Outdoor Education to Promote Mentoring and Youth Leadership Skills in Ghana

Abstract

Mentoring and outdoor education in one form or the other have been features of African societies from time immemorial. In the traditional setting for example, children are guided by their elders in the course of their daily activities to acquire the necessary skills ' and competencies for life. More importantly, future heads of clans and chiefs are mentored or coached in the courts of older ones. In contemporary times mentoring has become much more formalised and specific strategies are used to achieve mentoring goals. The Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service both recognize the relevance of school clubs for achieving the goals of Education for All (EFA). For the purpose of this paper, outdoor education is mainly viewed through the operations of youth clubs in Ghana, such as Girls Guides. These youth clubs are typically formed and managed in schools; though some of them such as the church-based ones may be described as community youth clubs. There are other civic action clubs which also tend to operate at the community level, especially environmental conservation clubs. Leadership grooming is taken very seriously in these clubs. They tend to adopt the 'growth through challenge' philosophy of Erikson (1968), which is designed to empower the youth through experiences in the outdoors under the guidance of a leader/mentor. It is quite clear that the clubs' survival and success are closely linked to voluntary giving of time and other resources by allies, drawing attention to one of the important aspects of mentoring, namely, social mobilization. What these clubs do and how their reach can be extended in Ghana as a whole, is the subject of this paper.