The professionalism of teaching has been subject of an age long debate. Teachers beseech others to recognize them as professionals and they become belligerent when they fail to receive recognition. Since 2018, Ghana has instituted the Ghana Teacher Licensure Examinations (GTLE) to regulate entry into the teaching profession. This policy has received a mixed bag of reactions with the populace sharply divided in opinion. Given that knowledge gap existed, it was important to interrogate the general perception of all stakeholders across Ghana to unravel how the GTLE is perceived among stakeholders. This paper is culled out of a broader study that employed a mixed-methods research approach in a nationwide study involving over 2800 respondents. For this paper, we report on the qualitative data generated from 145 participants. We describe the concerns of stakeholders who are in favour, against, or ambivalent about the GTLE. Drawing on an adaptation of CBAM model, we discuss stakeholders’ perceptions of GTLE as stages of concern. We conclude that stakeholders opposed to the licensing of teachers do so because of their concerns about its form, content, and other logistical challenges. To sustain the policy, it is recommended for the National Teaching Council and the Ministry of Education to take steps to address these concerns. Regardless, what stakeholders agree to be the biggest strength of the GTLE is that it is a positive step towards professionalizing teaching. It is a useful yardstick to determine who is qualified to perform the function of teaching, and prevents all others who do not qualify from accessing classrooms.
| Published in | Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies (Volume 9, Issue 1) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.tecs.20240901.13 |
| Page(s) | 21-29 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Teacher Professionalism, Teacher Licensing, Qualitative Research, Ghana
| [1] | Friedson, E. Professionalism: The third logic. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2001. |
| [2] | Inlow, G. M. “Is teaching a profession?,” Sch. Rev., vol. 64, no. 6, pp. 256–259, 1956. |
| [3] | Berman, R. A. “Teaching as vocation,” PMLA, vol. 127, no. 3, pp. 451–459, 2012. |
| [4] | Mpuangnan, K. N. “Trends in the development of Ghanaian teacher education,” in Teacher Education in the Global Era: Perspectives and Practices, Singapore: Springer Nature, 2020, pp. 239–255. |
| [5] | McWilliam, H. O. A. and Kwamena-Poh, The development of education in Ghana. London: Longman, 1969. |
| [6] | Esia-Donkoh, K. Addai-Mununkum, R. Appianing, J. and Ofosu-Dwamena, E. Fundamental of effective teaching: An introductory guide for the 21st Century educator. Accra: Sprint Publications, 2021. |
| [7] | Parliament, Republic of Ghana, Education Regulatory Bodies Act. 2020. |
| [8] | Ministry of Education, “National teachers’ standards for Ghana: Guidelines.” TTel, 2017. |
| [9] | Baah, E. “Trainee teachers demonstrate against licensure exams - Graphic Online,” Graphiconline, Accra, Aug. 28, 2018. Accessed: Jun. 29, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/trainee-teachers-demonstrate-against-licensure-exams.html |
| [10] | GNA, “Teacher Unions Oppose License Exams,” Modern Ghana, Accra, Jun. 15, 2021. Accessed: Jun. 29, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.modernghana.com/news/861343/teacher-unions-oppose-license-exams.html |
| [11] | Nyarko-Sampson, E. “To scrap the Ghana Teacher Licensure Examinations (GTLE)? - What I see and how I see it - Graphic Online,” Graphic Online, Accra, 2020. Accessed: Jun. 29, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.graphic.com.gh/features/features/to-scrap-the-ghana-teacher-licensure-examinations-gtle-what-i-see-and-how-i-see-it.html |
| [12] | Kojo, E. “Over 8000 teachers fail licensure exams | Pulse Ghana,” Graphic Online, Accra, 2021. Accessed: Jun. 29, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.pulse.com.gh/news/local/over-8000-teachers-fail-licensure-exams/fty4lfv |
| [13] | Atinkaonline, “Licensure exams: About 26,000 teachers have failed since 2018,” GhanaWeb, May 18, 2021. Accessed: Jun. 29, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Licensure-exams-About-26-000-teachers-have-failed-since-2018-1264837 |
| [14] | Hall, G. E. and Hord, S. Implementing change: Patterns, principles, and potholes 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson New Jersey; Pearson Education Inc., 2015. |
| [15] | Hall, G. E. “The Concerns-Based Adoption Model: A Developmental Conceptualization of the Adoption Process Within Educational Institutions.” National Inst. of Education (DHEW), 1974. |
| [16] | Hall, G. E. “The concerns-based approach to facilitating change,” Educ. Horiz., vol. 57, no. 4, pp. 202–208, 1979. |
| [17] | Frechette, J. Bitzas, V. Aubry, M. Kilpatrick, K, and Lavoie-Tremblay, M. “Capturing lived experience: Methodological considerations for interpretive phenomenological inquiry,” Int. J. Qual. Methods, vol. 19, p. 1609406920907254, 2020. |
| [18] | Padilla-Díaz, M. “Phenomenology in educational qualitative research: Philosophy as science or philosophical science,” Int. J. Educ. Excell., vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 101–110, 2015. |
| [19] | Sloan, A. and Bowe, B. “Phenomenology and hermeneutic phenomenology: The philosophy, the methodologies, and using hermeneutic phenomenology to investigate lecturers’ experiences of curriculum design,” Qual. Quant., vol. 48, no. 3, pp. 1291–1303, 2014. |
| [20] | Creswell, J. W. Qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five traditions. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2013. |
| [21] | Barton, K. C. “Young adolescents’ positioning of human rights: Findings from Colombia, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and the United States,” Res. Comp. Int. Educ., vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 48–70, 2015. |
| [22] | Shaheen, M. and Pradhan, S. “Sampling in qualitative research,” in Qualitative techniques for workplace data analysis, IGI Global, 2019, pp. 25–51. |
