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ByBoakye Agyemang
School of Education University of Birmingham
The unique challenge and opportunity the school has got is that it is (or ought to be) the future laboratory of our society. What goes on there should not only prepare students for today, but for their lives in a fundamental new society. At present, the school mainly prepares for yesterday (Dalin, 2005:27)
This paper explores the following key questions: why schools are presently as they are? How does schooling or mass education help in
the formation of the child? What are the views of pupils on school
improvement?
1. The authoritarian nature of schools globally: Corporal Punishment, bullying and other forms of abuses (Harber, 2004, Harber 2009).
2. Pupils have very little say in what is learned, when, where or how (Rudduck and Flutter, 2004, Wood, 2003).
Why is that so? Western school systems were invented from 19th
century social theories and practices which gave rise to institutions such as workhouses, factories and prison.
According to Lawton what such institutions had in common was the need for a large number of ‘inmates’ to be controlled by smaller
number of supervisors. In all cases there were two features in common: strict discipline and hard labour. And to make the task of the supervisors possible certain practices and rule became customary, for example silence, strict control over time (marked by bells, sirens or hooters) and restriction of space (sitting in rows …) and movement (such as marching in lock-step) (Lawton 2001:1).
• Therefore, schools enforced values that suited the functioning of these bureaucratic institutions and the maintenance of the social order – “obedience, abiding by the rules, loyalty, respect for authority,
punctuality, regular attendance, quietness, orderly work in large groups, working to a strict timetable, tolerance of monotony, ...” (Harber and Davies 1997: 49).
Functions and practices of schools have not changed over the years. Schools socialise, store and allocate children (Moos, 2004).
There is considerable empirical evidence that links more democratic forms of practice with more effective schools (Cox et al, 2010, Flutter and Rudduck, 2004; Harber and Davies, 1997).
Research has been growing on the topic of pupils’ voice (Rudduck et al, 1996; Rudduck and Flutter, 2004; Mitra and Gross, 2009).
However, most of this research has been done in developed countries.
There are not many studies of education in Africa that promotes pupils voice in schools.
The aims of the research are to:1.find out how the views of pupils could be used
to improve schools in Ghana in a more democratic direction; and
2.explore the views of student teachers on what role their teacher training should play in promoting greater democracy in schools.
1. What are connections between school improvement and democratic education?
2. What are the views of pupils and student teachers on school improvement in Ghana?
3. What are the views of pupils and student teachers on how schools might be changed in a more democratic direction?
4. In the light of 1, 2 and 3 above, what role should teacher education play in preparing teachers for greater democracy in schools, in views of the student teachers?
This study is qualitative with multiple methods and approaches for data collection.
The data collection was conducted in May/June 2010 in Ghana. The study involved six schools and two teacher education colleges.
The strategies for data collection includes: mock school councils (there are no school
councils in basic schools in Ghana), interviews with pupils, teacher trainees and
teachers, open essay for pupils and teacher trainees in-depth whole institution observation of two
case studies one school and one teacher training college.
The nature of schooling still authoritarian in Ghana.
Pupils, teacher trainees and even teachers were fascinated about being consulted, therefore structures of consultation and participations should be set up within schools.
School councils should be promoted in basic school as the mock ones perfectly work well.
Most pupils views on school improvement covered these areas: facilities, maintenance, teachers, pupils’ behaviour, school bus, environment and sanitation.
Most pupils support corporal punishment while teachers struggle to justify.
This paper presented a brief aspect of my research project on how we can use pupils’ views for school improvement and for that matter harnessing the prospect of democracy in schools.
Schools should do well in promoting democratic citizenship.
I recommend interventionist approaches in terms of future research on pupils voice and democratic education in Ghana.
I believe that with a more interventionist approach to research, people can be helped to explore different ways of doing things and see how they can change their mindset about highly authoritarian practices and caning schools.
Thank You.
Cox, S., Dyer, C., Robinson-Pant, A. and M. Schweisfurth (eds) (2010) Children as Decision Makers in Education. London Continuum Dalin, P. (2005) Developing the Twenty-First Century School: A Challenge to Reformers Hopkins, D. (ed.), The Practice and Theory of School
lmprovement. 25-39. Springer. Flutter, J. and Ruddock., J. (2004) Consulting Pupils: What's in it for schools? London: RoutledgeFalmer. Harber, C. (2009) Toxic Schooling: How Schools Became Worse. Education
Heretics Harber, C. (2004) Schooling As Violence. London: RoutledgeFalmer Harber,C. and Davies,L. (1997) School Management and School Effectiveness in Developing Countries. (London:Cassell) Lawton, D. (2001) The Future of the School Curriculum in the 21st Century, Occasional Paper 14, UCET. Mitra, D. L, and Gross, S. J. (2009) Increasing Student Voice in High School Reform: Building Partnership, Improving Outcomes. Education Management Administration Leadership 37; 5-22 SAGE Publications Moos, L. (2004) ‘Introduction’ in Macbeath, J. and Moss, L. (Eds) Democratic Learning The Challenge to School Effectiveness. London: RoutledgeFalmer Rudduck, J. and Flutter, J. (2004) How to Improve Your School. London: Continuum Wood, E. (2003) The Power of Pupil Perspective in Evidence Based Practice. Research Papers in Education, 18(4), 365-383
