Rethinking Early Childhood Pedagogy, Curriculum and Co-creators of Knowledge: Insights from Participatory Community-Driven Research in Multidimensionally Deprived Rural Communities

The study highlights the need to rethink early childhood education by recognising indigenous knowledge and community-based pedagogies as valuable educational resources, particularly in multidimensionally deprived rural communities. Using qualitative research involving parents from Nanton and Ekumfi districts in Ghana, the findings show that families intentionally support children’s learning through everyday cultural, social, environmental, emotional, cognitive, literacy, and numeracy activities embedded in daily life. These practices form the basis of the Intentional Holistic Integration (IHI) Early Childhood Education Model, which demonstrates that learning is integrated into home and community experiences rather than confined to formal classrooms. The study argues that education policies and teacher training should acknowledge parents and community members as co-educators, integrate indigenous pedagogies into early childhood curricula, and adopt community-driven approaches such as the Scaling Inclusive Home-based Early Learning Initiative (SIHELI) to improve equitable access to quality early childhood education