ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
“It Belongs To God”: The Rhetoric of Fundraising Speeches by Church Leaders

Language is the most widely used medium to achieve persuasion. The study of rhetoric in religion aims at identifying the persuasive strategies in speeches of religious leaders. It is against this background that this study was conducted. The current study explored the rhetoric embedded in the speeches of Charismatic church leaders during fundraising in church through the lens of Aristotle’s Classical Theory on Rhetoric, (logos, ethos and pathos) and other rhetorical devices such as tropes and schema. The study was grounded in the qualitative research approach, with (26) speeches which constituted the data for the analysis. The analysis revealed that church leaders used the second person pronoun ‘you’ and active verbs such as ‘give’, ‘bring’, ‘take’ among others to persuade their congregants. The data disclosed that ethos, logos and pathos posited by Aristotle as persuasive technique were one of the effective tools the speakers used to achieve persuasion. The study concludes that the appeal to emotions (that is, pathos) influenced persuasion more than the other modes did. The study contributes to studies on the rhetoric of religious genres, especially, in fundraising that has received inadequate attention.

Source: UCC
It is all about livelihoods: A study of women working in stone chip production in Cape Coast Municipality, Ghana

Outcrops of granite in several localities in the urban and peri-urban fringes of Cape Coast Municipality in Ghana have led to stone chip production becoming a major livelihood strategy for vulnerable and poor women. Previously, this work was primarily carried out by men, but today female workers dominate the workforce, and increasingly it is seen as a way for women to seek a viable living in conditions which are otherwise marginalized and poor in economic terms. The demand for stone chips has increased with the high demand for construction materials for housing in the town of Cape Coast. However, the women’s choice of livelihoods strategy (stone cutting) prevents them from gaining other experiences from more lucrative processes. Hence, as stone cutters, they are disadvantaged within the increasingly commercialized economy. Against this background it can be argued that a feminization of poverty is taking place. The data for the study were derived through structured and unstructured interviews, focus group discussions and direct observation, and analyzed according to a livelihoods framework

Source: UCC
It’s a Woman’s Thing: Gender Roles Sustaining the Practice of Female Genital Mutilation Among the Kassena-Nankana of Northern Ghana

Introduction The practice of female genital mutilation (FGM/C) in traditional African societies is grounded in traditions of patriarchy that subjugate women. It is widely assumed that approaches to eradicating the practice must therefore focus on women’s empowerment and changing gender roles. Methods This paper presents findings from a qualitative study of the FGM/C beliefs and opinions of men and women in Kassena-Nankana District of northern Ghana. Data are analyzed from 22 focus group panels of young women, young men, reproductive age women, and male social leaders. Results The social systemic influences on FGM/C decision-making are complex. Men represent exogenous sources of social influence on FGM/C decisions through their gender roles in the patriarchal system. As such, their FGM/C decision influence is more prominent for uncircumcised brides at the time of marriage than for FGM/C decisions concerning unmarried adolescents. Women in extended family compounds are relatively prominent as immediate sources of influence on FGM/C decision-making for both brides and adolescents. Circumcised women are the main source of social support for the practice, which they exercise through peer pressure in concert with co-wives. Junior wives entering a polygynous marriage or a large extended family are particularly vulnerable to this pressure. Men are less influential and more open to suggestions of eliminating the practice of FGM/C than women. Conclusion Findings attest to the need for social research on ways to involve men in the promotion of FGM/C abandonment, building on their apparent openness to social change. Investigation is also needed on ways to marshal women’s social networks for offsetting their extended family familial roles in sustaining FGM/C practices.

Source: UCC
It’s about people: identifying the focus of parliamentary debates through a corpus-driven approach

The aim of this paper is two-fold: (1) to demonstrate the usefulness of corpus-driven methods in determining a research focus, and (2) to show that ‘people’-focussing is a key feature of UK and Ghanaian parliamentary debates. Identifying one’s research focus in discourse analysis after collecting a large amount of data can be challenging. It is relatively easier to in point the items and focus of the research when the researcher employs a corpus-based method, since he or she normally has a theory to validate, refute or refine. However, when the researcher has assembled his or her data without having in advance specific theories, features, themes and concepts relating to the discourse that he or she intends to study, it becomes difficult to identify the essential issues on which to concentrate and explore. Perhaps this is even more challenging when dealing with parliamentary debates data given the wide-ranging subjects and alternative courses of action deliberated by parliamentarians. In such a situation, a corpus-driven method can be highly useful. As art of a major study of parliamentary discourse, this a per demonstrates how a corpus-driven method can help in determining one’s research focus in the study parliamentary debates

