Abstract:
This research examiones the extent of community participation in managing the
Colleges of Education(CoE) in the Ashanti Region of Ghana, with Epstein (2006)
framework on community participation in education being the theoretical lense for the
study. To accomplish this, the study was rooted in the pragmatist paradigm where
mixed methods approach was adopted and the Concurrent Triangulation design was
utilized in the study. Questionnaire and interview were the main instruments used to
collect the primary data for the study. A total of 349 questionnaires were distributed
comprising 319 CoE students and 30 opinion leaders in the Ashanti Region. With this
number, 349 (students =319, opinion leaders=30) were retrieved and returned for
analysis. The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics (means,
standard deviations, frequencies, and percentages), whereas qualitative data were
analysed using themes. It was evident from the study that generally, the community
participation in managing CoE had enormous benefit in a lot of communities in the
Ashanti Region including fostering positive impact on academic achievement,
improving school-community relationship, and others. Inspite of the benefits, the
study revealed that some communities do not participate in the management
decisions in the CoE in the Ashanti Region. In furthernace to the above, the results
indicated that though the community participation programme is very beneficial, it
was also greeted with some challenges such as ineffective medium of communication
at meeting, confusion over the roles of school administrators and community leaders.
Finally, it was found that some measures can be put in place to promote community
participation in managing CoE in the Ashanti Region. To ensure efficiency and
effectiveness of community participation in managing CoE in the Ashanti Region, it
was recommended that there should be a strong awareness on the role of the
communities and their indigenous knowledge systems in ensuring effective and
efficient community participation.
Description:
A thesis in the Department of Basic Education, Faculty of
Educational Studies, submitted to the School of
Graduate Studies, in partial fulfilment
of the requirements for the award of the degree of
Master of Philosophy
(Basic Education)
in the University of Education, Winneba
JUNE, 2022