Dropping out: Identity conflict in and out of school in Ghana

Dunne, Michael; Ananga, Eric Daniel

doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2012.04.005

Cited by 31 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 18 publications

(20 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Pregnancy as a marker of adulthood works against the notion of schoolgirl and the necessary infantilisation of pupils within school structures and practices. This restrictive institutional context, which has also been reported in Ghana by Dunne & Ananga (2013), presupposes individual identities as linear and coherent and does not encourage inclusion of students who deal with multiple identities and belongings, as Alzira:…”

Section: Invisible Pregnanciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These factors, combined with the production of a non-agentic, deficit subject of the policy and institutional regulatory discourses suggest push factors may play a substantial part in dropouts, calling for an integration in the notion of throw-out. Dunne & Ananga (2013), in their paper on dropout in Ghana, indicate that institutional definitions tend to offer static conceptualisations of dropout, which simply refers to someone who leaves the education system without achieving a degree or terminal qualification (UNESCO-UIS 2005, OECD 2002. School abandonment -Dunne & Ananga (ibid.)…”

Section: Dropout or Throw-out?mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

In the making: constructing in-school pregnancy in Mozambique

Salvi

2016

Gender and Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article examines current in-school pregnancy policy in Mozambique, Decree 39/GM/2003, discussing how it discursively constructs in-school pregnancy as a problem, thereby raising the need to regulate its occurrence. Decree 39/GM/2003 indicates that pregnant schoolgirls should be transferred to night courses in order to complete their education. Although progressive in some respects, as it allows pregnant girls to remain in education, the Decree reflects a global tendency to see education and pregnancy as oppositional. As a consequence, the practical implications of transferring pregnant girls to night courses have the perverse effect of encouraging dropout. Stimulated by this contradiction, I reflect on how the policy text produces a deficit view of the pregnant schoolgirl. This Foucauldian process of subjectification results in a strengthening of the opposition between pregnancy and education. As a result, pregnant schoolgirls are 'thrown-out' of their education, defeating the inclusive aims of the national policy.

show abstract

Section: Invisible Pregnanciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Dropout or Throw-out?mentioning

confidence: 99%

In the making: constructing in-school pregnancy in Mozambique

Salvi

2016

Gender and Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Ethnographic style observations of the daily life of the school, in the class and school compound, provided insights into the rules, regulation and discipline that constructed the social order of the school. In concert with other school ethnographies in Ghana (see for example, Dunne et al, 2005;Dunne and Ananga, 2013) in the case study, age and gender structures shaped the hierarchical social relations within the school.…”

Section: School Structures and Social Relationsmentioning

confidence: 60%

Continuing in the shadows of colonialism: The educational experiences of the African Child in Ghana

Adzahlie-Mensah

Dunne

2018

PiE

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this paper, we draw on a recent ethnographic study in a rural primary school to illustrate the ways that vestiges of colonialism remain deeply imbricated in contemporary schooling in Ghana. In reference to the history of education, we use evidence from this study to argue that colonial constructions of the African child are reproduced within schooling. We highlight the significance of schooling for the production of learner subjectivities and point to the ways that the institution of schooling and its everyday life continue to echo and re-instantiate colonial constructions of the African child. Drawing on the voices and experiences of students and teachers we illustrate the ways that formal schooling continues to work to devalue indigenous knowledge, to regulate and discipline African children and produce their inferiorisation through their education. We specifically highlight the gender inflections in the institutional routines of schooling. Following a brief introduction to the historical context of education in Ghana, we outline the research study and then the theoretical position upon which our analysis is based. We develop the analysis along three major discursive themes starting with the formal institutional structures of the school, highlighting the ways its disciplinary boundaries structure age and gender relations. We then turn to the curriculum and pedagogic practices that shape student understandings of what constitutes legitimate knowledge and the processes of learning. In the final theme, we examine the language of instruction and the ways that this produces exclusions and vilifies indigenous languages and the cultures that are expressed through it. In the conclusion, we draw the key points together to reflect on the extent to which contemporary schooling in Ghana sustains the production of the African child framed in the colonial era. Finally, we suggest that the educational experience of students offers an important starting point for efforts in decolonizing the school and curriculum.

show abstract

“…In the research, the issues of spatial and temporal boundaries (Dunne & Ananga, 2013;Hamersley, 2006), context as virtual in ethnographic research (Brockmann, 2011;Hamersley, 2006) as well as the relationship between ethnographer and the researched were taken into conceptual and methodological considerations (Mercader, Weber, & Durif-Varembont, 2015;Wang, 2013). In terms of space, time, and place, I paid close attention to the 'transitional' space of Yangon city as the urban center where fundamental and observable patterns of socio-political and education changes have been taking place.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Being and becoming ‘dropouts’: contextualizing dropout experiences of youth migrant workers in transitional Myanmar

Hong

2020

International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This ethnographic research examines the sociocultural and educational experiences of migrant youth living in liminality in urban Yangon. Their liminality exemplifies the interplay between poverty, social-choice of dropping out of school and the militant culture of schooling. The research argues that narratives provide comprehensive understandings of the complex and multidimensional aspects inherent to dropping out of school in Myanmar: poverty; poor learning environments; an inherently militant culture of schooling; and ultimately, the foreseeable failures of these young people. By better understanding the context of being 'out-of-school' and the process of becoming 'dropouts' from their viewpoint, the author argues that more educational research needs to reconceptualize the meaning of schooling in the ever-changing lives and learning of youth in rapidly transforming societies in Asia and beyond. ARTICLE HISTORY

show abstract

Dropping out: Identity conflict in and out of school in Ghana

Cited by 31 publications

References 18 publications

In the making: constructing in-school pregnancy in Mozambique

In the making: constructing in-school pregnancy in Mozambique

Continuing in the shadows of colonialism: The educational experiences of the African Child in Ghana

Being and becoming ‘dropouts’: contextualizing dropout experiences of youth migrant workers in transitional Myanmar

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About