Department of Educational Studies and Leadership
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Item Understanding the drivers of student loan decision-making and its impact on graduation rates in Ghanaian public universities(Policy Reviews in Higher Education, 2024) Mahmoud,A.; Intsiful, A.; Tuffour, P.; Boateng, F.K.Higher education in countries like Ghana faces significant challenges, including financial barriers, which usually hinder students’ educational progress and graduation rates. While some students usually rely on family support and personal savings, these resources are generally insufficient for covering all educational expenses. Although student loans have emerged as a beacon of hope to address these challenges, research on this topic, particularly in developing countries, has remained underexplored. This study, grounded in the Theory of Planned Behaviour, investigates the psychological factors influencing Ghanaian students’ decisions to utilize student loans and the impact on graduation rates. Data is gathered from 114 Ghanaian students using a purposive sampling technique. The analysis reveals a positive correlation between favourable attitudes toward student loans and intentions to use them. Subjective norms significantly influence loan decisions, while perceived behavioural control has no significant impact. Also, loan decisions positively correlate with graduation rates, suggesting loans can enhance academic persistence. These findings highlight the need for responsible loan programs to improve graduation outcomes and socioeconomic development.Item An Examination of the Latent Structure and Reproducibility of the Life Skills Scale for Sport in Botswana and Ghana(Frontiers in Psychology, 2022) Malete, L.; Adamba, C.; Ocansey, R.; et al.With the growing interest in sport-based positive youth development (PYD) programs across the African continent, there is a need to establish suitable measures to evaluate the success of these programs in fostering PYD. The Life Skills Scale for Sport (LSSS) was recently developed as a sport-specific measure of life skills development. Despite its good psychometric properties among British youth sport participants, cross-cultural evidence indicates differences in the conceptualization of the eight factors measured by the LSSS. To determine the suitability of the LSSS for use in the African youth sport context, this study examined the latent structure and reproducibility of scores produced by the scale in a sample of youth sport participants from Botswana and Ghana. Cross-sectional data from a sample of 495 youth athletes (male = 51.72%), aged 12–21 years (M = 16.76, SD = 1.58) from junior and senior secondary schools was used in this study. Confirmatory factor analysis and exploratory structural equation modeling were conducted, and conventional fit indices were used to assess model fit. Results on the original LSSS model indicated the need for model re-specification in the current sample. A re-specified LSSS, consisting of the original eight factors but only 34 of the original 43 items demonstrated improved fit and adequate internal consistency. Scores derived from the re-specified LSSS proved to be a valid estimate of life skills development in the current sample of youth sport participants. This has important implications for the utility of the LSSS in different cultures.Item Different pathways of social protection reforms: An analysis of long-term institutional change in Kenya(World Development, 2021) Bender, K.; Rohregger, B.; Adamba, C.; et al.The potential of social protection to contribute to inclusive growth has been increasingly recognized throughout the last two decades. Social protection reforms involve comprehensive processes of long-term institutional change. Dynamics differ not only across but also within countries across social protection pillars reflecting multiple institutional trajectories and equilibria ranging from rapid and com prehensive shifts over processes of gradual change to situations of blocked reforms or reform reversals. This paper seeks to understand why reforms aiming at extending social protection coverage to the poor might differ across different pillars of social protection within the same country. Being embedded within comparative institutional analysis the paper aims at providing a systematic framework for defining and explaining variations in reform dynamics highlighting the role of uncertainty. The framework is applied to the Kenyan case. The empirical methodology employs a process tracing approach including primary and secondary data covering the time period between 2001 and 2017. The case of Kenya is one example for multiple institutional trajectories within a country: Whereas cash transfer reforms follow a pattern of cumulative incremental change, social health protection reforms reflect patterns of non-cumulative change including blocked reforms and reform reversals. The results suggest that those differences are partly explained by differences in preferences among agents or the institutional legacies within each domain. In addition, behavioral responses to uncertainty matter: Stronger information asymmetries within the cash transfer and fee waiver reform domains opened space for discretionary decision making. Interpretations of the concept of social