By Maxwell Awumah
Ho, Oct 22, GNA- Sexual harassment, bullying, humiliation and other forms of interpersonal mistreatment remain persistent concerns in higher education and hospitality workplaces. Professor Christopher Mensah has observed.
He said these settings are often examined separately, obscuring the possibility that universities may serve as an important pipeline through which workplace cultures, power relations and behavioural norms are transmitted, reproduced and normalised.
Prof Mensah, the Pro-Vice Chancellor of Ho Technical University (HTU) made the observation during the University’s second inaugural lecture in Ho.
The lecture was on the theme: “Hidden Curriculum: Toxic Socialisation in Ghana’s Higher Education and Hospitality Sectors.”
The inaugural lecture marks the beginning of Prof Mensah’s ascension to full professorship status.
The lecture was attended by Management, Faculty, students, family and friends and in attendance was Madam Dzifa Abla Gomashie, Minister of Tourism and Creative Arts and Vice Chancellors of University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) and Cape Coast Technical University (CCTU), Prof Kwaku Adutwum Ayim Boakye, among others.
The Lecture presented a theoretical model explaining how hospitality and tourism higher education may prepare hospitality professionals, while also potentially reproducing and normalizing abusive workplace practices.
Drawing on Social Learning Theory, Prof Mensah ventured into the cycle of violence and inter-generational transmission perspective, hidden curriculum theory, paternalism and in ‘loco parentis’ and power theory.
He integrated previously fragmented literature on authoritarian pedagogy, student mistreatment, academic power and hospitality workplace harassment.
Prof Mensah proposed that authoritarian practices, including hegemonic lecture-student relationships, intimidation, humiliation and punitive or controlling assessment could socialize students into particular understanding of authority, hierarchy, discipline and subordination.
Through the hidden curriculum, he said such practices may communicate that domination, silence, sexualised behaviour, bullying and mistreatment are normal or acceptable features of professional life.
He argued that universities are therefore conceptualized as potential pipelines through, which students may learn to perpetrate, reproduce, tolerate or resist sexual harassment, bullying and other forms of mistreatment that exist within hospitality workplaces.
The lecture proposes that exposure to abuse may contribute to the reproduction of abusive practices, when such norms are normalized and internalised, particularly after students acquire occupational power.
Conversely, he noted that by fostering critical awareness, ethical leadership, dignity and respect, universities could serve as key sites for disrupting these cycles.
The lecture invited educators, hospitality professionals, students, policymakers and institutional leaders to reconsider a fundamental question of what students truly being taught and what are they learning from the methods and environment through, which they are educated.
The Don said: “Mistreatment and harassment are common in Ghana’s universities and hospitality workplaces, and are sustained by power, dependency, and silence rather than by a few individuals.
“Hospitality students meet them earlier and more often, mostly from those who teach them. Universities carry a double responsibility: to prepare students for the industry and to stop passing on their worst habits.”
The Pro-Vice Chancellor recommended that students knew their rights, use trusted channels – report, keep records, dates, places, witnesses, speak up mistreatment/ sexual harassment and thrive to break the cycle.
He urged lecturers to teach authoritatively and move away from aggression, verbal abuse; set high standards, clear marking schemes and institute clear boundaries between them and students.
His research now covers hospitality education, student well-being, organizational justice, academic dishonesty, internships, employee behaviour and other challenges in the hospitality and tourism industry.
Prof Mensah has presented scientific papers and several academic conferences and has over 65 publications including journal articles, encyclopaedia entries with some of his works published in the Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality and Tourism, the Services Industries Journal, Journal of Food Service Business Research, Journal of Culinary Science and Technology and Journal of Academic Ethics, among several others.
Prof Mensah is a member of International Council on Hotels, Restaurant and Institutional Education (ICHRIE), Institute of Hospitality, Ghana and married to Naomi Rockson Apatsea and has a son, Christopher Lartey Mensah.
Professor Ben Hoenyenuga, the Vice-Chancellor of Ho Technical University (HTU), commended Prof Mensah for his outstanding contributions to research, teaching and academic leadership.
He said Prof Mensah’s scholarly achievements had enhanced the university’s reputation nationally and internationally, while contributing to knowledge development in tourism, hospitality management and other related fields.
GNA
Edited by Benjamin Mensah
Reported by Maxwell Awumah
Email address: [email protected]