Abstract
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.
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Agbenyega, J.S. (2018). Examining Early Childhood Education System in Ghana: How Can Bourdieuian Theorisation Support a Transformational Approach to Pedagogy?. In: Fleer, M., van Oers, B. (eds) International Handbook of Early Childhood Education. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-0927-7_32
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