In the last two decades, the global community and government of several countries have made heartening investments in promoting access to education in developing countries. It is estimated that since the reaffirmation by world leaders and development community to achieve education for all by 2015 in Dakar, Senegal, governments and donors have invested about US $15 billion annually in education. Despite the huge financial investments, empirical evidence shows that education outcomes remain low among school children in developing countries and key stakeholders in the education sector identified weak and ineffective supervision as one of the major factors responsible for the low educational outcomes. This study therefore examines the professional skills of school supervisors in ensuring effective teaching and learning in Ghanaian basic schools. Using the Ga South Municipality as a study area, I specifically explored the professional backgrounds of school supervisors, examining their recruitment and training processes, field experiences, and how they apply their professional knowledge to the school supervision process. Employing a purely qualitative case study approach under pinned by the concept of social constructivism, I engaged 7 school supervisors, 5 teachers/headteachers, 2 directors of education and 2 PTA/SMC members. I used in-depth interviews, observations and documentary reviews as the methods of data collection. The study made the following findings: With regard to the professional background and qualification, the supervisors who participated in the study are well qualified and experienced in the field of education. They are all trained professional teachers with over 10 years of classroom teaching experience. They also held Bachelor's Degrees; however, not all of them have pursued degree programmes in the field of education. Majority of them specialised in fields such as political science, sociology, human resources management, psychology, and history – and none had received any formal training in education administration or supervision. The supervisor recruitment process is characterised by the phenomenon of neo-patrimonialism where political and traditional authorities use their influence and power to mount pressure on education officials to select their preferred candidates (mainly party faithfuls) as supervisors. Any resistance from an education director is interpreted as seeking the downfall of the political head and his or her administration. In terms of skills training, there is no formal pre-service and in-service training (INSET) programme designed to enhance the professional development of supervisors in the skills of supervision. Supervisors were reliant on peer training and support (both skills development and material) from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to build their professional capacity. Training provided by NGOs were governed by their philosophies or that of their donor partners rather than the sector policies of the Ministry of Education and GES. The study also revealed that even though supervisors have the knowledge in the field of education, they are deficient in the ‘technical' and ‘interpersonal skills' necessary for effective supervision in schools. There is also a general lack of material resources necessary for efficient supervision of schools. Based on these findings as a whole, the study recommended an intervention in the form of a comprehensive policy to govern basic education supervision; the initiation of education supervision training programmes in pro-education specialisation tertiary institutions such as the University of Cape Coast (UCC) and the University of Education Winneba (UEW); and a clear framework to control and coordinate the activities of NGOs working in the field of education management and supervision in Ghana.

This qualitative case study explores how policy is developed and implemented in public universities in Ghana, using the case of the University of Education, Winneba. It draws on a theoretical rationale in which inclusion and inclusiveness are seen as paramount (Lewin, 1951; Schein, 1995; Robins, 2003) to specifically question the influence of different stakeholder groups in the development and implementation of policies in the University. The study utilized data from two sources: the analysis of policy documents, and semi-structured one-on-one interviews with fifteen senior non-teaching and teaching staff in three of the four University of Education campuses. The findings discussed in the two analysis chapters – Chapter Four and Chapter Five - indicate that not all stakeholders of the university community are involved in policy reforms. The discussion in Chapter Four suggests that some policy reforms are handled by the Governing Council and/or the Academic Board without much consultation with stakeholders. Junior level staff are the most excluded from the policymaking process with the effect that in some cases University management decisions become policies. Chapter Five discusses stakeholder participation and finds that efforts are made to disseminate policies although there are gaps in the dissemination methods and implementation. The main policy implementation gaps are the lack of proper evaluation and follow-up mechanisms for investigating the magnitude of collegiate participation and the impacts of such participation. Given that all the stakeholders are required to support new policies irrespective of their gender and/or position, the study contends that collegial participation in the policy development and implementation processes is very important. Overall, it may be argued that stakeholder perspectives on policy development practices within UEW contradicts Muller's (2007) concerns that academic institutions are nurtured through the adoption of sound policies through wide faculty consultation. Due to the small number (fifteen) of participants and considering that this was a case study, it is recommended that future studies are scaled up to include a fuller range of views (junior and senior members) from both public and private universities.