Source: UCC
‘I’ll DEAL with You …’: power and domination in discourse in a Ghanaian educational context

In spite of the democratic arrangements that have been made to ensure students’ participation in decision-making in the administration of Ghana’s school system, it is not uncommon to hear of students’ strikes and demonstrations which often result in the destruction of public property and closure of schools. Studies that observe the power dynamics between students and educators as they engage in decision-making and negotiation may contribute to our understanding of conflicts in schools, as well as the need to find solutions to these conflicts. This study applied Critical Discourse Analysis in analysing a 13-minute segment of a meeting between members of staff and student leaders in a Ghanaian senior high school. The study reveals discursive features through which social power and domination are reproduced and enacted in the discourse. Also, school authorities employ both positive self-representation and negative other-representation in cognitively controlling the minds of student leaders. The study has significant implications for power and domination in educational practice

Source: UCC
The “I” in “Othered” Sexualities: Queer Intimacies in Chinelo Okparanta’s Under The Udala Trees And Zukiswa Wanner’s Men Of The South

Knowledge about queer Africans is largely not just erroneous, but also mythical. The labyrinth of existent scholarship on the queer African is mainly factored on the hypothesis of anti-queer. While a number of African writers do not disclose specified embodiments of the incontrovertible same-sex erotic acts, one could apprehend traces of such acts in some African literary works. Studies on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, queer, asexual and intersex (LGBTQAI+) have on the whole elicited considerable attention. Critics mostly contend that the consciousness of an individual’s sexuality and sexual orientation remains their inherent individual experiences. This study underpins the emerging presentation of queerness by some African writers. The research further demonstrates how contemporary works of fiction generate space and language with their narratives for the experiences of queer individuals within the African culture. Drawing on the influential queer theory, the study explores ways in which characters in Chinelo Okparanta’s Under the Udala Trees (2015) and Zukiswa Wanner’s Men of the South (2010) contribute to the conversation about the body and sexuality. The thesis further examined some literary roles queer sexualities play in the texts one of which is: the use of metaphor to justify some significant decisions and actions taken by the queer protagonists.

Source: UCC
The Jaman south district senior high school students' perception of school rules and regulations

The study was conducted to find out the Jaman South District Senior High School Students’ perception of school rules and regulations. It adopted the descriptive sample survey design that involved the collection and test of hypothesis concerning the status of subject of the study. The questionnaire was the set of survey instrument that was designed by the researcher to collect data from a sampled size of 200 students drawn from a total population of 1700 from two schools; Drobo Senior High School and Our Lady of Providence Senior High School. The respondents comprised 100 boys and 100 girls. Results from this study revealed that rules and regulations are necessary in schools and that there is the need for all students, workers, teachers and administrative staff to respect these rules and regulations. The study also confirmed the need to adequately involve students in making rules and regulations in schools. In the light of the research findings, it was recommended that counsellors in collaboration with the school administration should run orientation, placement and counselling services for students to improve upon their behaviour. The study also recommended counsellors to serve as consultants to parents or guardians regarding the growth, educational and career planning and development of their children.

Source: UCC
Jemisimiham Jehu Appiah A 10th century African prophet’s intellectual contribution to the Africanisation of the church in the Gold Coast

In the Gold Coast, now Ghana, .W.E. ppiah, a teacher-catechist, left the missionary founded Methodist Church for opposing his frocentric healing and preaching activities and founded the Musama Disco Christo Church in the 1920s. He then took on the prophetic name Jemisimiham Jehu Appiah. He wrote his philosophies to validate an afrocentric church in the indigenous Fante language. His Church, an African anti-colonialist/anti-colonial establishment, is alive; et his untranslated Writings have remained in obscurity. This study provides a biographical view of Appiah. It translates his writings and interrogates their inner logic as liberation theology that rationalized the salvaging of certain indigenous mores through frocentric Christianity to promot a Black Nationalist cultural awareness.

