Abstract:
Ghana is located on the west coast of Africa. It is bounded on the north by Burkina
Faso, west by Ivory Coast, east by Togo and south by the Gulf of Guinea, Ghana was a
former British colony under the name of Gold Coast, and obtained her independence in
1957 from the British. With an area (of 238 534 km2) which is about 3% of the area of
Australia, Ghana supports a population (of 22 113 000, a 2005 estimate) which is
approximately the same as Australia’s. The most predominant religion in Ghana is
Christianity (63% of the population are Christians). English language is the official and
national language of Ghana, although some 49 languages and dialects are spoken in the
country. Ghana’s GNP per capita is US$380 (2004 estimate) with agriculture being the
backbone of her economy. The major export commodities of the country include cocoa,
gold and timber. Ghana has a long history of formal education dating back from precolonial
times (1529). Ghana presently operates six years of primary education, three years
of junior high school education and four years of senior high school education at the pretertiary
level. With the exception of grades 1-3, the medium of instruction at all levels of
education is English language (see Owu-Ewie, 2006). The next section looks at the context
of the data collection exercise, which is the author’s (i.e. first author’s) ongoing PhD thesis
study, investigating cultural influences on primary school students’ mathematical
conceptions and practices. This will be followed by a review of some previous studies on
gaps in educational research phenomenon among countries. The author’s experiences
collecting data in Ghana is then presented. The author as used in this paper refers to the
first author.
