{"id":4989,"date":"2014-09-29T10:59:45","date_gmt":"2014-09-29T10:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/?p=4989"},"modified":"2014-09-29T10:59:45","modified_gmt":"2014-09-29T10:59:45","slug":"teaching-for-social-justice-or-social-work-ghanaian-student-teachers-perceptions-of-a-teachers-role-in-a-rural-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/weblab.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/archives\/4989","title":{"rendered":"Teaching for social justice? Or social work? Ghanaian student teachers\u2019 perceptions of a teacher\u2019s role in a rural community."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Alison Buckler, The Open University<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

This post is shared from the OU's Education Futures<\/em><\/a> blog.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year I blogged <\/a>about a new research project I\u2019m working on which is trying to understand student teachers\u2019 perceptions of themselves as agents of social justice in low income countries. The research stems from the increasingly worrying body of evidence which suggests that millions of children across the world are spending several years in school, yet learning nothing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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In Ghana, for example, 65 per cent of school leavers are not proficient in basic literacy or numeracy. Those who fail to learn are predominantly those from the least developed areas, poor and rural households, ethnic minorities, children with disabilities, and girls.<\/p>\n

Across academic literature too, quality education is being redefined as a process that combines access and learning to enable the pursuit of valued capabilities and enable them equally within a chosen setting.<\/p>\n

In both the political and theoretical sphere, the role of the teacher is receiving greater attention than at any other point in the Education for All (EFA) era. Teachers are increasingly positioned as agents of social justice, and expected to play a greater role in mitigating the impact of these multiple disadvantages that prevent children accessing, and benefiting from, education.<\/p>\n

In June I carried out a small-scale study in a College of Education in Ghana to explore student teachers\u2019 perceptions of barriers to school access and learning. A social justice attitudes survey was returned by 113 first and second year student teachers, and ten of these participated in follow-up interviews. The purpose was to understand more about their motivation and anticipated agency to remove these barriers.<\/p>\n

Motivation to remove the barriers was fairly high:<\/p>\n