Source: UCC
Job embeddedness and turnover intention of staff in the hotel industry in Sekondi- Takoradi Metropolis, Ghana

Employee turnover is a problem for organisations and is one of the challenges facing human resource managers. This study was motivated by the desire to find out the reasons aside the traditional predictors that will cause an employee to either leave or stay with the organisation, it explored the effect of the individual factors under the main on-the-job embeddedness on turnover intention of employees’ in the hotel industry in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis in the Western Region of Ghana. A multistage sampling technique was used to sample 309 employees. The study adopted a cross sectional survey and also used self-administered questionnaire as the data collection instrument. A binary logit regression model was used to investigate the relationship between job embeddedness and employee turnover intentions. The results of the study revealed that organisation-person culture fitness, autonomy, career growth and development opportunities, experience, sense of belongingness, promotional opportunity and participation in a valuable project have significant effect on turnover intention. For the demographic factors, it was found that age of employee, level of education and level of income also have significant effect on turnover intention. Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended among other things that hotel management put in place effective compensation policy, grant employees with certain amount of discretion in carrying out their work schedule and also ensure organisationperson culture compatibility in the organisation setting.

Source: UCC
Job satisfaction among nurses at the Regional Hospital in Bolgatanga

The purpose of the study was to examine the level of job satisfaction among nurses at the regional hospital in the Upper East Region of Ghana specifically the Bolgatanga hospital. The study employed the cross-sectional design where the simple random sampling technique was used and the stratified sampling procedure was employed with 93 respondents who formed the sample size for the study. Results from the study indicated that the satisfaction among nurses are determined by both hygiene and motivation factors. Again, the findings show that the shortages of nurses in our health centers are mostly due to the absence or lower remuneration on their job. Motivation is a key tool in our work set up, even if we cannot motivate our employees fully, we can minimise dissatisfaction by providing our employees with better condition of services to enable them work harder to increase productivity. It is therefore recommended that the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Ghana Health Service (GHS) would open more training centres to train more nurses who would come out and serve in the health institutions. The training should be made free to allow more people to be enrolled. When undergoing the training, the nurses should be made to sign bond to work in a centre for some ample number of years and any nurse who may want to leave before the bonded period for any personal reasons, would be made to pay the amount of money used for their training to the Ghana health service.

Source: UCC
Job satisfaction among senior and junior staff of Balme Library, University of Ghana

Job Satisfaction, no matter the parameters that one may use in describing it, has been found to be an important contributory factor in productivity. The perception that workers have about their jobs may have an influence on their attitude and commitment towards the job. This study focused on job satisfaction among the junior and senior staff of the Balme Library, University of Ghana, Legon. It aimed at determining the factors affecting job satisfaction, the extent or level of job satisfaction as well as its effect on the performance of staff. The study was based on Herzberg’s two-factor theory, Locke’s discrepancy theory, Adam’s equity theory, and Salancik and Pfeffer’ssocial influence theory of Job Satisfaction. The study covered 80 participants but 70, comprising 32 junior staff and 38 senior staff responded to the questionnaires representing 87.4%. The researcher used all the 80 participants as the sample since the number is not too large. A questionnaire was adopted from Herzberg’s Two Factor theory of job satisfaction and was distributed to the 80 participants by the researcher by hand on several visits. The data was analysed using SPSS software and the results were summarised and presented using cross-tabulations as indicated in chapter four. The study revealed that the majority of staff were dissatisfied with their pay but the interpersonal relationship among staff and between staff and their superiors were found to be high. The results also showed that though quite a number of the respondents have spent considerable number of years working with the Balme Library, the majority of them were not involved in decision - making at the Library. Also, majority of the staff confirmed the availability of the necessary equipment for work, but were quick to add that the equipment were outmoded. Generally, the majority of the staff were also dissatisfied with their work because the working conditions were not good and the working environment was uncomfortable. These made work boring and difficult for staff; thereby affecting the performance of both the junior and the senior staff. It was however revealed through an interview with the Senior Administrative Assistant that turnover rate was low. The study therefore recommends that the management of Balme Library should improve working conditions and environment of the staff (both senior and junior) to appreciable levels to enhance the intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction of staff on the job.

