ABSTRACT
The study explored the internship experiences of the IEPA
students, UCC. This was proposed against the backdrop of a dearth of empirical
evidence concerning how the internship experiences of IEPA students have
prepared them for their professional endeavours. The study was underpinned by
the convergent parallel mixed methods design. The study adopted the census
approach to research where all individuals in the target study population were
studied. In all, data was collected from 50 IEPA students using a
self-administered questionnaire which was complemented by 12 interviews with
their internship site supervisors. The data from the questionnaire were
analysed using descriptive statistics in the form of frequencies. The interview
responses were transcribed and analysed thematically. Among other things, the
findings suggest that, majority of IEPA students agreed that their internship
experiences have helped to enhance their expertise in performing general
administrative duties (e.g. filing, writing minutes, memos and letters), human
relations skills, communication skills and teamwork skills. Also, majority of
the IEPA students indicated that, they did not see a link between their
academic preparation (coursework) and most of the administrative tasks they
performed. Against this backdrop, it was concluded that perhaps the IEPA’s
curricula was not in line with the needs and aspirations of its clientele. In
light of these, it was recommended, among other things, that the IEPA should
review its curriculum to include courses that will provide students with the
needed knowledge in 21st century educational administration
practises.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Evidence from student internship literature (for example
Geer, Anast-May Gurley, 2014) suggests that many academic internships do not
offer the required experiences that successfully prepare students for the world
of work. However, the extent to which this assertion, among others, about
academic internship apply in the case of the Institute for Educational Planning
and Administration (IEPA) students is not known. Hence, this study explored the
internship experiences of IEPA students with the view to understand how their
intenship experiences have prepared them for their professional endeavours.
Background to the Study
Any country’s capacity to compete in today’s global knowledge
economy depends on whether its educational institutions can meet the rapidly
growing demand for high-level skilled human resource (Schleicher, 2006). That
is to say, the role of educational institutions in producing the needed
personnel to resource industries is very crucial to national development. In
line with this reasoning, the President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
in a speech made at the 50th anniversary of the Association of African
Universities in Accra asserted that universities are key partners in national
development since they play a central role in human resource development
(Myjoyonline, 2017). Undoubtedly, all sectors of any country’s economy, like
that of Ghana, depends on higher educational institutions (i.e. Universities)
for the training and development of their human resource. This makes higher
educational institutions in today’s 21st century more relevant to the
socio-economic development of every nation. Lepak and Snell (1999) forcefully
argue that, the life blood of every organisation is its human resources hence
institutions charged with the responsibility of training and developing this
human resource have no option than to strive towards producing the right
personnel for the job market. This obvious task, places more responsibility on
educational institutions specifically its managers (administrators) than ever
before.
Ultimately, educational administrators are generally expected
to work towards increasing students’ success by creating effective teaching,
learning and social environment; increasing students’ and teachers’ motivation;
and improving relationships between various key stakeholders in education (Dos
& Savas, 2015). In view of the crucial nature of the roles and
responsibilities of educational administrators, the focus on their skills,
abilities and the quality of academic programmes that prepares them, has been
more intense recently (Davis & Darling-Hammond, 2012). Thus, the call on
training institutions to churn out competent educational administrators is
brought to the front burner of education in recent times.
According to Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT),
as cited by Tawiah (2017), the essence of successful instruction and good
schools comes from the thoughts and actions of professional teachers who are
led by an effective educational leader (administrator). According to Tawiah, educational
administrators are the drivers of the teaching and learning process in schools,
hence their training must be very comprehensive. He advised that, institutions
mandated to train educational administrators, like the Institute for
Educational Planning and Administration (IEPA), must not only focus on
imparting theoretical knowledge but must also equip students with the required
practical administration experience. Along the same line of thinking, Abraham
Lincoln is noted for saying “if I had six hours to chop down a tree,
I'd spend the first four hours sharpening the axe” (Pinola, 2011, para. 1) just
to make sure efficiency is achieved. This analogy by Lincoln resonates with the
resolve by Ghana, through the Ministry of Education, to prioritise the training
of educational administrators, an enterprise in which IEPA is a key
stakeholder.
