Browsing by Author "Abakah, E."
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Item Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Practices Among Basic School Teachers in the Central Region of Ghana(SAGE Open, 2022) Abakah, E.; Widin, J.; Ameyaw, E.K.This paper reports on an exploratory study regarding the current continuing professional development (CPD) situation of basic schoolteachers in Ghana. The study investigates the teachers’ CPD needs, frequency and nature of CPD provisions, and barriers to teachers’ participation in CPD activities. Using a cross-sectional survey involving 456 teachers, the study found that teachers required to be developed in areas of “ICT skills for teaching,” “research and dissemination,” and “teaching students with special learning needs.” It was also revealed that the predominant CPD practices were workshops and in-service training, and continuing education. However, these practices were seldom provided and rarely met the development needs of the teachers. Teachers’ participation in CPD activities were also found to be minimal due to factors such as non-availability CPD offerings, lack of pre-requisite information on CPD activities and lack of schools’ support. The study concludes that the current CPD situation of teachers in Ghana reflects a lack of implemented CPD policy framework. There is, therefore, the need for a broader CPD policy framework that will guide the provision, participation, and CPD practices of teachers in Ghana.Item Continuing professional development (CPD) at a distance: Teachers’ reflections on enhancing distance education (DE) provision(International Journal of Educational Research Open, 2024) Abakah, E.; Addae, D.; Amuzu, D.In Ghana, continuing professional development (CPD) initiatives for teachers are fragmented, with limited participation opportunities for all subject teachers, resulting in a high reliance on distance education (DE) programs. This qualitative study investigates teachers’ experiences with DE upgrading programs and their thoughts on improving. Data was gathered from 32 participants in the Ekumfi district of Ghana. The findings show that, despite the constraints, teachers in Ghana are taking an agentic stance in using DE for their profes sional development. However, while DE programs provide reliable paths to updating professional knowledge, they are insufficient as a CPD tool to assist teachers’ learning for improvements in classroom practice. Teachers’ DE experiences reveal a rigid program structure with content that is unreflective of current educational concerns and the utilization of didactic teaching and learning approaches. These are detrimental to active learning and unlikely to result in effective teacher improvement. To strengthen DE as an effective CPD tool in Ghana, the study recommends regularizing other CPD avenues, revising DE upgrading programs for teachers, and systematising mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating teachers’ competencies before and afterDE participation.Item Determining Distance Education Students' Readiness for Mobile Learning at University of Ghana Using the Theory of Planned Behavior.(International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT), 2014) Tagoe, M.; Abakah, E.The use of mobile technologies in the classroom is transforming teaching and learning in higher institutions. This study investigated University of Ghana Distance Education students’ perceptions toward mobile learning. The paper using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) explained how students’ beliefs influenced students’ intention to adopt m-learning. Findings from the study showed that most of the students had mobile phones, and used them for conversation and texting. Young students were more likely to have smart phones that their older colleagues. Factor analysis was further conducted which showed strong loadings of factors such as intentions and perceived behavioral control confirming that the TPB explained the students’ m-learning readiness very well. Thus, attitude, subjective norm and behavioral control influenced students’ intention to adopt m-learning. The results provide valuable information on ways to implement mlearning programs incorporating the voice and needs of students.Item Issues of Women’s Political Participation and Decision-Making in Local Governance: Perspectives from the Central Region of Ghana(International Journal of Public Administration, 2015) Tagoe, M.; Abakah, E.This article suggests that although women participate in voting during district assembly elections and are very active in voluntary associations where the majority of them exhibit their leadership skill, they are marginalized in local governance politics. Their leadership qualities have not been translated into leadership opportunities in local governance because of factors such as patriarchy, poverty, lack of access to financial resources, and illiteracy. The study recommends that more attention should be paid to more training at the grassroots level using women’s voluntary associations to improve women’s agency in contesting for, and participating in, local governance elections.Item Issues of Women’s Political Participation and Decision-Making in Local Governance: Perspectives from the Central Region of Ghana(International Journal of Public Administration, 2015-01) Tagoe, M.; Abakah, E.This article suggests that although women participate in voting during district assembly elections and are very active in voluntary associations where the majority of them exhibit their leadership skill, they are marginalized in local governance politics. Their leadership qualities have not been