Event Details

The Impacts of Language and Literacy Policy on Teaching Practices in Ghana - Philomena Osseo-Asare, Lancaster Literacy Research Centre

Book Launch: The Impacts of Language and Literacy Policy on Teaching Practices in Ghana

I am Philomena Osseo-Asare. I was born in into a large family of three brothers and three sisters in Takoradi, Ghana. I spent a considerable number of my childhood years travelling with my family to a number of towns and cities because my father worked with the Internal Revenue Service. What I did not realise then was the different Ghanaian languages I was picking along the way and how this experience would influence my future academic career. My educational journey is quite similar to that of my childhood, as I attended a number of educational institutions in different countries including Ghana, Italy, Germany and here in the UK, specifically, the University of Sheffield for my MA and PhD in Early Childhood Education.

I started my teaching profession as a Religious education teacher before being appointed as a head teacher of two schools in Ghana. I relocated to the UK in 2007 to join my husband and worked at Portland College (Sunderland) from 2007 to 2013. Currently I am a lecturer in Early Childhood Studies at the Croydon University Centre, London, and an Associate tutor on the MA Education programme in the School of Education, University of Sheffield. I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and a member of the United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA).

My research interests are in postcolonialism, language policy issues, heritage language, and young children’s language and literacy development in multilingual settings in Ghana and the UK. I am passionate about teacher education and how practitioners can support young children’s language and literacy development. Reflecting on my professional life, I can say that my research interest began with the desire to find solutions to the struggles of lower grade teachers with the language policy, considering the fact that Ghana is a multilingual country with over 60 spoken languages.

My book therefore introduces the subject of language and literacy policy issues in lower grade classrooms in Ghana and their impact on teachers’ practices from a postcolonial lens. It is my hope that the book compensates for the lack of in depth and contemporary research on the impact of language and literacy policy on both teachers and children in Ghana and across the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa.