Influence Of Textile Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge On Senior High School Graduates Participation In Modernisation Of Indigenous Ghanaian Textile Industry

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of textile teachers’

pedagogical content knowledge on senior high school graduates’ participation in

the modernisation of the indigenous textile industry. Textile training institutions

in Ghana are designed to train the skills needed for the modernisation of the

large-scale and indigenous textile industries. There have been numerous

criticisms that the pedagogical content knowledge of textile teachers/lecturers

do not equip the school graduates with the skills required to modernise the textile

industries. Many studies have been done on the influence of pedagogical content

knowledge of Ghana tertiary textile lecturers on the modernisation of the largescale

textile industry. However, many studies have not been done on the

influence of pedagogical content knowledge of Ghana senior high school textile

teachers on the modernisation of the indigenous textile industry hence the need

for this study. The study was guided by the following five (5) specific objectives:

to establish the influence of demographic characteristics of Ghana senior high

schools textile teachers on school graduates participation in modernisation of the

indigenous textile industry; to establish the influence of pedagogical content

knowledge of Ghana senior high textile teachers on the skills acquisition of

school graduates; to determine the nature of pedagogical strategies used by

Ghana senior high school textile teachers in training their students; to determine

the influence of challenges facing Ghana senior high schools textile training on

the operations of indigenous textile industry; to develop a pedagogical model for

modernisation of the indigenous Ghanaian textile industry based on the findings

of the study. The study employed system theory. Purposive sampling was used

to select senior high schools offering textiles, simple random sampling was used

to randomly select textile teachers and snowball sampling was used to trace

senior high school textile graduates working in the indigenous textile industry.

The study design employed was a cross-sectional survey. The total sample size

was 243 (225 textile teachers, 12 textile graduates and 6 HoDs). The research

instruments used for data collection were a questionnaire, interview guide and

non-participant observation. Inferential statistics such as a one-way-analysis of

variance (ANOVA) and point-biserial correlation were used to test the null

hypotheses formulated. The study found that the pedagogical content knowledge

competencies of Ghana senior high schools textile teachers cannot equip school

graduates with the skills needed to modernise the indigenous textile industry.

The study also found that textile teachers used lecture and discussion methods

of teaching than skill acquisition instructional strategies such as field trips,

demonstration and work-based. The study recommended that the ministry of

education should periodically sponsor textile teachers to have industrial

attachments in both local and international renowned textile industries to learn

modern skills of textile manufacturing. The study also recommended that workbased

(industrial attachment) should be introduced into Ghana senior high

schools textile training system.