protection and complexity of ’insurance’ facilitated pro cesses related to cash transfers whereas providing impediments to social health insurance. Lastly, the international and socio-economic context provided focal points facilitating coordination on targeted or vertical interventions such as cash transfers or fee waivers.Item Headteachers’ Support and Challenges Toward ICT Integration into Teaching and Learning in Ghanaian Basic Schools(Leadership And Policy In Schools, 2024) Abonyi, U.K.; Ahwireng, D.; Lomo, D.A.This study explored headteachers’ support toward ICT integration into teaching and learning and the challenges they face in offering such support. By employing a qualitative research paradigm, the study interviewed 10 headteachers and 10 ICT-trained teachers from one education district in the Greater Accra Region. Findings generated from a thematic analytical technique showed that the headteachers supported ICT integration into teaching and learning by organizing and supporting teachers in ICT-related trainings, monitoring and supervising teachers, providing and mobilizing ICT infrastructure, and maintaining the ICT infrastructure. However, inadequate funds to support the procurement of ICT equipment, lack of stakeholder support in mobilizing ICT resources, difficulty in training teachers, unavailability of electricity and internet facilities, and high maintenance costsconstrained headteachers’ efforts in supporting ICT integration into teaching and learning. The study concludes that for headteachers to successfully support ICT use among their teachers, pragmatic steps must be taken by policymakers to address the challenges they face in providing such support.Item Impact Of Cash Transfers On The Association Between Prenatal Exposures To High Temperatures And Low Birthweight: Retrospective Analysis From The LEAP 1000 Study(An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 2024) LaPointe, S.; Mendola, P.; Adamba, C.; et al.Objective: To explore the associations between prenatal temperature exposures and low birthweight (LBW) and modification by cash transfer (CT) receipt. Design: a retrospective cohort study. Setting: Five rural districts in northern Ghana. Population or sample: A total of 3016 infants born to women interviewed as part of of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP 1000) impact evaluation between 2015 and 2017. Methods: Birthweight was collected using household surveys administered to LEAP 1000 eligible women. We used a UNICEF-developed multiple-imputation approach to address the missing birthweight and applied an empirical heaping correction to the multiply imputed birthweight data. Survey data were linked to the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis 5-hourly temperature averaged to weeks for 2011–2017 using community centroids. Using distributed-lag nonlinear models, we explored the lag-specific associations between weekly average temperatures greater than 30°C and LBW, and stratified by LEAP 1000 treatment. Main outcome measures: low birthweight (<2.5 kg). Results: Twelve percent (n = 365) of infants were LBW; the mean ± SD birthweight was 3.02 ± 0.37 kg. Overall, increasing temperatures were associated with increased odds of LBW, with the greatest odds observed in the 3weeks before birth (odds ratio) 1.005–1.025). These positive associations were even larger among comparison infants and null among treatment infants. Conclusions: Our study found increased odds of LBW with high weekly average temperatures throughout pregnancy and the preconception period and demonstrate mitigated effects of the LEAP 1000 CT program. More evidence on the potential of CTs to serve as adaptation interventions in low- and middle-income countries needed to protect pregnant women and their infants from the impacts of climate change. change.Item Pre-Marital Counselling and Sustainability of Marriages in Contemporary Ghanaian Society(International Journal of Political Activism and Engagement, 2019) Cobbinah, J.E.; Osei-Tutu, E.M.Marriages in Ghana are usually preceded by counseling. It is believed that premarital counseling helps to sustain marriages because it gives couples the initial skills needed to enable them to start their marriage and solve minor problems that may be encountered in the relationship. This study was aimed at assessing the significance of premarital counseling to the sustenance of marriage. The study adopted a mixed methodological approach in gathering the data. Data was gathered from 112 individuals from three different suburbs of the capital city of Ghana. The results showed that although pre-marital counseling was observed to be important for would-be couples, it does not help sustain all marriages. Married couples that were given pre-marital counseling were getting separated as well as those who never had pre-marital counseling. It is therefore recommended that although premarital counseling may be necessary, it is not sufficient to sustain marriages. Therefore, counseling should continue even after marriage.Item Exploring work environment factors influencing the application of teacher professional development in Ghanaian basic schools(Cogent Social Sciences, 2020) Abonyi, U.K.; Yeboah, R.; Luguterah, A.W.: This study explored the work environment factors that support or constrain the