http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/8864 IEPA Tue, 14 Apr 2026 23:25:01 GMT 2026-04-14T23:25:01Z http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/9334 What is “policy”, a problem–solving definition or a process conceptualisation? Nudzor, Hope Pius An investigation into the usage of the term “policy” suggests that the term is elusive owing to the very many ways it is used to refer to a highly diverse set of phenomena. This paper reviews conceptions explicated in education policy literature to provide conceptual insights into the meaning of the term and an understanding of the dynamics of the policy process. The traditional problem-solving definition views policy fundamentally as a thing, a guide and a document of some sort, containing a page or flips of pages indicating policy choices reached by policy makers and which policy implementers or actors are to follow in dealing with a recognised problem of concern, and is thus criticised for two main reasons. Firstly, the view is criticised for neglecting the socio-cultural dynamism of policy processes. Secondly, it is criticised for its implicit over-determinism. The process model pays attention to the social agency of the policy process and is thus criticised for not focusing on policymaking, but on understanding actor interactions within the process. Based on these explorations, and in gauging a working definition of policy, the paper adopts a theoretical eclecticism approach whereby education policy is conceptualised as neither the product of policy making nor a process, but both. Significantly, policy in this context is conceptualised as referring fundamentally to the exercise of power and the language that is used to legitimate the process. Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/9334 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/9332 Using mobile phone texting to support the capacity of school leaders in Ghana to practise Leadership for Learning Swaffield, Sue; Jull, Stephen; Ampah-Mensah, Alfred Several years into a collaborative professional development programme to build the Leadership for Learning capacity of Basic school headteachers throughout Ghana, the challenge is to sustain commitment, deepen understanding and share learning among the school leaders. Employing ubiquitous mobile phone technology, weekly text messages have been sent to the programme’s 175 initial participants. During the year of the pilot project different forms of messages have been tried, and feedback from recipients suggests their value. The paper reports experience and findings from the pilot, and considers plans for scaling-up to reach all 18,000 Basic schools across the country Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/9332 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/9329 Unmasking complexities involved in operationalising UPE policy initiatives: Using the ‘fCUBE’ policy implementation in Ghana as an exemplar Nudzor, Hope Pius In most parts of the world today, the goal of providing all children with free and Universal Primary Education (UPE) has received broad national and international support and some educational systems have evolved from predominantly ‘fee-charging’ towards ‘fee-free’ status in recent times. In Ghana, for example, the endorsement of Education for All (EFA) and millennium development goals (MDGs) agreements coupled with commitment to internal constitutional reforms have resulted in the initiation of the Free Compulsory Universal, Basic Education (fCUBE) policy. Dishearteningly however, in many low-income countries (including Ghana), verbal commitments to these laudable social goals do not appear to be translated into the needed changes in policy and practice. This article draws on a case study of the fCUBE policy implementation to provide insights into the complexities involved in operationalising UPE policy initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa. The methodological approach involved the critical discourse analysis of interviews with Ghanaian education officials who mediate policy at the ‘mesolevel’. Owing to the commitments of the fCUBE policy to enhancing the educational opportunities and outcomes for the socially and economically disadvantaged, the paper sees it (i.e. the fCUBE policy) as deeply rooted in social democracy. However, it is argued that as long as there is a blurring in meaning of the intentions encapsulated in its title, primary education in Ghana cannot be said to be ‘free’, ‘compulsory’ and ‘universal’. It is concluded that accentuating policy purposes in low-income countries is not inherently problematic but that the challenges lie with how the intentions and provisions of policy are conceptualised and operationalised in context. Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/9329 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/9327 Unearthing the discursive shift in the ‘fCUBE’ policy implementation in Ghana: using critical discourse analysis Nudzor, Hope Pius This article analyses selected texts from documents on the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (fCUBE) policy implementation in Ghana to unearth the discursive shift in policy (i.e. from predominantly socialist/social democratic towards neo-liberal ideological policy direction) in recent time. The methodological approach involves the critical discourse analysis (CDA) of extracts selected purposefully from the fCUBE policy documents to show how Ghana’s education policy has evolved over time. Owing to its commitment to enhancing the educational opportunities of the socially and economically disadvantaged, the analyses view fCUBE as a rights-based policy deeply rooted in social democracy. However, the strategies for implementation outlined in the fCUBE policy documents do not appear consistent with the policy goals/ intentions. A significant discursive shift in policy direction and language of implementation is uncovered, which the article contends, is due to the emergence of neo-liberal ideological discourses on education wrapped in the rhetoric of ‘skills for the world of work’. The article concludes that owing to its potential to draw on language as a resource for analysing complex social issues, CDA is a useful interdisciplinary methodology for highlighting new textual formations and marginal discourses within policy texts and for tracing discursive shifts in policy implementation processes Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/9327 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z