translated into leadership opportunities in local governance because of factors such as patriarchy, poverty, lack of access to financial resources, and illiteracy. The study recommends that more attention should be paid to more training at the grassroots level using women’s voluntary associations to improve women’s agency in contesting for, and participating in, local governance elections. © , Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.Item Learning And Education Marginalisation of Older Adults in The Digi.talisation Drive In Ghana: Exploring The Potential Of Adult(2023) Abakah, E.; Berko, K.K.The past decade has witnessed an overwhelming digital wave, with the Internet and associated information communication technologies (ICT) permeating every facet of life. This has had governments implement digitalisation agendas to provide their services online. However, although globally, the number of Internet and ICT users have increased tremendously, there continues to persist a digital divide in access and use of these ICT and related technologies. One such divide is generational, prevailing among younger and older adults. This chapter examines such a divide within the Ghanaian context. The chapter analyses Ghana's digitalising attempts and the positioning of adult learning and education in bridging the digital inequalities affecting older adults in Ghana. The chapter argues that the continual marginalisation of adults in the digitalised space could create a new form of social exclusion. However, adult learning and education can be harnessed as a nexus in bridging such a generational gap and must be considered within Ghana's broader digitalisation policy frameworks.Item Marginalisation of Older Adults in the Digitalisation Drive in Ghana: Exploring the Potential of Adult Learning and Education(2023) Abakah, E.; Berko, K.K.The past decade has witnessed an overwhelming digital wave, with the Internet and associated information communication technologies (ICT) permeating every facet of life. This has had governments implement digitalisation agendas to provide their services online. However, although globally, the number of Internet and ICT users have increased tremendously, there continues to persist a digital divide in access and use of these ICT and related technologies. One such divide is generational, prevailing among younger and older adults. This chapter examines such a divide within the Ghanaian context. The chapter analyses Ghana's digitalising attempts and the positioning of adult learning and education in bridging the digital inequalities affecting older adults in Ghana. The chapter argues that the continual marginalisation of adults in the digitalised space could create a new form of social exclusion. However, adult learning and education can be harnessed as a nexus in bridging such a generational gap and must be considered within Ghana's broader digitalisation policy frameworks.Item Participation without a voice? Rural women’s experiences and participation in local governance activities in the Abura–Asebu–Kwamankese district of Ghana(Cogent Social Sciences, 2018-11) Abakah, E.This paper reports on a study conducted to explore rural women’s experiences and participation in local governance activities in the Abura–Asebu–Kwamankese district of Ghana. Using a qualitative case study design, the study collected data from 53 women with different socio-economic backgrounds in focus group discussions and interview sessions. The study results show that while women are as likely as men to be engaged in local governance activities, they are less likely to be recruited into key decision-making roles. Women’s participation is linked more to physical presence during local governance activities without much power to influence and control decisions. The study found that women want to be more empowered through their formal and “political” education in order to increase their levels of assertiveness and confidence to enable them assume key decision-making roles during their participation in local governance activities. Also, government must enforce strictly the implementation of the quota system to increase women’s appointments into the district assemblies. Finally, the local government elections should be regulated to adhere to its non-partisan nature in order to stimulate more women’s interest and participation.Item Reframing motivation as ‘investment’ in teacher continuing professional development(TEACHER DEVELOPMENT, 2023) Abakah, E.This study is framed within Norton’s notion of ‘investment’ to explore the factors influencing teachers’ reasons and decisions to participate in continuing professional development (CPD) activities. Data were collected from 522 junior high school teachers in the Central region of Ghana using a survey and in-depth interviews. The findings reveal that teachers more frequently participated in informal CPD activities than in organized ones. Also, motivation to participate in CPD activities extended beyond intrinsic and extrinsic motivators to include sociocultural factors such as the nature of teachers’ identity and agency, which were shaped by existing contextual conditions in teachers’ professional practice. Such social conditions increased teachers’ expectations of resources from CPD participation. Therefore, teachers invested in CPD activities where their expectations of resources from participation outweighed the cost to be expended on such involvement. The study opens up a debate for rethinking teacher motivation to include the notion of ‘investment’ to provide a much deeper understanding of the complexities involved in teachers’ reasons for participating in CPD activities.