This thesis examines the factors that make the low-fee private school (LFPS) accessible to the poor. While the provision of education in developing countries has traditionally been regarded as the responsibility of the state, recent evidence on the growth of the LFPS in such contexts appears to challenge the government's role as the most viable option. The main argument of the thesis is that the poor have no real choice. The thesis also argues that fee-free public education only provides a partial solution to the financial barrier to access since there are factors other than direct costs that influence the way poor households respond to principles of supply and demand for education. The state's role in the provision of education is supported by the argument that it is a public good, and it must therefore remain the responsibility of the government to protect the poor and other vulnerable groups from denial of access. Nevertheless, private education provision is a growth enterprise in rural areas, one key reason for which is the perception that it provides a better quality of education than the state can offer. Given such expansion in an era of fee-free public education, some commentators have questioned whether those that send their children to an LFPS can really be described as poor, since school choice is clearly dependant on the ability to meet the costs. In order to understand how the cost and quality of education interact with school choice decisions, 536 households in three poor rural communities of Mfantseman District, Central Region, Ghana were surveyed. The data were used to examine the difference in cost between public and private provision, and to explore those factors associated with school choice and the related expenditure. In addition, to gain further insight into the implications of the survey's statistical outcomes, a number of participants with interests in both public and private schools were interviewed – including 38 household heads in the lowest income quintile, 6 head teachers, 14 teachers, 8 parents, 7 Parent Teacher Association (PTA) executives and 3 School Management Committee (SMC) executives with children in both school types. The findings reject the hypothesis that school choice in the communities under study was not affected by socio-economic factors, since the majority of households had no real option. In particular, the prohibitive cost of food at both types of school, but compulsoriness at LFPSs, had adverse consequences on the willingness of children to attend. However, a minority of poor households that did access LFPSs were able to do so due to school practices such as flexible fee schemes, teacher discipline and better interaction with parents, as well as through assistance obtained via social networks. In addition, the study also finds that private schools had a better track record in BECE examination than public schools in the communities under study. What is clear is that, this better BECE track record by LFPSs coupled with higher aspirations that some poor households have for their children fuelled interest in private schooling. The study concludes that the claim that the rural poor access LFPS in numbers has been exaggerated. This is because it is the relatively better-off households that enrol their children in private school, while a minority of the poor that access LFPSs are able to do so because of manipulative school practices and the nature of its interaction with parents. As a result, the study suggests that it would be in the interests of the poor if rural public schools were improved – including the provision of free school meals – given that greater state support to the private education sector would only benefit the relatively better off. Finally, fee-free public schooling facilitated by the capitation grant should ensure that schools are more accountable to the communities they serve – schools should be made to show how the grant was used to improve access and quality and together with the community set targets for improvement. Improving academic quality and teacher discipline would enable them to restore their image in rural communities and hence encourage demand for public education.

This thesis explores the integration of public veterinarians in zoonosis management policy and action in Ghana with regard to the implementation of the internationally-led policy ideal: 'One Health' (OH). Drawing on theoretical contributions that examine professionalism, integration mechanisms and social processes, I researched vets' potential for OH in a context of new public health imperatives, limited resources and absence of targeted national strategy. During eight months of ethnography in Southern Ghana, I investigated veterinary professional characteristics using participant observation, interviews, document collection and a network survey. I analysed how veterinary perspectives, practices and relationships influenced the scope for integration of vets and their activities in zoonosis management, from the district-level clinics and offices to national-level institutions and international organisations. This work questioned whether and why Ghanaian vets would want to engage in OH integration with regard to their professional values and interests. It also sought to understand which practitioners and practices were professionally promoted or repressed and what were the main dilemmas or opportunities for local vets taking part in local zoonosis surveillance, prevention and control. Furthermore, it studied interactions in networks around zoonoses between Ghanaian vets and other actors, and their potential to create and maintain relationships that favour integration. This research contributes to critical knowledge on global health policy implementation by highlighting the importance of relationships and power dynamics both within and between professionals in relation to integration. This, I argue, can be done through more consideration of their professional values, interests and status, and the heterogeneity of all of these in a national context. The thesis also adds to the scarce literature on veterinary professionalism in low- and middle-income countries by providing 'thick descriptions' of veterinary perspectives, practices and network relationships.

