Beadmaking as a pedagogical site: transcending the traditional walls between the academy and the community

This article discusses beadmaking as a pedagogical learning site in Odumase-Krobo, a town in Eastern Ghana. Drawing on in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, interactions with beadmakers, traders, and activists, as well as information from secondary sources, the paper examines beadmaking as a form of knowledge production. Framed within the context of epistemic and curricular decolonisation and the validity of Indigenous knowledge in academia, the paper asserts the imperative of expanding sites of knowledge production and recognising diverse ways of knowing beyond the traditional confines of the encyclopaedic university. Although handicrafts hold significant pedagogical value, the study of crafts such as beadmaking has been mainly confined to pre-tertiary institutions, neglecting its broader educational relevance across disciplines in higher education. Our findings underscore a need to recognise craft practices like beadmaking as legitimate knowledge forms, bridging the gap between systematised knowledge within academia and ‘lay’ knowledge embedded in Indigenous communities. The findings reveal various implications of taking beadmaking a pedagogical learning site, including its potential to uncover historical linkages, understand cultural interconnections, probe labour and gender dynamics, interrogate environmental changes, analyse the political economy, and foster a more holistic, humanistic pedagogy.