Assessing Teachers’ Content Knowledge for Design Education in Basic Schools: An Exploratory Study in Kumasi Metropolis, Ghana

Design education in Ghana’s basic school system occurs within the Creative Arts and Design (CAD) curriculum that was introduced in 2020 as part of reforms in Junior High Schools (JHSs). To ascertain how the Design strand of CAD is understood, interpreted, and implemented by JHS teachers, we adopted the descriptive research design with observation and personal interviews to collect data from a purposive sample of seven JHS1-3 teachers of Design in five JHSs in three different municipalities within the Kumasi metropolis. Findings from the analysis of data collected revealed that five (71.4%) of the teachers had no education in any CAD discipline; all seven (100%) exhibited insufficient knowledge of the CAD curriculum, understanding of Design as a concept, process, product, and medium of creative expression that culminated in the inaccurate interpretation of Design in lessons to promote positive learning experiences and outcomes for the learners. To enhance the teachers’ content knowledge of Design, continuous professional development that focuses on theoretical and practical applications of Design is required.