In Ghana, two government commissioned committee reports and a major research study raised concerns about the quality of the country's teacher education programme. The quality deficiency was attributed to a disjuncture between the theory and practice of teaching. To bridge this theory-practice gap, the University of Education, Winneba, adopted a one-year school-based student internship as an innovative component of its 4-year teacher education programme for upgrading in-service teachers to replace the traditional 4-6 weeks teaching practice, with classroom teachers serving as mentors for student teachers. Since the heart of mentoring is the mentor-mentee relationship, this study explored in depth the mentor-mentee relationships of a Cooperative-Reflective model of mentoring adopted by the University of Education, Winneba, (UEW), Ghana, for its student teachers in an attempt to understand the nature of these professional relationships and how they facilitate teacher professional learning, growth and development. A qualitative ethnographic case study approach was used to study five cases of mentor-mentee relationships from the lived experiences of mentors and mentees involved in the University's student internship programme. The data were collected from interviews, observations, and document analysis. Trustworthiness of the research was ensured through the multiple sources of data, peer review, member checks, as well as the description of themes in the participants' own words. The study revealed that although the involvement of classroom teachers in the professional training of student teachers is a novelty in teacher education in Ghana, and a great departure from the old teaching practice, the programme has some conceptual and implementation challenges. First, the old conception of a hierarchical relationship between student teachers and their supervisors still persists contrary to the collegial, collaborative, reciprocal and critical reflective conceptions that underpin the UEW mentoring model. This is attributable to the lack of sensitivity to the socio-cultural and professional contexts in which the model is being implemented. The Ghanaian society is hierarchical; age is, therefore, equated with experience, respect, authority, and reverence. Fostering collegial relationships among mentors and mentees in this cultural context becomes problematic. Again, even in the Ghanaian teaching profession, inherent in the professional ethics is the respect for rank and social distance. It is, therefore, difficult for teachers of lower ranks to forge collegial relationships with those of higher ranks. Second, there is a dearth of direction and guidance on the selection of mentors and the matching of mentors and mentees. This results in the mentors and mentees going through the mechanics of the relationship without there being any substantive professional learning from their interactions. The current practice where the responsibility for the selection of mentors and the matching of mentors and mentees is vested in the heads of partnership schools/colleges results in instances of mismatch in terms of age, gender, experience, and personal chemistry. Third, the programme targeted the wrong type of student teachers; hence the superficial nature of the professional learning that occurred in the relationships. Since they were not novice teachers, but had teaching experiences ranging from five to twenty-seven years, they did not find the professional learning experience challenging enough. Finally, the programme did not envision that the collegial, collaborative and participatory learning strategies that are supposed to characterise the mentoring relationship are to have their parallels in the teaching and learning contexts of the mentoring dyad in schools and colleges in terms of a shift in pedagogy. The findings suggest that theoretical positions alone cannot provide sufficient basis or framework for the development of a mentoring programme. It must be based on the socio-cultural as well as the professional factors within the context of implementation since it is the interaction between particular mentors and particular mentees in their particular contexts that determines the type of relationship to be established and the type of professional learning that will result.

Assessment is considered a powerful tool for improving learning outcomes and education quality. However, limited empirical research on classroom assessment exists in many developing countries including Ghana. This study explores the issues of mathematics classroom assessment in Ghana. Specifically, it investigates and analyses mathematics teachers' views and practices of assessment with specific reference to the implication for learning. Although the main focus of this study is on teachers' assessment practices, an examination of their conceptions of the nature of mathematics is undertaken to facilitate an in-depth understanding of teachers' views and practices. The research is mainly qualitative by design and employs both interpretative and exploratory strategies. Classroom observations, semi-structured interviews and document reviews are used as instruments for data collection through a non-participant observation method. A purposive sampling method is used to select six participants: four teachers and two headteachers for the study. This research study explores key factors affecting assessment practices in mathematics classrooms. In particular, it provides an analysis firstly of teachers' views about assessment emphasising improvement and accountability and secondly of the different types of knowledge, beliefs and attitudes of the mathematics teachers, and their relationship with practice. Attention is directed to the teacher's practical knowledge of teaching, of mathematics and how assessment comes into play. Also notable is the importance attached to the teachers' beliefs concerning the nature of mathematics. Findings from this study show that teachers use both formal and informal assessments in mathematics classrooms although formal assessment dominates practice. Teachers' views about assessment and their conceptions of the nature of mathematics are related to their classroom practices. Beyond these two factors, this exploratory study illustrates how teachers' assessment practices are affected by a number of contextual factors which are related to institutional policies, professional development and classroom conditions. There are implications of this research for the implementation of assessment for learning in Ghana. It is evident that in the current context, the widespread implementation of assessment for learning is ambitious and would demand well-defined and context-specific approaches to classroom practices. The introduction of these innovative assessment practices marks a significant departure from traditional practice and as such may require regular professional support and a coordinated and collaborative effort from policy makers, schools and teachers.

Enhanced adaptive capacity is increasingly being pursued as an objective of agricultural development interventions due to the perceived vulnerability of smallholder farming communities to a range of shocks and stresses. This research used two case studies of agricultural development interventions in Northern Ghana to examine diverse understandings of adaptive capacity, potential indicators of enhanced adaptive capacity, and the implications of this for sustainable agricultural livelihoods. The thesis reviews relevant theoretical literature to situate the study among complex adaptive systems thinking and sustainability discourses. Associated policy documentation is reviewed to set the context in which, and identify why, development interventions seek to enhance adaptive capacity. The primary methods of data collection were interviews, focus groups, and ethnography, as well as secondary data in the form of documentation from the case studies. Multiple understandings of adaptive capacity were identified in both case studies, including ‘formal' understandings of the projects' funders and management, and ‘informal' understandings of field staff and participating farmers. The findings contribute to theory, policy and practice through explicit recognition of the diversity of understandings of adaptive capacity, which has not been appreciated or analysed previously. Indicators of enhanced adaptive capacity emerged from the findings. Findings show how features of social capital were integral to enhanced adaptive capacity and played a dominant role in beneficial outcomes, even when not the priority of the interventions. This implies a set of indicators of enhanced adaptive capacity that can inform theoretical discourse, policy and programme planning, and monitoring and evaluation in practice. Finally, this research identified the role of social capital in contributing to enhanced adaptive capacity, which supports sustainable agricultural livelihoods. These findings contribute lessons for similar ongoing and future agricultural development interventions and recommend a focus on features of social capital rather than physical and technological capital.

