Institutional Gaps in Mathematics Education Research Procedures Between a Developed and Developing Country

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.