A Sociological Analysis of What Counts as Knowledge for Board of Governors of Government Assisted Second Cycle Educational Institutions in Ghana

Abstract Boards of governors of second cycle schools in Ghana are mandated to make critical decisions in ensuring effective running of schools. This mandate cannot be well executed without effective knowledge management strategy in place to inform boards' decision-making. Such a strategy should be commensurate with the dominant form of knowledge in use by the board members. Understanding what counts as knowledge in informing boards' decisions is therefore an important prerequisite in designing and institutionalizing a feasible strategy to support knowledge use. This study involved four conveniently sampled secondary school boards. Qualitative interviews and unobtrusive method involving content analysis of boards' documents were the mixed methodologies for the study. Explicit form of knowledge is the main form of knowledge informing boards' decision-making. Such knowledge/inputs are provided by the heads of the secondary schools. The over reliance on heads of institutions for inputs in boards' decisions raises a concern with regards to the autonomy of the boards as an advisory and supervisory entity. It is recommended among others that board members put in place an explicit policy on knowledge management to enable them harness knowledge/inputs from multiple sources to supplement the inputs from the heads of institutions