Decolonising discipline through the hidden curriculum of hairstyle policies in Ghanaian schools

In Ghana, school hairstyle rules shape students’ experiences of discipline, recognition, and belonging within educational spaces. Although Ghana has pursued curriculum reforms aimed at promoting culturally relevant education, appearance-related expectations in many schools continue to reinforce the institutional standards of neatness, conformity, and respectability. This study examines how hairstyle policies are constructed, interpreted, and experienced within Ghanaian schools and how they influence students’ identities and sense of belonging. Guided by postcolonial and cultural reproduction theories, this study adopted a qualitative case study design involving 40 purposively selected students, teachers, and school administrators from public and private schools in Ghana’s Greater Accra Region. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and analysis of school policy documents, and were analysed thematically. The findings show that hairstyle regulations function as routine disciplinary practices through which expectations concerning acceptable appearance, conduct, and institutional conformity are communicated and reinforced. Participants’ accounts revealed that these expectations were shaped by both historically embedded notions of respectability and contemporary institutional concerns regarding discipline and order. Students experienced hairstyle expectations in various ways, ranging from compliance and adaptation to heightened visibility, negotiation, and resistance to the norm of straightened hair. The findings further demonstrate that the effects of hairstyle regulation depend not only on formal policy but also on how institutional expectations are interpreted and enacted in everyday school interactions. This study contributes to debates on decolonising and inclusive education by demonstrating that the hidden curriculum extends beyond formal instruction to include routine disciplinary practices that regulate identity, participation, and belonging in postcolonial school settings.