Abstract
This article contributes to the growing interest in the compromises which African models of citizenship education make between Western and indigenous curricular agendas. It traces how Nkrumah's educational ideals were reshaped by the teaching of human rights, individual independence, enterprise and economic development. We employ historical policy research, a critical literature review and interviews with key officials to construct a chronology of Ghanaian civic education, providing insights into postcolonial dilemmas around promoting national unity over social difference, critical learning and child-centred pedagogy, the valuing of indigenous cultures, challenging social inequalities and the need for the ‘decolonisation of the mind’ (Sefa Dei 2005b).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 117-126 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | International Journal of Educational Development |
| Volume | 61 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jul 2018 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
This paper was originally a background paper for the Youth Gender and Citizenship: An inter-generational study of educational outcomes and poverty which was part of the Research on Improving the Outcomes to Education for Pro-Poor Development: breaking the cycle of deprivation (RECOUP) programme of research (2005-10) funded by the Department for International Development in the UK (RPC-HD8). We thank members of the Associates for Change research team in Ghana, especially Delalie Dovie, the officials who gave us interviews and the reviewers who offered valuable comments on the draft article. Neither DFID nor any of the partner institutions or reviewers are responsible for the views expressed here; they belong to the authors alone.
Keywords
- Citizenship education
- Ghana
- Human rights
- Social inequality
- Youth
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Education
- Development
- Sociology and Political Science
