Abstract
Many research studies are showing that most students are not learning in school; some find it difficult to read and understand simple sentences even in their own local languages. This situation leads the authors to ask two related questions. What kinds of educational assistance programs can help improve the quality of learning for millions of learners in a way that honors and respects the dignity of their lives? How can educational leaders develop educational programs bearing in mind the differences within education systems and among students? This paper attempts to answer these questions by highlighting two educational assistant models that seek to respond to the challenge. The two models tap into the differences between and within schools and use it to provide educational environments that are conducive for learning and self-reflection. The paper argues that educators who take their time to study the differences within their school environment and take proactive steps to use those differences to teach students have a better chance of improving the quality of learning for all learners. The findings, also, lead the authors to suggest that there is a need for a new bottom-up theory of change that gives opportunities to locals to lead in almost all aspects of the problem-solving process.
References
Baffoe, E. Y. (2013). Ibsen education in Ghana (Master’s thesis, The University of Oslo).
Bajaj, M., Cislaghi, B., & Mackie, G. (2016). Advancing transformative human rights education: Report of the global citizenship commission. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers. https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0091.13
Brackett, M. A., & Rivers, S. E. (2014). Transforming students’ lives with social and emotional learning. In R. Pekrun & L. Linnenbrink-Garcia, International handbook of emotions in education (Vol. 368). New York, N.Y: Routledge.
Burdick-Will, J., & Logan, J. R. (2017). Schools at the rural-urban boundary: Blurring the divide? The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 672(1), 185–201.
Cohen, D., & Laporte, B. (2004 March). The evolution of the knowledge bank. London, UK. Knowledge Management Magazine, 7(6), 20–24.
Colley, K. (1999). Coming to know a school culture (Doctoral dissertation, Virginia Tech).
Coombs, P. H. (1968). The world educational crisis. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
de Educación, D. M. (2010). World data on education données mondiales de l’éducation Datos Mundiales de Educación VII Ed. 2010/11. Éducation, 11, 2012.
Deane, S. (2016). Syria’s lost generation: Refugee education provision and societal security in an ongoing conflict emergency. IDS Bulletin, 47(3), 35–52.
Dryden-Peterson, S. (2011). Refugee education: A global review. Geneva, Switzerland: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Felder, R. M., & Brent, R. (2005). Understanding student differences. Journal of Engineering Education, 94(1), 57–72.
Figlio, D., & Karbownik, K. (2017). Some schools much better than others at closing achievement gaps between their advantaged and disadvantaged students. Washington, DC: Brookings Institute.
Gahenda, C. J. (2018). Soka university: Discover your potential. In H. Indangasi, A. P. Mwangi, & M. Odari (Eds.), Value creating education in Kenya: Building a humane society. Nairobi, Kenya: Kenya Literature Bureau.
Gamoran, A., & Bruch, S. K. (2017). Educational inequality in the United States: Can we reverse the tide? Journal of Education and Work, 30(7), 777–792.
Global Education Monitoring (GEM). (2013). The global learning crisis: Why every child deserves a quality education. Paris, France: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Godsey, M. (2015, June 15). The inequality in public schools. The Atlantic. Retrieved August 1, 2018 from https://www.theatlantic.com/
Hallinger, P., & Heck, R. H. (1998). Exploring the principal’s contribution to school effectiveness: 1980–1995. School effectiveness and school improvement, 9(2), 157–191.
Heto, P. P. K. (2010). Acculturation and stress management among international students at University of Ghana (Unpublished thesis). Accra, Ghana: University of Ghana.
Heto, P. P. K. (2016). Value-creating (Soka) leadership. In H. Indangasi, A. P. Mwangi, & M. Odari (Eds.), Value creating education in Kenya: Building a humane society. Nairobi, Kenya: Kenya Literature Bureau.
Hochschild, J. L. (2003). Social class in public schools. Journal of Social Issues, 59(4), 821–840.
Houlberg, K., Andersen, V. N., Bjørnholt, B., Krassel, K. F., & Petersen, L. H. (2016). Country background report–Denmark. The Danish Institute for Local and Regional Government Research (KORA).
Iatarola, P., & Stiefel, L. (2003). Intra-district equity of public education resources and performance. Economics of Education Review, 22(1), 69–78.
Ikeda, D. (1996). Thoughts on education for global citizenship (Lecture presented in Teachers College). New York, NY: Columbia University.
Jennings, J. L., Deming, D., Jencks, C., Lopuch, M., & Schueler, B. E. (2015). Do differences in school quality matter more than we thought? New evidence on educational opportunity in the twenty-first century. Sociology of Education, 88(1), 56–82.
