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Reimagining a Curriculum Centered on Ghanaian La DECONSTRUCTING DOMINANT ENGLISH LANGUAGE DISCOURSES IN THE GHANAIAN CURRICULUM: REIMAGINING A CURRICULUM CENTERED ON GHANAIAN LANGUAGES AND LITERACIES A Dissertation presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School at the University of Missouri-Columbia In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree by EDWIN NII BONNEY Dr. Lisa Dorner, Dissertation Chair Drs. Emily Crawford-Rossi, James Sebastian, and Angie Zapata, Committee Members May 2021 The undersigned, appointed by the dead of the Graduate School, have examined the dissertation entitled DECONSTRUCTING DOMINANT ENGLISH LANGUAGE DISCOURSES IN THE GHANAIAN CURRICULUM: REIMAGINING A CURRICULUM CENTERED ON GHANAIAN LANGUAGES AND LITERACIES presented by Edwin Nii Bonney, a candidate for the degree of doctor of philosophy, and hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance. _____________________________________________________ Dr. Lisa M. Dorner ______________________________________________________ Dr. Emily Crawford-Rossi ______________________________________________________ Dr. James Sebastian ______________________________________________________ Dr. Angie Zapata DEDICATION I dedicate this work first to God who continues to guide my path and is faithful in making all things work together for my good (Romans 8:28). To my wife and partner, Vida, who has made countless sacrifices for me in pursuing this PhD and writing my dissertation. To my son, Teddy, who says he wants to be a research doctor and a medical doctor. To my daughter, Isabella, whose impending birth eight days after my defense pushed me to finish this work. To my parents, Solomon and Henrietta Bonney, for their constant nightly prayers and frequent counsel throughout. Finally, to all people working to in and with minoritized communities everywhere to overcome the marginalization and silencing of their languages, cultures, histories, and knowledge, this work is for you. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like thank Dr. Lisa M. Dorner, my advisor. When I came into the PhD program, not knowing much about education policy issues, she took me under her wing, pulled me into research projects, invited me to collaborate on book chapters, and helped me secure funding when there no opportunities. She has been my champion through this journey, and I am forever grateful to her. I would also like to thank my advisor in my Masters program, the late Professor Flore Zephir whose words still echo in my head, “Good things happen to good people.” Unfortunately, she passed away the year I gained admission into the PhD program. I am grateful for her wisdom and vision in pointing the way to ELPA and for her leadership and advocacy to get things done for her students even when policies were unfavorable. I would like to thank my committee members, Dr. Emily Crawford-Rossi, Dr. James Sebastian, and Dr. Angie Zapata, for their belief in my work and their critical insights, conversations, comments, and feedback in fine-tuning and pushing me to be more critical in my work and in my approach to research. I would also like to thank my mother in-law, Rebecca Egyir, who helped me find the last piece of data I needed for my analysis, the kindergarten curriculum. I am grateful to my colleagues in the ELPA program for their input in class discussions, conversation over txt and email, and also in 218. To Dr. Ransford Pinto, Justin Kumbal, Jeong-Mi Moon, Tricia Joseph, Xinyi Mao, Jason McKinney, Palwasha Marwat, Isabel Montes, Jared Beasley, Heather Sweeney, Elizabeth Knight, Dorcas Qian, Brandon Wolak and Sarah Hairston, thank you for inspiring and supporting me. Finally, to Dr. Michael Marlo who questions about languages in Africa started all this, I am most grateful. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... ii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES............................................................................... viii Tables .................................................................................................................. viii Figures................................................................................................................. viii Abstract ............................................................................................................................. xi CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................ 1 Rationale for the Study ...................................................................................................... 3 Context of the Study .......................................................................................................... 7 Theoretical Framework .................................................................................................... 11 Research Questions .......................................................................................................... 13 Research Design............................................................................................................... 14 Significance of the Study ................................................................................................. 14 Limitations ....................................................................................................................... 15 Definition of Key Terms .................................................................................................. 16 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................. 18 Section A: History of English in Ghanaian Education .................................................... 20 Language in the Missionary and Castle Schools ................................................. 23 Converting and Civilizing the Native Through Education. ................................. 24 The Basel and Bremen Mission ........................................................................... 24 The Wesleyan Mission ......................................................................................... 25 Demand for English Education by Natives .......................................................... 26 The Spread of English Medium ........................................................................... 28 iii The Phelps-Stokes Commission .......................................................................... 29 English Assessment in Education ........................................................................ 31 Making Policy and Curriculum Changes to Education (1971 – 2001) ................ 36 More Time in English .......................................................................................... 36 National Assessments in English ......................................................................... 38 Ghanaian Language Courses Made Optional ...................................................... 39 English Only Language-in-Education Policy (2002 – 2007) ............................... 39 Ghanaian Languages, Where Necessary but Not Required (2007 to date).......... 40 Section B: Ghanaian Languages Through Research ........................................................ 42 Students Would Fall Behind ................................................................................ 51 Using Ghanaian Languages Feels Like an External Imposition .......................... 52 Literacy in Ghanaian Languages is Illiteracy ...................................................... 54 Section C: Theoretical Framework .................................................................................. 61 Fallacies of English Linguistic Imperialism ........................................................ 63 Globalization of English Education After Independence .................................... 64 Power + Access + Diversity + Design ................................................................. 68 Power ................................................................................................................... 68 Access .................................................................................................................. 69 Diversity and Design............................................................................................ 70 Identifying False Discourses + Power + Access + Diversity + Design = Deconstruction/Reconstruction ............................................................................ 72 CHAPTER THREE: METHODS .................................................................................... 75 Research Questions .............................................................................................. 79 iv Critical Discourse Analysis.................................................................................. 81 Context ................................................................................................................. 82 Designing the Curriculum .................................................................................... 83 Data Selection ...................................................................................................... 83 Data from the Curriculum .................................................................................... 84 Data from Educational Leaders ........................................................................... 86 Data Collection .................................................................................................... 88 Step-by-Step
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