What to expect from this trip
This trip to Ghana represents a rigorous, short-term professional learning opportunity – a chance to grow your cultural proficiency around a major African civilization. Improving cultural competency in a school community can be a catalyst to closing achievement, social capital, cultural capital, and human capital gaps, creating a more equitable learning environment and a more just society for all.
Participating educators will conduct interviews, meet with Ghanaian opinion leaders, and generally come to know Ghana in unexpected, inspiring ways. You’ll come to know Ghana’s history, and its contributions to the contemporary ‘global village’. You’ll initiate partnerships with Ghanaian schools – and develop or add to curriculum around Ghana and West Africa.
What will you learn?
You’ll explore contemporary issues and their relevance to Ghana’s rich culture and history. You’ll take part in structured visits and active learning at schools and universities, and you’ll enjoy a wide range of supporting activities— from cultural and historical site visits and resource conservation workshops to peer shadowing sessions and lectures led by college professors and expert facilitators. You will:
Explore Ghana’s history & global contributions: In brief, intensive classroom venues, you will acquire historical context – and an appreciation for the contributions of 20th- and 21st-century Ghana and Ghanaians.
Build school partnerships: You will very actively assess where partnerships can make most sense. In Ghana, as elsewhere, many schools are candidates for relationships with US schools. Moreover, there are many types of potential exchanges and relationships. You will make informed decisions on how best to initiate sustaining institutional relationships.
Learn about Ghanaian education trends: You will come to understand Ghanaian education through interactive dialogues, purposeful site visits, structured interviews, workshops with peers, and more. You will come to appreciate Ghanaian student life and the Ghanaian national school system, and you’ll use these observations to reflect on your own school experiences. Ideally, you’ll identify new themes for curriculum design.
Hear from and engage interactively w/ Ghanaian writers. You will interview and learn from writers and other artists, both with US expatriates and with Ghanaians.
Witness and interact with a Ghanaian filmmaker, contemporizing the oral storytelling tradition. You’ll document your own learning experience on film – and prominent Ghanaian storytellers will be empaneled to facilitate the process