Historically, in the 1970s, the educational system in Ghana
had become extraordinarily complex and required educationist with expertise in
administration and planning to enable the sector play its full role in national
development (University of Cape Coast, 2016, p. 1). Consequently, the
Government of Ghana and UNESCO/UNDP in August 1975, then established IEPA in
the University of Cape Coast (Owusu & Dzinyela, 1994) to be responsible for
training educational administrators and planners at all levels of education in
Ghana. The IEPA has a mandate to provide broad-base professional training in
educational management and administration, and to equip students with requisite
skills for meeting the leadership challenges facing educational institutions in
Ghana and elsewhere (University of Cape Coast, 2016). This mandate is in line
with the main goal of higher education which is to prepare and equip students
for future and modern working environment and career (Efua, William,
Tackie-Ofosu, & Koranteng, 2016). Specifically, the IEPA is mandated to
provide innovative and quality education aimed at improving leadership,
managerial and planning capabilities of personnel in the educational sector in
Ghana, by raising their levels of competence and involvement in their areas of
operations (IEPA, 2017).
IEPA in pursuit of its mandate, runs postgraduate programmes
such as PhD in Qualitative Research, M.Phil. in Administration in Higher
Education, M.Phil. in Educational Planning and M.Phil. in Educational
Administration.
Among the various courses designed by IEPA to train its
M.Phil. students to become effective and efficient educational administrators
and planners, is its internship programme. According to Taylor (1988, p. 393)
an internship is defined as a “structured and career-relevant work experiences obtained
by students prior to graduation from an academic programme”. Internship is seen
by Hurst and Good (2010) as a form of apprenticeship which, to them, has been
in existence for thousands of years. Internship is defined as a phase of
professional preparation in which a student who is nearing the completion of
his formal study works in the field for a considerable block of time under the
supervision of a practitioner and a university professor for the purpose of
developing the students’ competence (Bukaliya, Region, & Marondera, 2012).
Internship can also be referred to as field attachment.
According to Tackett, Wolf and Law (2001, as cited in
Bukaliya, Region, & Marondera, 2012), internships have taken on an
increasingly central role in education over the past decade. Tackett et al.
(2001) claim that internship present students with many benefits, ranging from
gaining practical experience and obtaining career-related direction to
networking with other students from various institutions during the period of
internship. They further claim that for those who have undertaken internships,
there is an increased likelihood of them securing employment. According to
Jamison and Clayton (2016), designing and providing internship opportunities
where interns engage in active administrative and leadership roles in new
settings and environments will contribute to and enhance the self-efficacy of students. Similarly, it is
believed that interns also bring diverse talents to host organisations which
lead to innovations (Lam & Ching, 2007).
In practice, the IEPA students after completing their
first-year course work are mandated to arrange with institutions, preferably in
the educational sector, for their internship. After a student has arranged with
a preferred institution, an introductory letter is then obtained from their
internship coordinator which is then sent to the host organisation. The
duration for the IEPA internship programme currently is six weeks. After the
completion of the internship, each student is required to submit a report to
the IEPA internship coordinator for assessment purposes. Alarmingly, according
to a study by Lam and Ching (2007), a significant number of interns, in their
report to their internship coordinators, falsify and fabricate information
about their internship experiences with the intention of getting good grades.
This awful behaviour by some students is noted by Lam and Ching to have blurred
some internship coordinators’ insight into the impact of their internship
programme. For Geer, Anast-May and Gurley (2014), many academic internships do
not offer the experiences that successfully prepare students for the world of
work. Nevertheless, the extent to which these claims about the internship
experiences of students are true in the case of IEPA students, still remains
anecdotal. It is against this background that this study was conducted to
explore the internship experiences of IEPA students specifically through the
lens of both the students and their site supervisors. An insight into their
internship experiences, is needful in helping the IEPA to, among other things,
appreciate and/or identify any lapses in the internship programme that may
necessitate a possible restructuring of the programme so as to ensure and assure the needed
experiences for future interns.
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