The importance of mother tongue-based bilingual medium of instruction in bilingual and multilingual classrooms has been evidenced in ample studies in different parts of the world including Ghana. However, studies on how bilingualism is carried out with respect to classroom displays in bilingual education is very scant and even none, as far as I know, in Ghana. Also, there is emerging research on teachers’ translanguaging practices in other parts of the world including South Africa but research on instructional use of translanguaging is yet to be conducted in Ghana. Therefore, this study examined kindergarten teachers’ bilingual practices with regard to classroom displays as well as their translanguaging practices at morning assembly in some selected schools in the Cape Coast Metropolis in the Central Region of Ghana. The study used the Ghanaian part of a secondary data that was sponsored by the New Civics Grants from the Spencer Foundation in the USA. Joint research team from the USA and Ghana collected these data in six kindergarten classrooms in each of the two countries. Even though the initial purpose of the study was to examine how classroom wall displays connected with young children's roles as apprentice citizens, repurposing it for this study was suitable because all the classrooms photographed are public schools that use the NALAP in their ECE classrooms. However, four schools participated because they used the local languages that I can read and write. Guided by the purpose, two research questions and two different data (photographs of classroom wall displays and video of morning assembly) were used. I used qualitative design through visual research method and Barbara Rogoff’s (1990, 2003) socio-cultural theory as my theoretical lens. The photo data was analyzed semiotically (Chandler, 2007, Semetsky, 2010, 2017) and used discourse analysis with the big “D” for the analysis of the video data (Gee, 2014, Gee & Handford, 2012). The findings indicated that all the schools except one had bilingually labeled displays among their classroom displays (though bilingual labeling was given less attention) with the major language pair for the bilingual labeling being English and Mfantse languages. It also came out that most of the bilingually labeled displays were posted within the eye level of the students. More so, with regard to the sign type, most of the bilingually labeled displays were iconic. Regarding the teachers’ translanguaging practices at morning assembly, the findings indicated that all the participating schools and teachers translanguaged during the conduct of their respective morning assembly. It was revealed that aside from using translanguaging as comprehension enhancer, it was also used as a downtoner as well as alienation tool linguistically. However, the findings showed that English only displays far dominated both the bilingual labeling and translanguaging practices of the teachers. Based on the findings, the study recommended that ECE colleges of education in Ghana should include knowledge and skills for bilingual labeling in their pre-service preparation since the nation is a multilingual state. Also, pedagogical use of translanguaging should be included in teacher education curriculum so that teachers would be intentional about its usage in instruction delivery. In addition, higher education like University of Cape Coast (UCC) and University of Education, Winneba (UEW) which are the main trainers of teacher educators in the country need to develop curriculum for bilingual teaching with attention to effective design and use of bilingual labeling and training manuals for ECE teachers on the effective use of bilingual labeling and pedagogical use of translanguaging in Ghanaian ECE education. More so, there should professional development on the effective use of bilingual classroom display as well as translanguaging for in-service teachers in Ghana so to promote the academic achievement of the bi/multilingual students Ghanaian schools serve.

I detta arbete används ett normkritiskt perspektiv för att undersöka mångfalden som presenteras ur ett urval bilderböcker publicerade mellan år 2016-2021. Arbetet kommer fokusera på några av de normer som bilderboken presenterar gällande bland annat genus, funktionsvariationer och kultur.  Vidare kommer bilderbokens multimodala kommunikationssätt att analyseras utifrån metodansatsen semiotisk modalitet och vidare granskas genom kvantitativa och kvalitativa analysmetoder. Detta för att belysa textens och illustrationens likvärdighet i den multimodala kommunikationen.  I min process har ett urval på nio böcker tagits fram och kritiskt granskats utifrån normkritiska kriterier och genom både konventionella och ikoniska tecken för att på så sätt skapa en så heltäckande analys som möjligt. Som avslutning presenteras resultatet av denna undersökning där också normer och/eller teman som återkommer, eller inte uppmärksammas, i flera av böckerna tas upp. Vidare belyses vikten av förskolepedagogens förståelse för bilderboken, normkritik och inkludering. Vikt läggs vid att pedagogen själv skall förstå varför regelbundna reflektioner och analyser av materialet förskolan erbjuder barnen bör göras. / This thesis uses a norm-critical perspective to highlight the diversity presented from a selection of picture books published by swedish authors between the years 2016-2021. The work will focus on some of the norms that the picture book presents regarding, among other things, gender, functional variations and culture Furthermore, the picture book's multimodal communication method will be analyzed on the basis of the method approach semiotic modality and further examined through quantitative and qualitative analysis methods. This is to highlight the importance of the text and the equivalence of the illustration in the multimodal communication. In my process, a selection of nine books has been selected and critically examined on the basis of norm-critical criteria and through both conventional and iconic signs in order to create as comprehensive an analysis as possible. In conclusion the results of this study are presented where norms and/or themes that recur, or are not noticed, are also addressed in several of the books. Furthermore, the importance of the preschool educator's understanding of the picture book, norm criticism and inclusion is highlighted. Emphasis is placed on the educators understanding why regular reflections and analyzes of the material the preschool offers the children should be made.

The use in pictorial art of visual reference to prototypes and conventions in encoding reality forms the crux of the theoretical research. The theoretical component complements the practical research, which focuses on the interplay between perceptions of 'reality' and visual conventions in landscape art. The existence of diverse realities, based on individual ideological and sociocultural perspectives, is acknowledged. In encoding these realities, artists may draw on a reservoir of stylistic, formal and conceptual prototypes. Visual reference constitutes an allegorical procedure because the artist refers to an antecedent text in the representation of a particular 'reality'. Pictorial signs also rely on conventions to convey meaning. Both the perception and the artistic recreation of different realities may thus be regarded as recycling processes. In a world saturated with visual information, reference to prototypes is a powerful procedure which assists contemporary pictorial artists in the creation of meaningful images of current realities. / Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology / M.A. (Fine Arts)

The use in pictorial art of visual reference to prototypes and conventions in encoding reality forms the crux of the theoretical research. The theoretical component complements the practical research, which focuses on the interplay between perceptions of 'reality' and visual conventions in landscape art. The existence of diverse realities, based on individual ideological and sociocultural perspectives, is acknowledged. In encoding these realities, artists may draw on a reservoir of stylistic, formal and conceptual prototypes. Visual reference constitutes an allegorical procedure because the artist refers to an antecedent text in the representation of a particular 'reality'. Pictorial signs also rely on conventions to convey meaning. Both the perception and the artistic recreation of different realities may thus be regarded as recycling processes. In a world saturated with visual information, reference to prototypes is a powerful procedure which assists contemporary pictorial artists in the creation of meaningful images of current realities. / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology / M.A. (Fine Arts)