Early Childhood Pedagogy in a Socio‑cultural Medley in Ghana: Case Studies in Kindergarten

Abstract

In the quest for quality in early childhood education, it is important to explore the subtleties that define socio-culturally relevant pedagogy. A qualitative, multi-case study approach was used to explore perspectives of teachers about socio-cultural influences on their teaching in kindergarten classrooms in Ghana. Four teachers from two kindergartens participated in the research. Data were collected across a six-month period and were drawn from semi-structured individual interviews, paired-teacher interviews, and field notes made during classrooms observations. Both within-case and cross-case analyses were used to explore how the local sociocultural context influenced the use of learning materials, storytelling, and use of traditional songs and rhymes. Teachers believed that adapting their practices to the socio-cultural context could support children’s understanding of cognitive concepts, language, literacy and moral development. The findings provide evidence about how individual teachers take account of the socio-cultural contexts in their pedagogy. The findings demonstrated that the teachers had sufficient agency to modify and adapt their pedagogies that took account of the social-cultural experiences of children and applied these ideas within the curriculum framework in order to support children’s learning.