School improvement in public schools remains a challenge in many developing countries, including Ghana. Many researchers have highlighted the need for strong headteacher leadership and the active participation of the community, including parents, in the efforts to improve public schools. Research in developed countries‟ education systems have brought to the surface some of the factors underpinning successful public schools, however in developing countries there has been a lack of research surrounding how headteacher leadership and community engagement with schools affect schooling outcomes. This lack of research has resulted in the use of recommendations tendered by global research regarding school effectiveness and school improvement to inform developing country policies on how to improve public education. In many cases, private schools have been used as the model for failing public schools, yet from national basic education certificate examinations (WAEC, 2012) it is evident that some public schools, even in disadvantaged areas, are managing to provide quality education. The key questions that this thesis explores are: What conditions prevail in high performing public schools serving disadvantaged communities? What has been the role of headteacher leadership and community participation in securing improvement of these schools? Thus, this study has sought to investigate the conditions prevailing in high performing public schools and what role school headteachers leadership and community engagement played in creating the environment conducive to effective teaching and learning. Using a qualitative case study research design data was collected through interviews, observations and documentary reviews to explore the views and experiences of headteachers, teachers and parents regarding the improvements in the schools. Results show that conditions, such as the existence of safe and protective classroom infrastructures, critical engagement of parents and community members in all aspects of the school‟s development, adoption of diverse proactive teaching and learning approaches; and the strong visionary and transformational leadership exhibited by the headteachers appear to have been driving forces in these successful schools. The thesis concludes with key recommendations for policy makers in developing countries on strategies that might be taken to turn failing public schools into more functioning schools. These recommendations include: • Targeting the beneficiaries of capitation grant to needy students or increasing the grant • Providing school infrastructure to take the burden from schools • Encouraging community participation in school improvement strategies • Enhancing competencies of headteacher leadership to influence school improvement strategies.

This study examined the pedagogic practices of primary teachers in Ghana. The major goal was to identify innovative pedagogic practices, as well as to understand why the transmission practices continue to prevail in a majority of Ghanaian primary classrooms. Using a qualitative approach, the study tried to probe deeply into how and why teachers in Ghana engage with their practices, at the same time, how and where teachers manage to better support their learners in the face of their contextual difficulties. The theoretical framework for this study was based on Schulman's theory on teacher knowledge. Schulman proposed that, for teachers to be able to support their learners, they must be able to combine content knowledge, curricular knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK): of the three he argued that it was PCK that teachers needed most in order to make sense of teaching. Thus this study has examined what constitutes teacher knowledge in Ghana and found that, primary teachers add on the traditional and cultural knowledge systems to teaching and learning processes in Ghana. The major instruments used for the study were observations and interviews. The study employed two stages of observations; the first stage of unstructured lesson observations of 40 teachers revealed pedagogic variations (supportive and unsupportive) in Ghanaian classrooms. The second stage of structured lesson observations enabled categorizations of the pedagogic practices. Follow-up interviews unearthed teachers' views and understanding of their practices. The analysis of the study revealed two categories of primary teachers in Ghana; the traditional and innovative. All teachers in the study relied on the traditional and cultural knowledge systems; but whilst a majority (36 out of 40) validated their transmission rote practices from the culture, there were a few (6 out of 40) who had deeply reflected on the positive aspects of the culture making learning more flexible and supportive for their children. The study concludes that teachers in Ghana would experience more successes in their classrooms when they begin to embrace fully the positive aspects of the cultural knowledge. They will also begin to find alternative strategies to address the contextual challenges they often encounter in their classrooms. Therefore the learner's cultural background ought to be promoted and embedded in the teaching as it stands as an all-inclusive and empowering agenda for the teaching practice. Teachers and learners alike have common goals and ideas that bond them so their familiarity with the indigenous culture would yield very much desired positive learning outcomes in the learners.

Obsahem diplomové práce je kritická analýza rozvojové pomoci ukazující na její největší problémy. Hlavním tématem práce je role konceptu podmíněnosti, který hraje v rozvojové pomoci důležitou roli. Ten je posléze aplikován na případovou studii, která se koncentruje na země Subsaharské Afriky ? Ghanu, Ugandu a Botswanu.