KICD. (2017). Basic education curriculum framework. Nairobi, Kenya: Author. Retrieved from https://kicd.ac.ke/curriculum-reform/basic-education-curriculum-framework/
Knight, D. S. (2017). Are school districts allocating resources equitably? The every student succeeds act, teacher experience gaps, and equitable resource allocation. Educational Policy. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904817719523
Lee, V. E., Franco, C., & Albernaz, A. (2004). Quality and equality in Brazilian secondary schools: a multilevel cross-national school effects study. In Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA.
MacNeil, A. J., Prater, D. L., & Busch, S. (2009). The effects of school culture and climate on student achievement. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 12(1), 73–84.
Mai, P. H., & Yang, J. W. (2013). The current situation of Vietnam education. Social Sciences, 2(6), 168–178.
Marks, G. N. (2006). Are between-and within-school differences in student performance largely due to socio-economic background? Evidence from 30 countries. Educational Research, 48(1), 21–40.
McInerney, M., & Elledge, A. (2013). Using a response to intervention framework to improve student learning: A pocket guide for state and district leaders. Implementing ESEA flexibility plans. Washington, DC: American Institutes for Research.
McLean, M. (1986). A world educational crisis? Compare, 16(2), 199–211.
Mourshed, M., Farrell, D., & Barton, D. (2013). Education to employment: Designing a system that works: A report from McKinsey Center for Government, 2013. Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/social-sector/our-insights/education-to-employment-designing-a-system-that-works
Nilsson, P. A. (2013). Expectations and experiences of temporarily studying abroad. História: Revista da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto, 3.
Opdenakker, M. C., & Van Damme, J. (2006). Differences between secondary schools: A study about school context, group composition, school practice, and school effects with special attention to public and Catholic schools and types of schools. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 17(1), 87–117.
Opoku-Asare, N. A., & Siaw, A. O. (2016). Curricula and inferential factors that affect student achievement in rural, urban, and peri-urban senior high schools in Ghana: Evidence from the visual arts program. SAGE Open, 6(3), 2158244016661747.
Plehwe, D. (2007). A global knowledge bank? The world bank and bottom-up efforts to reinforce neoliberal development perspectives in the post-Washington consensus era. Globalizations, 4(4), 514–528.
Reardon, S. F., Kalogrides, D., & Shores, K. (2017). The geography of racial/ethnic test score gaps. CEPA Working Paper No. 16-10. Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis.
Roza, M., Hill, P. T., Sclafani, S., & Speakman, S. (2004). How within-district spending inequities help some schools to fail. Brookings papers on education policy, (7), 201–227.
Rubenstein, R., Schwartz, A. E., & Stiefel, L. (2006, April). Rethinking the intradistrict distribution of school inputs to disadvantaged students. In Rethinking Rodriguez Conference, University of California, Berkeley, April.
Sackey, W. K. (2014). Mama, I wont’t go to school. Conflictual relations between education and fishing among the children of Anomabo in the central region of Ghana (Unpublished master’s thesis). The University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
Sandell, E. J. (2007). Impact of international education experiences on undergraduate students. Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, 73(4), 12.
Semuels, A. (2016). Good school, rich school; bad school, poor school: The inequality at the heart of America’s education system. The Atlantic. Retrieved from www.theatlantic.com
Shaffer, D. W., & Gee, J. P. (2005). Before every child is left behind: how epistemic games can solve the coming crisis in education. WCER Working Paper No. 2005–7. Wisconsin Center for Education Research (NJ1).
The Education for All Global Monitoring Report (EFA). (2014). Teaching and learning: Achieving quality for all. Paris, France: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The Education for All Global Monitoring Report (EFA). (2015). Education for all 2000–2015: Achievements and challenges. Paris, France: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The Global Education Monitoring Report (GEM). (2016). Education for people and planet: Creating sustainable future for all. Paris, France: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The United Nations. (2015). Transforming our world: The 2030 agenda for sustainable development. New York, NY: Author.
UN General Assembly. (1948). Universal declaration of human rights (217 [III] A). Paris.
Wenglinsky, H. (2001). Teacher classroom practices and student performance: How schools can make a difference. ETS Research Report Series, 2001(2), i-37.
White, K. (1999). L.A. board names CEO with broad powers. Education Week. Retrieved from https://www.edweek.org
Whitehurst, G. J. R., Chingos, M. M., & Gallaher, M. R. (2013). Do school districts matter? Brookings Institute.
Willms, J. D. (2003). Student engagement at school. A sense of belonging and participation. Paris, France: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Winthrop, R., & McGivney, E. (2015). Why wait 100 years? Bridging the gap in global education. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
Yeboah, R. B. (2016). School culture and its implication on the education of pupils: a case of Patasi M/A junior high school in Kumasi, Ghana (Unpublished master’s thesis). Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Heto, P.PK., Odari, M.H., Sunu, W.K. (2020). Different Schools, Different Cultures. In: Papa, R. (eds) Handbook on Promoting Social Justice in Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74078-2_63-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74078-2_63-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-74078-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-74078-2
eBook Packages: Springer Reference EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education