Joseph Seyram Agbenyega

Corporal Punishment in the Schools of Ghana: Does Inclusive Education Suffer?.

This paper reports on a study that compared the practice of corporal punishment in ten basic schools in the Greater Accra District in Ghana. Five of the ten schools were designated as inclusive project schools (IPS) and the other five as non-inclusive project schools (NIS). The primary purpose was to find out if the inclusive project schools were more effective in eradicating corporal punishment from their schools than were the non-project schools. One hundred teachers responded to a six-item questionnaire. A further 22 participants comprising ten teachers from the survey group, ten pupils and two directors of education were interviewed. Observation of the classroom practices, where these teachers work, substantiated the questionnaire and interview findings. The overall results indicated that corporal punishment still persists in both school sites at relatively the same scale. Three themes were found to underpin the administration of corporal punishment to students in these schools. (1) Punishment as an effective learning imperative (2) Punishment as a moral imperative (3) Punishment as religious imperative. The implications of these findings pertaining to inclusive education are discussed.

Beyond Alienation: Unpacking the Methodological Issues in Visual Research with Children

This chapter uses Bourdieu’s conceptual lenses of habitus, field and forms of capital to illuminate the complexities of researching visually with young children. Using data from a small sample in one kindergarten in Africa, the chapter discusses how visual researchers can be critical of themselves, their research tools and fieldwork, including the families and children with whom they research. It concludes that visual research should not conform to formalistic methodologies intent upon gridding some preprocessed empirical data; instead visual research approaches must be a revolutionary way of seeing and a form of knowing that employs concepts of habitus, capital and field with reflexive reasoning to understand children’s development in its contradictions.

Researching Children's Understanding of Safety: An Auto-Driven Visual Approach.

Safe learning spaces allow children to explore their environment in an open and inquiring way, whereas unsafe spaces constrain, frustrate and disengage children from experiencing the fullness of their learning spaces. This study explores how children make sense of safe and unsafe learning spaces, and how this understanding affects the ways they engage with their learning spaces. Using a qualitative research method that employed auto-driven visual and observation approaches, this research conducted at one centre in the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, Australia, examined childrens movement and interaction within their learning spaces. The results suggest that the children felt safe in spaces that offered them the best opportunities for play. These are the spaces where they behaved well, laughed freely, reacted positively, and played without too much restriction and intimidation, keeping in mind the restrictions imposed on them by their teachers at other spaces. The implications for constructing and managing safe learning spaces for children are discussed.

Development of Early Years Policy and Practice in Ghana: Can Outcomes Be Improved for Marginalised Children?.

Even though several attempts have been made by the government of Ghana towards its goal of eradicating child labour, poverty, and marginalisation in educational outcomes for all children, the condition of disadvantaged children remain terribly devastating compared with those of more advantaged children. This article discusses the extent to which two new major Ghanaian education policy initiatives impact on this situation — namely, the introduction of early childhood care and development (ECCD) and the capitation grant (CG) policies. The article raises concerns regarding corruption, mismanagement and lack of proper monitoring of the policy implementation process and argues that the current trend seems unlikely to deliver the type of outcomes necessary to end marginalisation and suffering of children in Ghana. It proposes inclusion of parents and community participation in all aspects of the policy production and implementation processes.

Leading Inclusive Education: Measuring ‘Effective’ Leadership for Inclusive Education through a Bourdieuian Lens

Abstract Leading inclusion is a complex field of practice that is framed in traditional conceptions of school administration. Leadership in inclusive schools is a constant struggle with fluctuating dimensions, often compounding difficulties for students with difference and disability. Nevertheless, inclusive school leadership remains an important component of successful practice of inclusive education, where all students with diverse abilities equally benefit. This chapter provides an introduction to different types of leadership practices that promote inclusive practices. A key focus of the chapter is to discuss the social theory of Bourdieu in relation to understanding and measuring what we consider as effective inclusive school leadership. This framework provides both theoretical and practical approaches in developing inclusive school leadership practices and ways effective inclusive leadership practices could be measured.

Examining Early Childhood Education System in Ghana: How Can Bourdieuian Theorisation Support a Transformational Approach to Pedagogy?

