ are ‘human’ and ‘they’ are not” (Said 1978, p. 41). Post-colonial theory seeks to identify and challenge the legacy of colonialism and the “power imbalances that exist on economic and ideological levels between the West and the East” (Onyeneku, Angeli, Pinto & Douglas, 2017).

Method and Data Source
Qualitative content analysis is conducted using NVIVO software to analyze the data. Specifically for this study, a critical content analysis of the Ghana Senior High School history curriculum and history textbooks was conducted. Patton (2002) defines content analysis as “any qualitative data reduction and sense-making effort that takes a volume of qualitative material and attempts to identify core consistencies and meanings” (p. 453).

Results
Colonization has shaped and continue to shape the social, political, economic, psychological, and educational structure of the people of Ghana. The analysis revealed that modern day colonialism and psychological slavery is done through the curriculum, a tool that is used to continue to erase or overwrite the understanding and importance of African identity pre-colonialism. The history curriculum for Ghanaian Senior High School teaches explicitly students about “the positive influences of the Trans-Saharan Trade on the civilizations of the West African Sudan.” Also, students are taught that education, health, religion etc., were critical socio-economic developments that changed the social lives of the country under colonial rule.

Scholarly Significance
As Ghanaians seek to make sense of the impact of colonialism on the erasure, construction, and reconstruction of their cultural identities, we utilize post-colonial theory and Sankofa to challenge and understand our Africaness. The curriculum must place Ghanaian students learning experience within their cultural frame of reference. Our goal is to ensure that Ghana and other African countries develop a curriculum based on African perspectives, values, and traditions

Authors

• Ransford Pinto, University of Missouri - Columbia

• Dena Lane-Bonds, University of Missouri - Columbia

• Rocky Philip Christensen, University of Missouri - Columbia