Scientific Equity: Experiments in Laboratory Education in Ghana

Abstract

During the 1960s the Ministry of Education in Ghana created a network of school laboratories to increase scientific literacy among young citizens. The ministry stocked these "Science Centres" with imported beakers, Bunsen burners, and books. Education officials and university scientists worked with teachers to create lesson plans on water, air, plants, and other topics. The government hoped that scientifically minded schoolchildren would be better prepared to staff the industries of the future. The adoption of laboratory norms represented a desire for scientific equity, rather than a condition of cultural mimicry. Interviews with ministry officials and science educators, alongside letters and reports, indicate how students and teachers appropriated the laboratories in the small West African nation. Their experiences in mobilizing resources from across Ghana and around the world provide a metaphor for ongoing efforts to establish access to scientific goods in Africa.