Postgraduate Researcher
Current Status
4th year in 2011/12 academic year
Research Topic
Towards School Improvement and Democratic Education: An Exploration of the views of Pupils and Teacher Trainees in Ghana.
Research Summary
The current working title of my PhD thesis, “Towards School Improvement and Democratic Education: An exploration of the views of pupils and teacher trainees in Ghana” is an expansion and development from my MPhil thesis. The title for my MPhil thesis was “Education for Democratic Citizenship: the role of teacher education in Ghana”. The aims of the research are to: (a) find out how the views of pupils could be used to improve schools in Ghana in a more democratic direction; and (b) to explore the views of student teachers on what role their teacher training should play in promoting greater democracy in schools.
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 include:
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mock school councils (there are no school councils in basic schools in Ghana);
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interviews with pupils, teacher trainees and teachers;
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open essay for pupils and teacher trainees;
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in-depth whole institution observation of two case studies one school and one teacher training college.
Research Interests
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Pupils views on school improvement
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Democratic education
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Peace and Health Education in Africa
Research Supervisor
Dr Chris Williams
Conference Papers and Presentations
British Educational Research Association (BERA) Conference September 2011, Institute of Education London. Towards School Improvement and Democratic Education: An exploration of the views pupils and teacher trainees in Ghana.
School of Education Research Conference, University of Birmingham, November 2011. Towards School Improvement and Democratic Education: An exploration of the views of pupils and teacher trainees in Ghana.
Student Research Conference, School of Education University of Birmingham July 2010. Researching for Change in Schools: An exploration of the views of pupils and teacher trainees in Ghana.