Emmanuel N. A. Tetteh

Prof. Emmanuel Tetteh is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Management  in the  School of Business at Mercy University. Before joining the School of Business faculty at Mercy University, Prof. Tetteh was also the Core, Lead Faculty, and Senior Lecturer of the MPA Policy Analysis and Analytics concentration program in the College of Graduate and Continuing Studies at Norwich University. Also, as of 2001, he has been serving as an adjunct professor at MCNY, where he has been teaching human services, business, and MPA courses. He also lectured as an adjunct professor of business, political science, and social science research courses from January 2005 to August 2019 in the School of New Resources of the College of New Rochelle at the DC 37, Rosa Parks, and John Cardinal O’Connor (JOC) campuses but now consolidated into Mercy University in 2019. For about three and half years, he also served as an adjunct faculty member in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS) at Grand Canyon University (GCU).

For about eight years, Prof. Tetteh also served as a faculty member in the School of Public Service Leadership at Capella University, where among other Nonprofit, Management, Human Services, MPA, and DPA courses, he most importantly taught research methods, action research, and program evaluation courses and mentored both several DPA and Ph.D. doctoral candidates. Through the New York City Teaching Fellows program, Prof. Tetteh also served as Special Education Instructor and taught English Language Arts, Regent Competency Test preparation, Business Writing Skills, and developed IEPs and New York State Alternative Assessment of Basic II Special Education students at the College Preparatory A. Philip Randolph Campus High School at City College of New York, CUNY.

Prof. Tetteh has a vast range of professional experience, ranging from over 35 years of Christian foreign missions and ministerial outreach projects within Ghana (West Africa), London (UK), Trinidad & Tobago (West Indies), and the United States. It includes faith-based initiatives, pastoral psychotherapy for self-improvement counseling services, community-based service, nonprofit & business management, security management, higher education administrative services, and teaching/learning facilitation for adult learners from diverse backgrounds. He has also been actively involved in marketing research, action learning, and action research workshops within the international community, including Bible-based, faith-based, spirituality-based, and human development seminars across the globe for church growth, using marketing management approaches.

Also, through action learning/action research (AL/AR) and program evaluation projects in the master’s degree program at MCNY, Prof. Tetteh developed and coined the metaphor of the “Communal Photosynthesis (CP)” phenomenon in 2001. His doctoral dissertation topic was Communal Photosynthesis: Metaphor-Based Heuristic Study of Service-Learners’ Symbolic Interactionism in Security Management. Building upon his master’s thesis action research/program evaluation project, he applied the qualitative heuristic method of inquiry in triangulation with a symbolic interactionism approach to explore further ways by which this CP metaphor can provide a theoretical and pragmatic model for homeland security management in the field of service-learning.

Interestingly, among others, the findings revealed that not only does the CP metaphor offers a potential theory for homeland security management, but it also offers a pragmatic strategy that can contribute to positive social change. Furthermore, the findings suggest that using the CP method as a teaching-learning device can guide learners in a specific service-learning approach to increase civic engagement within educational settings, urban communities, public service, business enterprises, and across other academic disciplines. Among several other academic/scholarly publications, he is the author of “Theories of Democratic Governance in the Institutions of Higher Education.” The book reflects derivative peer-reviewed research about the tenets of democratic governance in higher education administration and ways to promote security management in a democratic society.

He recently developed an internet of things (IoT) action-learning solution model of big data policy-analytic epistemology published in the Handbook of Research on Big Data and the IoT. Dr. Tetteh has also developed an intriguing action research model grounded in the systemic thinking of his CP metaphor. Prof. Tetteh offered a personal reflection on the meaning of AL/AR and introduced the “creative-reflective methodology,” unraveling the Identify, Act, Reflect, Evaluate, and Produce (IAREP) model for participatory action research. As of 2013, Prof. Tetteh has maintained an annual unanimous election as the International Vice President and an executive board member of Action Learning, Action Research Association (ALARA), Ltd. The ALARA corporate Objective, enshrined in its Constitution, is: “To promote by all available means the study, practice, research, and teaching of Action Learning and Action Research in all their forms, and to bring together people who are interested in or involved with Action Learning and Action Research.”

Akin to this, Prof. Tetteh is serving as a Designated Official Representative to the United Nations (UN), for which ALARA is granted a Special Consultative Status to engage in several ways with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and UN subsidiary bodies, the Human Rights Council and, under specific conditions. Finally, but not least, as part of his executive board member responsibilities, Prof. Tetteh is tasked with organizing World Congresses of ALARA, Ltd., around the globe.

In 2018, he organized the 10th Action Learning Action Research and 14th Participatory Action World Congress, ALARA World Congress in Northfield, Vermont, the USA, on the theme: “The Action Learning Action Research Legacy for Transforming Social Change: Individuals, Professionals, and Communities’ Developments, Organizational Advancements, and Global Initiatives.” Furthermore, in August 2022, Prof. Tetteh was in Ghana to meet with the Chancellors, Provosts, and Deans of three Universities: University of Ghana, Legon, University of Cape Coast, and the University of Education, Winneba, for a collaborative discussion of organizing a proposed 2025 ALARA World Congress to be held in Ghana.