Professor Wiston Kwame Abroampa of the Faculty of Educational Studies at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has called for the integration of culturally responsive teaching methods into the early grade education curriculum.
He emphasised that such approaches help learners grasp concepts more easily by teaching in ways that reflect their familiar linguistic and cultural contexts.
“Culturally responsive teaching involves using practices that incorporate the diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds of early learners to help them understand the concepts they are being taught,” Prof Abroampa explained.
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He made the recommendation during a stakeholder engagement on a collaborative research project conducted in the Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions.
The study, titled “The Impact of Culturally Responsive Pedagogies on the Social and Emotional Development of Early Learners in Ghana,” is jointly supported by the Global Partnership for Education Knowledge and Innovation Exchange and the International Development Research Centre, Canada, and implemented by KNUST’s Institute for Rural Development and Innovation Studies.
Prof Abroampa stressed that curriculum development should be intentional in content and resources to enable teachers to effectively adapt their instruction.
He noted that some teachers, particularly in cosmopolitan areas like Accra, struggle to teach in learners’ local languages due to the diversity of languages spoken, sometimes using one language to teach students from varied linguistic backgrounds.
He called for capacity-building initiatives to equip teachers with the skills needed to conduct culturally appropriate teaching practices.
Dr William Kwame Amankra Appiah, Ashanti Regional Director of Education, added that culturally responsive education promotes punctuality, boosts learners’ confidence, and allows students to express themselves in familiar ways.
“In the Ashanti region, the mother tongue (L1) teaching policy at the lower level has helped improve learners’ performance and learning outcomes,” he said, highlighting the benefits of integrating local languages and cultural contexts into early education.
