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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:A pragmatic tradition: the past in Ghanaian education
Author:Peterson del Mar, DavidISNI
Year:2012
Periodical:Africa Today (ISSN 1527-1978)
Volume:59
Issue:2
Pages:23-38
Language:English
Geographic term:Ghana
Subjects:history education
social sciences
textbooks
External link:http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/africa_today/v059/59.2.del-mar.pdf
Abstract:This paper assesses how recently published Ghanaian social studies textbooks portray Ghana's history and traditions. Three books are selected for analysis, a junior high-school text, a grade-five text, and a senior high-school text. The paper shows that the history that Ghana's students learn at school bears scant resemblance to that promulgated by many of its leading artists and intellectuals, people who have long urged Ghanaians to overcome colonialism's legacies by recapturing the cultures and traditions that colonialism condemned. Instead, the textbooks often criticize indigenous practices and praise colonialism's consequences. They judge tradition or culture to be useful, inasmuch as they contribute to unity and development. Although this pragmatic approach to education and historical interpretation seems dismissive of Ghanaian tradition, it is in fact deeply rooted in Ghanas past. Bibliogr., sum. [Journal abstract, edited]
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