Education Consulting in Kasoa, Ghana - What is an Impact?

By Naomi Mae Wilson

Before I begin my experience of impact and the reasons on why I was hesitant and critical of leaving a piece of it in Ghana, it is important to know my background. I am originally from San Diego, CA. I have a Bachelor’s in African American Studies, a Master’s in Educational Leadership and am currently pursuing my PhD in Education Policy. I have a good amount of experience in community organizing, social justice education, and leadership. My background fueled my desire to work in Africa generally and inspired me to apply to the William Davidson Institute Fellowship in Ghana specifically.  I arrived in Ghana knowing that the experience would be life changing. Not only because it was me returning to Africa for a significant amount of time, but also because it would be my first time working in another country. In the end, Ghana proved to be everything I could imagine and more. My experience was phenomenal and I am extremely grateful to the two other fellows I worked with, the Omega company, and the support I received from the Pearson Affordable Learning Fund (PALF).

With the Omega Schools Assessment Team in Kasoa, Ghana

When I first arrived in Ghana 11 weeks ago I kept reminding myself that I can not save anyone, nor should I want to, and that I would make the best out of any situation. Having been in education for nearly 5 years now I knew education in the context of the United States, but had no understanding for an international frame. All of my traveling has been for leisure and this fellowship with the William Davidson Institute was the first to serve as a job internationally.  I was tasked with leading assessments for a low-cost private school chain, Omega Schools, that would use its’ data for efficacy check ins and potential investors.  I spent a majority of my time learning the area, the employees, and building a strategic plan that would make our assessments drive as seamless as possible. We were to assess 10 schools, totaling to around 900 students, using the Ghana National Education Assessment (GNEA) along with the Early Grade Reading Assessment for third grade and sixth grade students. As someone who has done logistics for years and finds it to be fun, I was not worried about the task but about the process and the outcome. I, as a Black American woman, was to come in and assess students I have never had contact with and only had a very minimal baseline understanding of the context of the local community within Kasoa.  Outside of my concerns of being an outsider, I also was weary of the actual impacts I could make. Before coming to Ghana, I deemed success as leaving an impact on an organization, job, team, etc. and I was unsure if this could happen within my project. Ghana has taught me a lot over the last 11 weeks and moreover, has granted me a greater understanding of what an impact can mean for various people.

While in Ghana I often had to think about my own privileges of nationality. Moreover, I thought about culture and context and how I could be the least infringing on the local peoples’ thoughts and desires for the company. As someone who considers herself an advocate it was hard for me to think about the ways I may have been perpetuating stereotypes or not checking myself.  In this sense, and being in a whole other context, I had to think about the fact that I actually could be oppressive in my own ways. By thinking about solutions from an American standpoint or putting my thoughts on how things should be without consultation can be oppressive. I do not always know the solution and although I do have a skillset in consulting it is not the end all solution. Coming into the project, I held myself accountable to stay listening and to get a sense of what it was like in the context of Ghana before I made suggestions. This proved to be helpful because there were some issues we had to address but I would not have been able to address them had I not learned first. I would not have been able to make my own impact on myself if I didn’t stay uncomfortable and always in dialogue. These experiences and conversations proved to be fruitful as it gave me legitimacy in the eyes of my coworkers. Often, visitors come into developing countries and begin to dictate what people should do and how without first learning the communities wants and needs and their agency. Because of this, one may be leading charges and making headway on their own agendas but, in my opinion, are not making a positive impact with the community itself.

An impact is more than what you make it and a result of collaboration, humility, and understanding. My experience in Ghana, especially in the beginning, was foundational to how I conducted myself in this way and throughout the rest of the fellowship. I took the time to learn about my surroundings while also pushing back in respectful ways. I heard the interests of the locals and also made my concerns heard in a way that did not trump others. I took a bite of humble pie while also advocating for the betterment of the company even if it meant being critical of leadership. My personal project was successful because it was completed and will be useful for future endeavors. But even more so, I decided that it is of a colonizer disposition to come into a community, lead a project, and not teach the people how to be able to do it themselves. It creates a power dynamic that makes a people dependent on the “stakeholder” in order to succeed. This is a key piece of colonization. I decided that I would teach the leadership how to do assessments for themselves and gave them the tools to be able to lead it on their own. That way, it felt like I not only made an impact but also fulfilled my desire to be an advocate and collaboratively work towards agency. This topic of impact and agency are a few of many experiences that are worthy of being discussed and this post is the first to get the conversation going.