Exploring community participation in managing the colleges of education in Ashanti region

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.