A mixed methods examination of the perceptions of partnerships between the Catholic Church and government educational leaders in Ghana: Implications for leadership, policy and practice

Education is a means to unlocking human potential for social, economic, and religious advancement. The Catholic Church and government in Ghana have had a long-standing partnership for the promotion of education at the pre-tertiary levels. The partnerships between religious bodies and the government dates to British colonial period, and enshrined in the Education Acts of 1961 and 2008 of post-colonial governments. In recent times, the partnerships have gone sour with accusations and counter accusations from both Church and government policy makers as well as frontline educational leaders in the context of rapid decline in discipline in Church schools and poor student performance. Poor monitoring and supervision of schools by educational leaders is reported to be responsible for poor teaching and learning. Weak institutional collaboration between Church and government as well as role conflicts accounts for poor monitoring and supervision which negatively impacts on schools.;Using a convergent parallel mixed methods methodology, the researcher sought to understand from the perspectives of educational leaders of the Catholic Education Units (CEUs) and Ghana Education Service (GES) attitudes, skills, and behaviors in the partnership. Quantitative and qualitative data on demographics as well as partnership attributes regarding competence, skills, and behavior of educational leaders were collected and analyzed for differences, relationships, and meaning. The main findings include significant interaction effects of demographic variables on perceptions. Education as a demographic variable, and competence as well as social skills were statistically significant predictors of behavior in partnerships. These quantitative findings correlated with the qualitative results. The findings have implications for leadership in pre-tertiary education as well as for policy makers of both Church and government relationships in pre-tertiary education in terms of reviewing policies on the partnerships and the training of educational leaders.