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Oheneba-Sakyi, Yaw
- Full Professor
- California State University, Fresno
- Department of Africana and American Indian Studies
- United States
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Dr. Yaw Oheneba-Sakyi is a Full Professor at California State University, Fresno where he served as Chair of the Africana and American Indian Studies program from 2002-2006. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah; an M.A. degree from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany; and a B.A. (honors) degree from the University of Ghana, Legon, Accra. Previously, he served as Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of Africana Studies program at State University of New York (SUNY), Potsdam. Exemplifying the teacher‑scholar ideal, Dr. Oheneba-Sakyi’s teaching and curricular interests complement his research, often bringing the excitement of discovery into the classroom and involving students directly in his own research. He has a distinguished career in scholarly research and teaching in the areas of gender and socioeconomic development, social demography of Africa, and social inequality in the framework of cross-cultural and international understanding of the human experience.
Over the course of his professional career, Dr. Oheneba-Sakyi has taught several courses and organized seminars and workshops on issues dealing with multiculturalism and the experiences of contemporary Africans, African-American, and other peoples of African descent in the Diaspora. He has taught courses in African Cultural Perspectives, Contemporary African Societies. Fieldwork and Community Relations, Experience South Africa, Ghana the Land of Our Ancestors, Sociology of the African and African American Family, Race Theory and Social Thought, Population and Development, African History and Social Development, Sociological Research Methods, Africana Cultures and Images, African American Community, Race Relations, Diversity in the U.S., and Critical Thinking about Race. He has served as faculty mentor and advisor to international and multicultural student organizations, and developed and conducted study tours with students to Africa, the Caribbean, and Europe.
The outstanding quality of Dr. Oheneba-Sakyi’s teaching and research has earned him several prestigious awards including the State University of New York Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching; the Chancellor’s Distinction Award for Scholarship and Research in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences; the State University of New York President's Award for Excellence in Scholarship Relating to Cultural Pluralism; and the Kiwanis Touch of Excellence Outstanding Professor Award, California State University Student-Athlete Advisory Council. He has been inducted into Phi Kappa Phi, National Academic Honor Society and Phi Beta Delta, Honor Society for International Scholars. Dr. Oheneba-Sakyi has also received numerous grants to support his scholarship including a U.S. Department of Education Title VI International Studies Program grant, a Rockefeller Foundation grant, a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, a Nuala McGann Dresher Fellowship, a London School of Economics & Political Science grant, and Instructionally-Related Activities (IRA) grant, California State University.
Select Publications
- African Families at the Turn of the 21st Century (co-editor, Baffour K. Takyi). Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2006.
- Female Autonomy, Family Decision Making, and Demographic Behavior in Africa. Lewiston, NY/Queenston, Canada/Lampeter, UK: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1999.
- “Introduction to the Study of African Families: A Framework for Analysis.” (with Baffour K. Takyi). In African Families at the Turn of the 21st Century, pp. 1-23. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2006.
- “Marital Choice in Sub-Saharan Africa: Comparing Structural and Cultural Influences in Contemporary Ghana” (with Baffour K. Takyi, Nancy B. Miller and Gay C. Kitson). Comparative Sociology, Vol 2, issue 2: 375-391, 2003.
- “The effects of couples' characteristics on contraceptive use in sub-Saharan Africa: The Ghanaian example” (with Baffour K. Takyi). Journal of Biosocial Science, Vol 29 (4):33-49, 1997.
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The Socio-Religious Context of Access and Equity in Higher
Education in Ghana
The goals of my NCS research are to explore the possibility of forging a new future that builds on the positive aspects of the past and embrace a holistic understanding of the present challenges of providing higher education for all Ghanaians across religious, ethnic, regional, and gender lines. A major issue is the potential consequences of the Ghanaian society’s inability to upgrade and integrate Islamic schools into the mainstream higher educational system, which might deepen religious wars as Westernization continues to spread in Ghana. Data will be collected from four public universities and four religious-based universities in Ghana to evaluate their mission, goals, academic curriculum, enrollment data and ties with foreign entities. Additionally, a field survey will be conducted from a random sample of 300 students from the eight institutions mentioned above to evaluate educational access and equity from different types of household; religious affiliation; ideas about religion, sex, marriage, schooling, and work; contestation of patriarchal notions; reproductive behavior; and attitudes and practices that create barriers to higher educational attainment.
The data will enable us to analyze the linkages of differential development of religious and Western institutions to religio-institutional philosophies as well as the impact that deeply held cultural beliefs about patriarchy, marriage, childbearing, and gendered orientations have on access and equity in higher education. The research builds on, and expands the agenda on female autonomy and family decision-making that produced my second book, Female Autonomy, Family Decision Making and Demographic Behavior in Africa (1999). It is also a follow-up from my most recent book, African Families at the Turn of the 21st Century (2006). This book examines family dynamics from a historical perspective, providing critical analysis on the interplay of the African indigenous, Arab-Islamic, and European-Christian cultures that provide the background to understand the role of modernization, western education, urbanization, and migration in the transformation of African societies.
The presence and progression of African traditional and Islamic systems of learning in Ghana long before the introduction of European missionary and colonial education need to be researched and documented. The absence of such research distorts the fact that educational development throughout Africa has been a continual process of adjustments and adaptations of African indigenous institutions to new realities of internal and external forces. By examining the mingling of the Arab-Islamic and European-Christian presence in the midst of traditional African societies, we are able to have an appreciation of the historical forces that have helped shape the current discussions on equity and access to higher education in Africa. In spite of a rapid increase in enrolment in Ghana’s institutions of higher education, it’s noted that the universities can only offer admissions to 25-30% of qualified applicants, and even more disturbing is the fact that the country as a whole has not embraced Islamic education in the wake of the current exponential growth in higher education. The research will also examine the changing cultural notion of patriarchy as well as the nexus of Islamic vs. western education in contemporary Ghana. The central objectives of my research are therefore essential for the interdisciplinary discussion, cross-cultural, and transnational understanding of access and equity in higher education in the 21st century. |
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