Assertiveness deficit; a negative Ghanaian social construct
On Thursday, May 23 2024, I moderated a meeting to validate the findings of a Gender Transformative research on the Bachelor of Education (B. Ed) Basic Education Curriculum for Colleges of Education in Ghana. It was the second event I had the privilege to moderate in less than a week.
The session assembled policymakers, Education Sector Institutions with key mandates in teacher training and its regulations, as well as representatives of education faculties in the leading Universities and Teacher Training Colleges in Ghana. The objective was to validate the research commissioned by Africa Education Watch with support from Oxfam, and explore strategies to advocate gender transformation in teacher education.
The B.Ed Basic Education Curriculum is instrumental in moulding the various forms of teachers imparting knowledge to learners within Ghana’s educational ecosystem. The curriculum seeks to ensure that the training of teachers is adequately transformative, and encourages impartial acknowledgement of the various genders, vis-a-vis imparting knowledge and instilling discipline among others.
My major takeaway from the session was the subject matter, “ASSERTIVENESS DEFICITS in Ghana’s teacher training”, and how to address the problem from the training of the teacher to equip them to handle issues that arise by virtue of same. It was recommended that assertiveness should be designed as a course or subject in the curriculum due to its absolute necessity.
How then do we build assertiveness in teacher trainees to enable them to impart the same to learners?
As a socio-cultural problem, assertiveness, in the Ghanaian context, is by default, misconstrued as arrogance and disrespect, no matter the subject matter. It bears noting that religious norms also discourage assertiveness. Such norms have degenerated into assertiveness deficits, as illustrated below:
Case 1: A university lecturer (for instance an H.O.D) makes advances towards a student, and owing to the refusal of the student to comply, the lecturer threatens and acts upon it to embarrass or fail the student in their course, and sometimes coerce other lecturers into doing same. There is an absence of effective reporting and redress channels for such incidents due to the power dynamics in our tertiary and pre-tertiary institutions.
Case 2: A student, upon further reading on a subject, intellectually challenges or disagrees with a teacher on a subject matter, and as sociocultural norms would have it, the teacher vehemently retorts and disagrees, and further punishes the student for “disrespect”. This is not subject to redress by an authority, sometimes, even when parents get involved, because the school may justify the actions of the teacher at all costs, to the detriment of the learner.
Case 3: A child at home is wrongfully accused by an elderly, and in an attempt to explain and/or defend, the child speaks up, only to be immediately screamed at to SHUT UP, because “when an elderly is speaking, a child does not interject”, and “an elderly person does not stand trial with a child and lose”. The child is gaged and not allowed to express themselves, not even to defend, and this forms a disturbingly solid base for assertiveness deficit in their upbringing.
As a recommended solution, there is the need for a critical mass of individuals in teacher training institutions and universities to enact assertiveness into teacher trainees, for further transfer to learners, albeit entrenched in curricula. This would have to go hand-in-hand with disabling power relations in tertiary and pre-tertiary institutions to allow trainees and university students to be assertive and facilitate the transfer of same.
Ergo, it is critical that we rewire society to accept assertiveness as an important tool in the development of a child. With assertiveness in their toolbox, children become individuals who do not stand the risk of being easily tumbled upon and intimidated, but ones who exude confidence and are expressive in all facets of their lives. In the long run, it benefits us all.
So, as a teacher (lecturer, instructor, tutor, etc.) parent, brother, sister, don’t victimize, don’t intimidate, don’t gag. Rather, inspire and encourage assertiveness in that child as much as you can.
Pass it on! Be a nurturer or catalyst for assertiveness. Be an ambassador for Transformation.
Kwasi Nimo Jnr is a Communications Specialist and Education Policy Influencer. He is also the Programme Officer for education policy thinktank, Africa Education Watch.
©Kwasi Nimo Jnr