Abstract:
A current major initiative of the Centre for Commonwealth Education at the University of
Cambridge is a collaboration with the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, aimed at improving
the quality of pedagogy in Ghanaian basic schools through learning-centred school
leadership. Headteachers throughout the country are participating in a programme devised
and facilitated by fifteen Ghanaian educators known as Professional Development Leaders,
who have been prepared for this role by working with colleagues at the University of
Cambridge Faculty of Education, first at a workshop in Ghana and then at a summer school
in Cambridge. The work takes as its theoretical framework the Leadership for Learning
principles and framework developed through the Carpe Vitam Leadership for Learning
project. In the early stages of the initiative it was essential to ascertain the current situation
and to consider the context in which the development was to take place. This paper reports
the Professional Development Leaders’ perceptions of the opportunities and challenges for
developing Leadership for Learning in Ghanaian basic schools.
