Chapter 3: Education and Social Change in Rural Ghana: A Community-Based Model

In recent years, there have been two schools of thought with regard to achieving social change: one posits a power-based/community-organizing approach where citizens organize to wrest and redistribute power; the other argues that social change is only achievable through strong, caring, and respectful relationships within communities (Alinsky, 1971; Minkler, 2012; Rothman Tropman, 1987; Shragge, 2003). Using a model of a heavily subsidized private school in rural Ghana as a case study, this chapter aims to understand what low-cost schooling means in Ghana today. It also seeks to explain why the provision of low-cost quality education within impoverished communities can act as a catalyst for social change (Warren Mapp, 2011). While the concept of low-cost private schooling in African countries (such as Ghana and Nigeria) has been studied (Tooley, Dixon, Amuah, 2007), the challenges in using the community context to inform educational models while ensuring that social policies are sound are yet to be highlighted. This chapter will explore education’s role as a primary pillar of social change in a rural township in Ghana, West Africa.