‘Every mother dances her baby’: Contextually responsive narratives of early childhood care and education in Kenya and Uganda

Abstract

Despite major steps towards providing early childhood care and education (ECCE) services in Kenya and Uganda, access to responsive services is still out of reach for many young children, and where available, they are often out of touch with local realities. In this paper, I trouble the universalising and totalising tendencies of the dominant narrative of ECCE as a template of thought and action and highlight the role of indigenous knowledge as a critical but often missing link in ECCE policy and practice. I draw on the situated experiences of caregivers and local communities, which counter the dominant narrative and argue that culturally responsive ECCE requires contextually sensitive policy and programmes. Such policies should affirm and support the important role of local knowledge in the care and socialisation of young children. Policies should also recognise the informal resilient social protection system without obscuring the role of the state in addressing structural vulnerability.

Decolonizing Beginning Literacy Instruction: Views From Ugandan Teachers

“…We recognized that we needed to understand the indigenous knowledge of the area. Indigenous knowledge is the local knowledge within a culture and community that has been passed down through community practices, relationships, and rituals (Okwany, 2016). Our thinking needed to change from privileging our expert knowledge to discovering and leveraging local knowledge.…”

Beyond Colonial Politics of Identity: Being and Becoming Female Youth in Colonial Kenya

“…As two long-term research collaborators and scholar-activists who have worked and lived in these communities, this research was borne out of our long-term commitment to decolonise knowledge and practices of knowing in relation to children and young people in scholarship, policy, and practice. We were also inspired by a desire to privilege epistemologies of the South (Okwany and Ngutuku 2023;Okwany and Ebrahim 2018;Okwany 2016;Santos 2014). In responding to the call for a Special Issue on the theme decolonising East African genealogies of power, and as reflected in our decades-long collaborative work, we are inspired by the view and formulation by Mignolo (2020, p. 615) that decoloniality is 'an orientation to a praxis of living' and not just a critique.…”

“You should give a child love and take them warm-heartedly from their parent”: Preschool teachers’ practice and understanding of care

“…However, care should be exercised not to perpetuate traditional practices that are exclusionary in nature and elevate one gender over the other (Nsamenang & Lamb, 1998;Okwany, 2016). The teacher has to be cautious that in promoting and socialising children, she does not fall into the trap of over emphasising practices that are demeaning of other genders.…”