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Inclusion in Early Childhood Education: A Sense-Making Perspective

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Inclusion in Southern African Education

Part of the book series: Sustainable Development Goals Series ((SDGS))

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Abstract

This chapter draws on sense-making theory to understand, interpret, and enact inclusion in early childhood education in Ghana. Through the utilisation of a systematic review methodology, secondary data was sourced for analysis. The review identified inclusion as a dynamic and transforming policy aiming to bring together children with learning barriers to have fair access to quality education under a single roof. Inclusion contains significant, evolving, and miscellaneous challenging processes which require teachers, parents, and educational authorities to collectively make sense of the policy’s potential benefit to enact it successfully. Learners with diverse requirements should be borne in mind when developing educational policies. To ensure inclusion is not rhetorically enacted, applicable systems should be put in place so that barriers including poor teacher attitude, resource constraints and non-suitable teaching pedagogies will be moderated. The chapter concludes that despite numerous policies, programmes, and pedagogies to facilitate successful IECE through sense-making perspectives strategies in ECE remain unattainable. Therefore, schools, educators, and communities can adjust their approaches and attitudes to accommodate a diverse range of learners in adverse conditions.

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Mohammed, A.S. (2023). Inclusion in Early Childhood Education: A Sense-Making Perspective. In: Hlalele, D., Makoelle, T.M. (eds) Inclusion in Southern African Education. Sustainable Development Goals Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43752-6_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43752-6_3

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