This chapter uses Bourdieu’s conceptual tools (habitus, field and capital) to examine and explicate Ghana’s comprehensive and universal early childhood education policies and programmes in Africa. It discusses the contexts in which these policies and programmes were designed and implemented and how childhood constructions and pedagogical practices situate children as receptacles receiving knowledge from teachers as sages. This chapter argues that although there are compelling evidences to suggest that a lot has changed positively for children in Ghana since the Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) policy was enacted, current teaching practices are limiting the development of children’s cognitive capital and habitus needed for effective functioning in present and future social, economic and political fields. In doing so, this chapter proses that children’s learning and teacher identity development in Ghana have to be reimagined for rapid transformation to occur within the pedagogical landscape in early childhood education in Ghana and the whole African region.

Strengthening literacy and numeracy in early childhood

Abstract Drawing from the inclusive pedagogical approach in action framework and Pierre Bourdieu’s social theory concepts of habitus, field and capital, this chapter positions literacy and numeracy learning as core components of further learning, and living successfully in the world. It addresses learner diversity in early childhood settings and recognises the uniqueness of every child within the context of a broad range of cultural knowledge. The chapter concludes with two sample lessons and reflective questions, which early childhood teachers can use as models to expand children’s literacy and numeracy concepts, enabling creative and critical interactions across a range of modes in the context of everyday life across families and cultures.

Rising from the “Ashes”: Quality Early Childhood Education as a Panacea for National Development in Sierra Leone

The importance of early childhood education has now become the major focus of policy-making in national development agendas in many advanced and majority of poor economies. This push is based on overwhelming research evidence that quality early education builds strong foundation for further learning and reduces economic and social inequalities (Heckman JJ, Investing in disadvantaged young children is an economically efficient policy. Paper presented at the Committee for Economic Development, New York. Retrieved April 16, 2016, from http://jenni.uchicago.edu/Australia/invest-disadv_2005-12-22_247pm_awb.pdf, 2006; Heckman JJ, Moon SH, Pinto R, Savelyev P, Yavitz A, A new cost-benefit and rate of return analysis for the Perry preschool program: a summary, working paper. Retrieved from http://www.nber.org/papers/w16180.pdf, 2010). In Sierra Leone in West Africa, early childhood education is at an embryonic stage, and there are many issues that have impacted on its lack of advancement. This chapter explores the nature of early childhood development and education by focusing on the barriers and possibilities and to place it in center stage in the postwar reconstruction of Sierra Leone. This chapter argued that in a country influenced by a past, present, and future landscape; indigenous tradition; and postcolonial history, a post-conflict recovery can neither ignore early childhood education nor relegate it to the lower end of policy-making in the quest for economic development and national stability.

Folklore epistemology: how does traditional folklore contribute to children’s thinking and concept development?

ABSTRACT This research utilised a ‘stimulated recall’ methodology [Calderhead, J. 1981. “Stimulated Recall: A Method for Research on Teaching.” British Journal of Educational Psychology 51: 211–217] to explore the potential of African folklore, specifically Ghanaian folk stories in the development of children’s reflective thinking about social life. The research was based on Ghanaian folklore for children, which is popularly known as ‘By the Fireside Stories’, encapsulated traditionally as Anansesem or Spider stories among the Akan of Ghana. Data were collected through storytelling to a group of children and inviting them to recall their concurrent thinking during and after the storytelling. The children’s cognitive recall processes were stimulated by questions and story character dramatisation recorded on a digital video recorder and played back to the children. Findings showed major contributions to children’s learning and development related to imagination, concept formation and thinking, and beyond the self in social relationship. This paper draws attention to how traditional oral storytelling can be an important part of early childhood education to develop children’s reflective thinking about social life.

Using a modified version of locus of control scale to explore children with disabilities’ perceived vulnerability to physical and sexual assault in three special schools in Ghana

Abstract This cross sectional study examined the locus of control and perceived vulnerability of children with disabilities to sexual and physical assault. One hundred and seven respondents sampled from three special schools in Ghana, comprising of 61 males and 46 females, participated in the study. A modified version of the Locus of Control Scale was used to determine the locus of control levels of the participants followed by a structured interview guide to collect additional data. Analysis of variance and independence t-tests indicated a significant difference among children with visual impairment, hearing impairment and intellectual disability in their perception of sexual and physical assault. A significant difference was noted between the male and female participants in their perceived vulnerability to sexual assault. No significant difference was found between children with internal locus of control and external locus of control. Recommendations regarding how to safeguard children with disabilities from sexual and physical assault are provided.