application of teacher professional development initiatives in Ghanaian basic schools. Utilizing qualitative research paradigm, 15 teachers were purposively selected and interviewed from one educational district in Ghana. Findings from the study showed that headteachers support through the provision of the required teaching and learning resources, peer support through culture of shared norms, beliefs and values and the opportunity to share knowledge during school-based in-service training (INSET), interest and commitment shown by students toward learning, and availability of needed teaching and learning materials supported transfer of learning of teachers. In contrast, lack of time due to rigid and inflexible school timetable, teacher workload, and inadequate teaching and learning resources constrained effective transfer of professional development of teachers. The study concludes that educational policy makers and training practitioners need to support infrastructures that would empower headteachers to be resourceful in order to assist and provide teachers with the required teaching and learning facilities to facilitate the transfer of their learning.Item Examination of globalisation’s clouts on Ghana’s tertiary education policy(Policy Futures in Education, 2023) Boateng, F.K.; Abonyi, U.The paper examined and analysed the extent globalisation and its dimensions impinged Ghana’s tertiary education policy landscape in global and national historical and contemporary perspectives. Historical and contemporary policy documents and articles, that help to understand how glob alisation and its antecedents have interwoven and permeated the dynamics underpinning Ghana’s tertiary education policy, were used as conduits for the analysis. Within the context of structural adjustment and democratisation juggernauts triggered by the West, neoliberal reforms were initiated in the early 1990s. They were characterised by the liberalisation of the sector for the establishment of private tertiary education institutions, creation of buffer agencies to ensure ef fective stakeholder control in policy and quality assurance of those institutions, initiating laissez-faire financial reforms and incorporating non-governmental financial responsibility. Nonetheless, they concomitantly spurred the tertiary education institutions to drift towards entrepreneurialism and innovation through activities such as research, fee policies and collaborations with vital stake holders. Although the reforms were geared towards market, the Ghanaian system of tertiary education remains a quasi-market system with substantial governmental controlItem Trends in financing of basic education in Ghana – a political economy analysis(International Journal of Educational Management, 2023) Adamba, C.Purpose – Using a political economy framework, this paper examines the financing trend, by investigating three systematic spikes occurring between 2004 and 2016. The study aims to provide a useful review of the interaction of politics, financial decisions and educational outcomes. Additionally it provides a useful guide, especially to academics, to identify political and economic conceptualizations that will predict expenditure decision-making of political actors and to be able to provide policy advice on the future effect of such decisions on availability and accessibility of public goods. Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts a secondary data analysis approach, drawing upon secondary data sources such as from the Ministry of Education, budget statements from the Ministry of Finance, as well as relevant policy documents. Additional information for the study was also extracted from the manifestos of the two leading political parties in Ghana – the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress and their viewpoints on financing of education in Ghana. Findings – Using two epochal years when financing of education peaked (2008 and 2012), which coincided with election years, the trend lends itself to being interpreted as opportunistic spending. It appears to give credence to a conclusion that the increases in spending are more politically directed and nonneutral. Originality/value – This paper fulfills an identified need to study the trend of basic education financing in Ghana, which will help policy actors make better-informed decisions with the introduction of the novel “adaptive opportunism” framework analysis tool.Item Food for Thought?(The Journal of Human Resources, 2020) Aurino, E.; Gelli, A.; Adamba, C.; Osei-Akoto, I.; Alderman, H.There is limited experimental evidence on the effects of large-scale, government-led interventions on human capital in resource-constrained settings. We report results from a randomized trial of the government of Ghana’s school feeding. After two years, the program led to moderate average increases in math and literacy standardized scores among pupils in treatment communities and to larger achievement gains for girls and disadvantaged children and regions. Improvements in child schooling, cognition, and nutrition constituted suggestive impact mechanisms, especially for educationally disadvantaged groups. The program combined equitable human capital accumulation with social protection, contributing to the “learning for all” sustainable development agenda.