Ghana Today: The Challenges of a Developing Nation
Marijke Breuning
Department of Political Science
Truman State University
First, let me thank CIEE and the Ping Fellowship review committee for the wonderful opportunity to travel to Ghana and participate in the IFDS “Ghana Today: The Challenges of a Developing Nation.” The Ping Fellowship’s support made it possible for me to participate, as my university’s ability to fund this type of travel is extremely limited. I am grateful to have received this support and thank the Ping Fellowship review committee for awarding me this fellowship.
The seminar was a tremendously valuable experience, not in the least because of the expertise and experienced expert leadership provided by Dr. Michael Williams. The program of lectures and site visits he put together seamlessly combined highly informative lectures with opportunities to observe and experience Ghanaian politics and society. The seminar provided a stimulating experience that has motivated me to continue to read and learn about Ghana. I will be looking for ways to return to this beautiful and thriving West African country for further study. The opportunity to visit Ghana during the year of its 50th anniversary of sovereign (postcolonial) statehood made the experience all the more meaningful.
As a result of my personal very positive experience, I have suggested to colleagues that they apply for CIEE seminars and pointed them to opportunities that, in my judgment, connect well with their areas of interest and expertise. In addition, I have always been a strong advocate for study abroad programs, but can now speak more knowledgeably about study abroad in Ghana.
Impact on courses
The political science curriculum at Truman State University is structured and sequenced. Students complete seven required courses in a recommended sequence. This leaves only four electives. This structured and sequenced curriculum has many advantages for student learning, but also entails that it makes more sense to enhance existing courses rather than to design new ones.
Two of the courses I teach annually are part of the sequence (the Introduction to Political Science and the Introduction to International Relations). Both of these courses reap the benefits of my participation in the seminar. In addition, one of my elective courses, entitled “Women, Gender, and Politics,” has benefited. This last course is cross-listed with the Women’s Studies Minor. What follows is an outline of the teaching materials I have developed, or am still in the process of developing, for each of these courses. Although there is some overlap between the materials for the different courses, each has its own emphasis and is placed within the context of the syllabus of the specific course.
Introduction to International Relations: I am currently teaching this course and have incorporated my experiences in Ghana into the material taught thus far. There are additional modifications to the course I am in the process of implementing.
Most introductory treatments of international relations include a discussion of the history of the international state system. The course I teach is no different. As a result of my participation in the IFDS “Ghana Today,” however, I have been able to include more tangible information about one specific example of a country that experienced colonialism. Ghana’s landscape includes tangible evidence of both the first and second wave of imperialism, the seminar’s suggested readings included an insightful historical treatment of Ghana’s experience with European colonialism, and the lectures also provided ample material that helped me teach this segment of the course in a much more appealing (and less theoretical) way. I now can point to landmarks and historic events, and I also have better knowledge of the degree to which the struggle against colonialism persisted throughout the entire period of colonization. In short, I have been able to enhance this segment of the course with tangible details from Ghana’s history.
I am still working on integrating material from the seminar into the course segments on globalization, the world economy, and the challenges of development. I have ample theoretical material, but my participation in the seminar permits me to incorporate information on, and examples from, the specific case of Ghana. My goal here is to bring the subject matter to life on the basis of a combination of what I learnt from lectures and reading, as well as personal observation during the seminar’s excursions.
Introduction to Political Science: I will teach this course during the Spring semester. Most modifications to this course are currently still in the planning stages. One segment of the course concerns globalization. I teach this with a specific emphasis on the North-South dimensions of globalization. Ghana’s economy and its position in the global economy will serve as the case study used to illustrate the concepts.
Another segment of the course examines the challenges of development within the context of globalization. Ghana will serve as the core case study. The focus will be on domestic aspects of economic development, with attention to social and cultural changes that accompany development, as well as the challenges of democratization. I have a wealth of notes and additional readings from which to draw, as well as pictures I plan to share with my students.
Women, Gender, and Politics: I am currently teaching this course and have incorporated elements into this course that result directly from my experiences in Ghana.
In discussing the challenges faced by women in developing countries, I have drawn upon both lectures and site visits to enhance this course. The lecture by Dr. Okosua-Darkwah was especially relevant for my purposes here. I am in the process of reading some of the materials she suggested and will continue to make further enhancements to this course. In addition, the site visit to the Women’s Initiative for Self-Empowerment (WISE) and the visit to the market in Kumasi provided experiences that have given me tangible examples to use in class discussions.
Finally, I enhance each course’s lectures with visual materials in the form of pictures I took while in Ghana. Most of my students have not traveled much. It is rare to find a student who has traveled to a developing country. I have found that pictures in books have much less impact than presentation in which I use pictures I took myself and about which I can tell personal stories.
Impact on Research
My past research has focused on development cooperation from the perspective of aid donors. Part of my reason for participating in the seminar in Ghana was that it offered an opportunity to learn more about development, as well as the relationship between aid donors and recipients, from the perspective of a recipient country. The seminar has encouraged me to think in news ways about the role of development cooperation (and aid) in the achievement of development objectives.
I am delving into a new literature to further develop my ideas and hope to eventually publish work that focuses on development issues from the perspective of developing countries and various constituencies within those countries. I am specifically interested in the role of women in development and in the impact development has on women’s lives and gender roles. The seminar has permitted me to delve into this subject matter and to begin to formulate research questions that seem more relevant to real-world problems than the questions I might have pursued without the benefit of the learning I was able to accomplish during the seminar.
Final Words
As I indicated above, the Ping Fellowship provided important support for my participation in the IFDS “Ghana Today.” The experience was immensely valuable for me personally and will continue to have an impact on the lives of the students passing through my classrooms: I have made improvements to segments of my classes and have planned specific additional improvements, as detailed above.
I do wish to note that the impact of this experience is not limited to these specific examples. I continue to develop further knowledge not just about Ghana, but also about other developing countries. In the future, I hope to have the opportunity to participate in additional CIEE seminars and enhance my teaching and research even more substantially. I am grateful to have received the support of the Ping Fellowship and thank the review committee for awarding me this fellowship.