BECOMING THE ENEMY? SCHOOLING AND POSTCOLONIAL CONCEPTIONS OF CITIZENSHIP IN THE AKUAPEM REGION OF GHANA

Since the advent of popular education, schools have been the space in which a society cultivates specific values in its youth. In parts of the world where formal schools arrived during the imposition of colonial rule, schools often cultivated values directly conflicting with those of the local community. This paper discusses current and historical education for citizenship in the Akuapem region of Ghana, and examines the ways schools have served to both alienate youth from their communities and redefine those communities. Scholars argue that students must be prepared for participation in multiple spheres: as members of their groups, of their communities, their nations, and an interconnected world. Few scholars have examined how this should take place in modern African nations. Using the framework of post-colonial theory, which interrogates assumed sameness and sees identity as hybrid and changing, I argue that literature on education for citizenship in Ghana does not engage the uneven power dynamic between the ideas of local, national, and global citizenship. I conclude with a brief discussion of the ways in which post-colonial theory can help explain the different ways students engage in ideas of global citizenship that coincide with Nyerere’s vision of education for liberation.