The impact of culturally responsive teaching practices on social and emotional development in diverse early childhood classrooms in Ghana

 

The new kindergarten curriculum in Ghana promotes inclusive teaching practices and purposeful play. However, teachers in Ghanaian classrooms often utilize Western pedagogies, play and resources that ignore the cultural assets that various ethnic groups possess. That is because teachers lack adequate training for enacting culturally responsive techniques and strategies shown to enhance diverse learners’ social and emotional development.

This project will explore the impact of inclusive pedagogies such as culturally responsive teaching practices on social and emotional development in diverse early childhood settings in Ghana. The project will include culturally responsive, gender-responsive and inclusive teaching practices to promote equity and inclusion among boys and girls and lay resilient foundations in learners. It will consider how responsive pedagogy affects diverse learners’ engagement, which strategies improve academic and psychosocial outcomes most, and what core practices link to developmental gains.

The project will generate evidence and adaptations needed in teaching and learning materials, activities and teacher preparation to foster inclusion, identity affirmation and learning readiness for minority linguistic and cultural groups from the early years to promote educational equity and inclusivity. Findings will guide scalable culturally responsive models embedded through policy, pre-service and continuous professional development modules to sustain advances in early grade practices that reflect Ghana’s diversity.

This project is funded under the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Knowledge and Innovation Exchange, a joint endeavour between the GPE and IDRC to connect expertise, innovation and knowledge to help low- and middle-income countries build stronger education systems and accelerate progress toward the Sustainable Development Goal on education.