Building for Students: School Design and Educational Priorities in Colonial Ghana

• Published in: Journal of West African history Vol. 5; no. 2; pp. 1 - 28
• Main Author: Ferrell, Lacy S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Michigan State University Press 01-10-2019
• ISSN: 2327-1868; 2327-1876
• DOI: 10.14321/jwestafrihist.5.2.0001

An often overlooked element of the history of schooling in colonial Africa is the role of the space of the school as an area where different understandings of education competed. This article examines how chiefs, students, teachers, and local residents in colonial Ghana mediated the experience and meaning of school through their own engagements with the physical environment and the standards imposed by the British. It does so through an exploration of the pedagogical implications of the school space, defined as the entire natural and built environment; the different meanings this space held for different people; and the effects of this space on constructing new identities and promoting new forms of behavior. With and in schools, Africans could challenge colonial power, not only in terms of what children learned and how they used their education, but also in how they, and their larger communities, interacted with the space of the school itself.