| [23] | Olson, K. Lannan, K. Cumming, J. MacGillivary, H. and Richards, K. “The Concerns-Based Adoption Model and Strategic Plan Evaluation: Multiple Methodologies to Understand Complex Change,” Educ. Res., vol. 31, no. 3, 2020. |
APA Style
Addai-Mununkum, R., Amoah, S. A., Tamanja, E. M. J., Amos, P. M., Agyeman, E. A., et al. (2024). “It Makes Us Feel More Professional!” Stakeholders’ Perception of the Ghana Teacher Licensure Examination. Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies, 9(1), 21-29. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.tecs.20240901.13
ACS Style
Addai-Mununkum, R.; Amoah, S. A.; Tamanja, E. M. J.; Amos, P. M.; Agyeman, E. A., et al. “It Makes Us Feel More Professional!” Stakeholders’ Perception of the Ghana Teacher Licensure Examination. Teach. Educ. Curric. Stud. 2024, 9(1), 21-29. doi: 10.11648/j.tecs.20240901.13
AMA Style
Addai-Mununkum R, Amoah SA, Tamanja EMJ, Amos PM, Agyeman EA, et al. “It Makes Us Feel More Professional!” Stakeholders’ Perception of the Ghana Teacher Licensure Examination. Teach Educ Curric Stud. 2024;9(1):21-29. doi: 10.11648/j.tecs.20240901.13
Share This Article
Twitter
Linked In
Facebook
Copy
Download@article{10.11648/j.tecs.20240901.13,
author = {Richardson Addai-Mununkum and Samuel Asare Amoah and Emmanuel Makabu Jagri Tamanja and Patricia Mawusi Amos and Edmond Akwasi Agyeman and Christian Addai-Poku and Peter Akayuure and Hinneh Kusi},
title = {“It Makes Us Feel More Professional!” Stakeholders’ Perception of the Ghana Teacher Licensure Examination},
journal = {Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies},
volume = {9},
number = {1},
pages = {21-29},
doi = {10.11648/j.tecs.20240901.13},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.tecs.20240901.13},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.tecs.20240901.13},
abstract = {The professionalism of teaching has been subject of an age long debate. Teachers beseech others to recognize them as professionals and they become belligerent when they fail to receive recognition. Since 2018, Ghana has instituted the Ghana Teacher Licensure Examinations (GTLE) to regulate entry into the teaching profession. This policy has received a mixed bag of reactions with the populace sharply divided in opinion. Given that knowledge gap existed, it was important to interrogate the general perception of all stakeholders across Ghana to unravel how the GTLE is perceived among stakeholders. This paper is culled out of a broader study that employed a mixed-methods research approach in a nationwide study involving over 2800 respondents. For this paper, we report on the qualitative data generated from 145 participants. We describe the concerns of stakeholders who are in favour, against, or ambivalent about the GTLE. Drawing on an adaptation of CBAM model, we discuss stakeholders’ perceptions of GTLE as stages of concern. We conclude that stakeholders opposed to the licensing of teachers do so because of their concerns about its form, content, and other logistical challenges. To sustain the policy, it is recommended for the National Teaching Council and the Ministry of Education to take steps to address these concerns. Regardless, what stakeholders agree to be the biggest strength of the GTLE is that it is a positive step towards professionalizing teaching. It is a useful yardstick to determine who is qualified to perform the function of teaching, and prevents all others who do not qualify from accessing classrooms.
},
year = {2024}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - “It Makes Us Feel More Professional!” Stakeholders’ Perception of the Ghana Teacher Licensure Examination AU - Richardson Addai-Mununkum AU - Samuel Asare Amoah AU - Emmanuel Makabu Jagri Tamanja AU - Patricia Mawusi Amos AU - Edmond Akwasi Agyeman AU - Christian Addai-Poku AU - Peter Akayuure AU - Hinneh Kusi Y1 - 2024/02/28 PY - 2024 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.tecs.20240901.13 DO - 10.11648/j.tecs.20240901.13 T2 - Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies JF - Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies JO - Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies SP - 21 EP - 29 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2575-4971 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.tecs.20240901.13 AB - The professionalism of teaching has been subject of an age long debate. Teachers beseech others to recognize them as professionals and they become belligerent when they fail to receive recognition. Since 2018, Ghana has instituted the Ghana Teacher Licensure Examinations (GTLE) to regulate entry into the teaching profession. This policy has received a mixed bag of reactions with the populace sharply divided in opinion. Given that knowledge gap existed, it was important to interrogate the general perception of all stakeholders across Ghana to unravel how the GTLE is perceived among stakeholders. This paper is culled out of a broader study that employed a mixed-methods research approach in a nationwide study involving over 2800 respondents. For this paper, we report on the qualitative data generated from 145 participants. We describe the concerns of stakeholders who are in favour, against, or ambivalent about the GTLE. Drawing on an adaptation of CBAM model, we discuss stakeholders’ perceptions of GTLE as stages of concern. We conclude that stakeholders opposed to the licensing of teachers do so because of their concerns about its form, content, and other logistical challenges. To sustain the policy, it is recommended for the National Teaching Council and the Ministry of Education to take steps to address these concerns. Regardless, what stakeholders agree to be the biggest strength of the GTLE is that it is a positive step towards professionalizing teaching. It is a useful yardstick to determine who is qualified to perform the function of teaching, and prevents all others who do not qualify from accessing classrooms. VL - 9 IS - 1 ER -
Department of Educational Foundations, University of Education, Winneba, Ghana
Information