Source: UCC
Job satisfaction among senior staff of the University of Cape Coast

The purpose of the study was to ascertain the level of job satisfaction among senior staff of the University of Cape Coast. Stratified random sampling was used to select 317 senior staff made up 156 males and 78 females from a total population of 632. Data were collected using an adapted questionnaire that had been prepared by Bame (1990) for a previous study on teacher motivation. The study revealed that the senior staff of the University of Cape Coast were quite satisfied with their job in the university with regard to the level of job security. However, they expressed dissatisfaction with the availability of working facilities for effective administration as well as tools which were in short supply. They also expressed dissatisfaction with the level of pay and were very dissatisfied with fringe benefits, and accommodation. The study also revealed that respondents were dissatisfied with incentives specified in the conditions of service of the University of Cape Coast. However, with regard to the recognition of their efforts by heads of department, the style of supervision employed by the heads of department and the interpersonal relationship between superior and bordinate officers, respondents expressed satisfaction. The overall impression gathered from the study was that, senior staff of the university of Cape Coast were quite satisfied contrary to the general impression that they were not satisfied with their jobs. It is therefore recommended that heads of department should speed up the supply of office equipment and management should also act promptly on budgets and procurement application submitted by heads of department.

Source: UCC
Job Satisfaction Among Teachers in Four Selected Primary Schools in Takoradi

Job satisfaction is a paramount phenomenon in organizational science and organizational behavior. For any organization to thrive, it is important that its employees are satisfied, committed and motivated to work effectively to achieve the common goal of the organization. The purpose of this study was to examine the factors that contribute to job satisfaction among teachers in four selected primary schools in Takoradi. A sample of 120 teachers made up of 40 teachers from Bethel Methodist Primary School, 27 teachers from Badu Addo Methodist Primary School, 23 from Lagos Town M/A Primary School and 30 from Higgins Primary School. The respondents had engaged in teaching for a minimum of one year. A questionnaire was the main instrument used for data collection. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation was ran to determine the relationship between job satisfaction and other variables. The result reveals a statistically significant relationship between salary increment, interpersonal relationship, working condition, recognition/motivation, professional advancement/promotion and job satisfaction; in addition, the result reveals a statistically significant difference the teachers’ level of job satisfaction and level of job dissatisfaction. The results showed that the teachers were more dissatisfied with their work. It is concluded that teachers do not have good working conditions and that teachers expect more motivation and recognition from their authorities.

Source: UCC
Job satisfaction among teachers of private and public basic schools within the Ho municipality of the Volta region of Ghana

The purpose of the study was to delve into factors which influence job satisfaction among teachers in both private and public basic schools within the Ho municipality of the Volta Region in Ghana. Methods applied were descriptive survey, and the purposive and random sampling to select respondents for the study. In all, 200 teachers were involved. Questionnaire was used to collect the data which was analyzed by simple percentage and represented in tabular forms. The study revealed that the private school teachers were more satisfied with the work environment than the public school teachers. Teachers from both private and public basic schools were very satisfied with the administrative roles of their heads. Private school teachers were not satisfied with job security, factors which serve as guarantee for their future and retirement benefits, and students’ participation in co-curricular activities. Public school teachers were not satisfied with working materials at their disposal, students’ participation in class exercises, and parental support for their wards. It is recommended that the Ghana Education Service and other stakeholders in education should provide the basic learning materials to enhance the work environment of the public basic school teachers. The private school administrators should involve the staff in decision making and also harness other potentials of students for holistic development.

Source: UCC
Job satisfaction and employee commitment at Nyame Yie Cold Stores Limited in Takoradi

The study sought to examine the level of job satisfaction and employee commitment at Nyame Yie Cold Stores Limited. Data were collected from 150 employees were used through census in order to ensure high representativeness and generalisation. The main instrument for the study was the questionnaire. The SPSS (Version 10.0) software was used to analyse the data. The results were presented in frequency tables. The study found varied levels of satisfaction with different indicators. For example, in terms of remuneration, the result shows that, slightly more than half of the respondents were satisfied with the monthly salary at the workplace. Similarly, with regards to advancement in the organisation, the majority of the employees were dissatisfied with all the three indicators used to measure the construct. For example, in all the three indicators, more than two-thirds indicated their dissatisfaction. Finally, punctuality to work, reporting at the right time to work and closing at the right time were the only variables where respondents were actually not too certain to comment. This really indicates that punctuality to work and coming to work on time are a big challenge in the company and that if left unchecked has the potential to affect the company's productivity. It is therefore recommended that management should put measures in place for improving punctuality to work, since this has a great potential to prevent the company from achieving its targets. It is also recommended that employees should be given the opportunity for advancement in the organisation through study leave and other packages.

Source: UCC