Guided Reflective Inquiry Project (GRIP) in Ghana
June 3, 2014 (Bolgatanga, Ghana)
It is 3 days before the Faculty of Education’s student team, Jessica Bens, Holly Corbett, Meghan Epp, Alisha Hoy, Dorothy Marcy, Stephen MacInnis and Sara Pereira arrive to begin their project with the Nabdam Schools just outside Bolgatanga, Upper East, Ghana. Invited to participate in a collaborative project with the Nabdam School District, the Nabit Language committee and Project Ghana Rural Opportunities for Women (GROW), the students will work with local Ghana hosts to co-create books that reflect the Nabit culture and provide culturally relevant material for primary schools.
The GRIP project
The Nabit people grow up with traditional stories, and they have chosen 4 to become the material for the storybooks. The Faculty of Education’s teaching candidates will collaborate with local teachers and local high school students to gather photos and text. Local high school students will write the text and their participation will serve as part of their English coursework.
Over the next few weeks there will be many forays into the countryside as the teacher candidates work with the high school students to collect the photographs that will illustrate the books.
Making comes to Ghana
Along with the book project, the Nabdam school district has asked if the UBC students would be able to conduct an inquiry-based workshop, thus creating an opportunity for a inquiry-orientated learning Ghana. On June 13th, the student team will welcome 32 teachers from the local schools.
Finally, our team is especially lucky to have one of our Secondary Teacher Education Program (STEP) students, with a background in the trades, who will offer a bike workshop which will also modeled on the maker day approach. Our whole team will participate.
Many of the adults have bikes and are looking forward to a chance to participate and the event will be held in the new community centre located in the host village of Project GROW (Nybok).
Nabit Language
Alongside the UBC GRIP project, Robyn Giffen, a UBC linguistic anthropology student, will research the creation of an alphabet and writing system. As part of her master’s degree research, she will be interviewing members of the community since we arrived with the goal of helping the community establish, for the first time, an alphabet and writing system. Robyn is working with the Nabit language committee. Her project’s long term goal is for the Nabdam school district to have material in the Nabit language available in the primary grades, keeping with the Ghanaian Government mandate to include more mother tongue resources in their education program, Robyn’s work is a significant step in that direction.
Why Ghana?
The communities involved in this project have an established relationship through Project GROW, an NGO that began on the UBC Okanagan campus, and through Dr. Vida Yakong. Yakong, co-founder of GROW, completed her graduate studies at UBC’s Okanagan campus. Over the past 7 years GROW has developed a number of sustainable, economic activities that have improved the lives of women and their families in several Nabdam communities.
Over the course of Project GROW’s activities there has been sustainable positive change. For example: malaria has been significantly reduced, there is a school lunch program, a micro-loan program, a girl-child education program, a livestock program, and an adult education program; however, the schools still lack resources,
One notably resource is culturally relevant reading material. This year’s project is a chance to contribute in a different way by building capacity in the schools, while providing a unique experience for our UBC teacher candidates
Throughout the next few weeks the teacher candidates, myself, and perhaps some of our in-country partners will be sharing our experiences – hope you enjoy the journey with us!