Presentations

I attended the 10-11:30 presentations today and left with so much knowledge. I missed a good portion of Corrine’s presentation on Ethnocentrism in Ghana which totally stunk because that was the one I wanted to go to the most! Oh well, teaches me to wake up on time.  But what I did get from her presentation was fascinating.  She talked about how the Ghanaian government is trying to unite the nation and move towards nationalism.  She discussed that many Ghanaians are for keeping their native and cultural traditions. However, she did mention that it really varies from town to town. She was in a more rural town outside of a major city and inhabitants there do tend to drift more towards ancestral traditions. A question was asked about if Ghanaians believe there is one identity for them and the answer was definitely not.

The next speakers were Jennifer and Kristen. They spoke about the dropout prevention program put in place at a majority Navajo high school on a Reservation Border. The topic was interesting but not even closely related to my area of interest for my research. However, I learned A LOT about the methodology for Field Studies. They began describing the advantages of a participatory evaluation. The students at the school were really “surveyed” out and a participatory evaluation where they were able to have one on one time with the researchers was very beneficial. The disadvantages were posed that it was time consuming. You had to spend a long time building up a relationship with the individual and afterwards you had to transcribe all of your notes. This is what I plan on doing in the field so I learned mainly from their presentation that practicing before hand will really help me. The next major point they discussed was the fact that they were both foreign white girls coming to ask them tons of questions. You could see how some could react negatively to them. Likewise, I am going to be a foreign white girl to the hundreds of Ghanaians I will come across. The Navajo’s and Ghanaians are both similar in that they don’t have very great history with white people. This is something that I can’t help but I believe if I respect the culture and tradition of Ghanaians it will improve our relationship. Focus groups will really help in this sense I believe because there are other people like them and it isn’t as intimidating or nerve-wracking to sit one on one in an interview. I know from personal experience the second someone has an interview with me I get really stiff but in a group setting I’m able to loosen up more.

The third speaker talked primarily about private education in Ecuador and although I didn’t understand everything he was saying, I was intrigued with his topic of interest. Again it was about an educational system and the main parts I took away from his project were the disadvantages or limiting factors he came across. I know that I am not going to come into Ghana with even half of the knowledge I’ll need but anything I research now and learn about now will help me to avoid any stumbling blocks I can foresee.