Schooling And Difference In Africa

Since the 1950s when most African countries gained political independence, schooling has presented very difficult challenges. In the discussion of these challenges, however, the issue of diversity has received relatively little attention. Schooling and Difference in Africa aims to understand how differences such as ethnicity, class, gender, language, religion, and disability play out in African schools systems, and more specifically in Ghana. Together, George J. Sefa Dei, Alireza Asgharzadeh, Sharon Eblaghie Bahador, and Riyad Ahmed Shahjahan promote 'educational inclusion' in the context of African schooling. The aspects of diversity explored in this study include: minority / majority relations, race, ethnicity, gender, language, class, religion, and physical (dis)ability. The authors build their analyses of these issues around a series of interviews, which project a perspective that policy makers and administrators rarely seek out. By studying the challenges of inclusive education in Ghana and, further, by making comparisons with the Canadian context, this volume seeks to shed light on the ongoing struggle for an empowering school system in Africa and elsewhere.

This book is a comprehensive text for those interested in formal education in sub-Saharan Africa. It provides a thought-provoking overview of the key educational ideas, themes and issues facing schooling in Africa today, by drawing on a wide literature to examine evidence concerning both educational policy and the working realities of primary and secondary schools in Africa. Based on the author’s forty years of experience in researching and publishing on education in Africa, it takes a balanced but critical approach to analysing education in Africa, and discusses both positive and negative patterns across the region, as well as identifying differences between and within countries. The book examines major questions of educational provision, structure, content and process but does so in a way that raises challenging questions about gender, inequality, violence, authoritarianism and democracy in education as well the fundamental question of whether education is achieving its desired outcomes. It will be of great interest to students and researchers working in the fields of comparative and international education, education and international development, African education, African studies and development studies.

Using the Ghanian schooling experience as a case study, this book explores how research can contribute to the development of a body of knowledge for educational change in Africa. Education in Africa is often said to be in a crisis' caused in part by the colonial legacy, but also due to inappropriate and uncontextualised current educational policies in relation to local human conditions and African realities. This book offers a critical analysis of current educational reform strategies and the actual practice of reform in an African context.'

Many people believe education in Africa is in a state of crisis. More than 45 million African children do not attend school. In many places, classes are held outside, under tents or trees, and schools often do not have such essential supplies as chalk and textbooks. Yet there have also been significant improvements in recent years. More young Africans are able to attend school today than a generation ago, and the governments of many countries are attempting to address the problems in their educational systems. This book chronicles the development of educational systems in Africa, from the colonial era to the present day. It examines the current state of education in Africa, discussing the effect that the continents poverty has on funding schools and explaining the persistence of educational inequalities.

How do we articulate the possibilities, limitations and challenges of inclusive schooling and education in African contexts? This book insists that inclusive education cannot be taken for granted. Inclusion is neither a natural nor a given educational practice. It must be struggled for. Bringing a critical perspective to inclusive schooling and education is imperative. This book adds to current educational debates with an African lens. It engages inclusive education from multiple lenses of curriculum content, classroom pedagogy and instruction, representation, culture, environment and the socio-organization life of schools, the pursuit of equity and social justice and the search for educational relevance. It is opined that Africa cannot be left behind in rethinking educational inclusion in ways that evoke critical questions of power, equity and social difference. The question of leaner’s identity in terms of class, gender, sexuality, (dis)ability, language, ethnicity and race are equally consequential for African schooling and education. When inclusion is understood as wholeness of education, then how schooling and education engage the complete learner – her/his body, mind, soul and spirit, as well as the use of local community and Indigenous knowledges in teaching and learning become relevant. Inclusion stands the risk of liberal educational agendas that simply tinker or toy with schooling and education and hardly embrace the challenge of educational change. What we need is a fundamental structural change that ensures schooling and education embraces difference while grappling with the teaching of Indigeneity, decolonization and resistance.

This title was first published in 2003. Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest primary enrolments of any major region in the developing world and the number of children out of school is increasing at a faster rate here than anywhere else in the developing world. This timely study (in line with the Millennium Development Goals) examines the methods adopted by the international community to tackle the chronic problems of schooling and poverty in developing countries. Incorporating the results of research conducted at both macro and micro levels, using a range of methodologies, it examines the national differences in school enrolments, using a regional and international comparitive framework. Utilizing both cross-section and household survey data the book examines the causes of under-enrolment in a micro context, based on results from a major international research programme on gender and primary schooling in Africa. The challenges for international aid to provide resources and help secure reforms in support of the international development goals in education are also outlined. This book will appeal to researchers and teachers on African development, officials in international agencies working on education and development and Government officials in African education.

Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Comparative Analysis takes stock of education in Sub-Saharan Africa by drawing on the collective knowledge gained through the preparation of Country Status Reports for more than 30 countries.