Part 4: Integrating the theoritical Approaches Learnt into the Kenyan Curriculum

1. Current Theoretical Approach to the Curriculum in Kenya

1.1. Kenyan Approach to Curriculum

The Kenyan curriculum is approached from a dominantly technical perspective.  The processes of Curriculum development and design in Kenya are both highly bureaucratic and technocratic in nature. The managerial approach to curriculum as a branch of the behavioral approach involves a predetermined and logical process with goals at the end and activities lined towards attainment of the goals. Communication here is always top-down (Ornstein & Hunkins, 1993).
In Kenya, curriculum specialists (technocrats) and supervisors at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development and the Ministry of Education always act as the top-level management. They formulate policies, determine the need for change and then communicate them down the bureaucratic ladder to the schools (Kobiah, 2016). Georgescu, Stabback, Jahn, Ag-Muphtah and Castro (2008) observed thus;

The curriculum documents for Basic education in Kenya are very traditional in their structure and scope. Although the various overarching statements make some reference to skills development and the challenges of today’s world, there were very few examples of competency and skill development identified in the syllabus documents themselves (p. 101).

 1.2. Curriculum leadership and perspectives in schools

Principals and headteachers of most Kenyan schools act as curriculum leaders and as the managers at the institution level. They organize, plan and communicate the curriculum models and strategies to the various departments of the school for implementation. Being middle-level managers in the bureaucratic structure, they lack the full autonomy to control the change process in their institutions. The Principals are concerned less about the content delivered in classrooms and more about the School´s efficiency. They are, for instance, more concerned about whether teachers attend classes, mark registers and deliver exams in time than they are about the teachers´ feelings and perspectives. Teachers are merely the resources of the rational system.

Schools operate as typical organizations in which teachers, students, principals and the community continuously interact (Ornstein & Hunkins, 1993).  These interactions are not considered much in Kenyan schools when setting the goals and intended outcomes. They only serve as the dynamic internal and external aspects of the overall organizations. Principals and headteachers are viewed as the source of administrative power in the school and are charged with managing school resources including curriculum materials, finances and even the human resource in the school. Principals are also charged with quality assurance and control in the schools – an important function of managers according to the management theorists like Max Weber and F.W. Taylor.

Quality education in Kenya is viewed in terms of the school´s performance in the high stakes National Examinations. The managerial approach as such aligns the effective and efficient implementation of curricula to better scores in the high stakes exams. Curricula offered to the students are thereby lined to coincide with the academic goals and outcomes (academic achievement).

Control aspects of the managerial approach as such always demand that managers occasionally check the performances of the subordinates (Ornstein & Hunkins, 1993).  Teacher performance appraisals and merit rankings are the methods used in Kenya to ensure quality assurance in education. This highly formal and traditional approach tend to be solely accountability based and may make the teachers operate linearly with a focus on passing and forget the holistic aspects of learning. Pedagogy in such traditional and highly formal teaching environments as evident in most Kenyan schools are mainly teacher-centered and entails rote learning and reproduction of information as opposed to meaningful learning. (Nganga & Kambutu, 2017). Accountability and fault-finding are prioritized over improvement in such competitive learning environments as most Kenyan schools have become.

2. Proposed Theoretical Approach to the Curriculum in Kenya – the Humanistic Approach

2.1. Humanism in Curriculum Development

Attainment of holistic learning experiences for the students in Kenya requires an approach that view learning beyond the bounds of rationality. The long-standing view of quality education in terms of students´ academic excellence in Kenya needs an urgent rethink. Quality education must not only be viewed as an individual´s cognitive achievement but also as their growth in the social and behavioral dimensions. Even though the teacher-centered instructional methods practiced in Kenya may lead to better grades for the rote learners and land them in prestigious careers, their societal and economic importance will never be as advanced as their cognitive abilities. The managerial curricula rarely, therefore, consider the higher-level needs of the learners including self-actualization as well as the social needs (Ornstein & Hunkins, 1993). 

2.2. Stakeholder Involvement in Education

Kobiah (2016) identifies poor involvement of teachers in curriculum development due to the top-down management model applied by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development as major contributing factor to the “machine theory” (Ornstein & Hunkins, 1993, p. 2) view to curriculum and pedagogy in Kenya. Learners trained through the ´machine theory´ model could be highly qualified factory operators or health professionals but lack the basic knowledge of co-existing with the immediate social environment. Worse still, the academically not-so-gifted lot of students end up dropping out of school too early and will most likely end up as deviants of society.

The best approach to curriculum development in Kenya should be the humanistic approach. Student and teacher engagement in the development of the curriculum should be the most important stage of the curriculum development process (Ornstein & Hunkins, 1993). As such KICD should decentralize the curriculum process and bridge the bureaucratic gaps to allow the users of the curriculum (teachers and students) to be more involved in its construction (Kobiah, 2016). Teachers´ role in the curriculum process in the Kenyan current managerial approach comes at the terminal end (implementation) and as such they feel a lack of ´ownership to the curriculum´ (Kobiah, 2016 p. 54). This must be changed to ensure the consumers of the curriculum acquire close control of the product (curriculum). Teacher workshops, seminars and school committees are some of the practical ways – proposed by Malebye (1999) – that may be employed by KICD to involve the teachers in the curriculum development and thus recognize their major role in the entire development process.

3. Expected Outcomes of Introducing the Humanistic Approach to Kenyan Curriculum

Humanistic approach to the curriculum advocates for an entirely learner-centered learning style starting from the beginning of curriculum development and conceptualization processes (Ornstein & Hunkins, 1993). Competition for grades is replaced by cooperation and cognition is complemented (not replaced) with humanism. Students are highly motivated and more involved in their learning process, subjectification and socialization so that the teachers act merely as facilitators. Even the academically low performing students will feel a part of the curriculum.

This could be the best way to reduce the unemployment and crime rates in Kenya as the rates of dropout among students would be reduced significantly. School dropout in Kenya currently stands at 50% in Secondary Education in Kenya (Daily Nation Newspaper, 2015). This mostly results from the pressure of high stakes testing and summative evaluation and the teachers´ overemphasis on the qualification aspects of the curriculum. Humanistic approach to the curriculum would come in to remedy this increasingly worrying statistic. Differentiating instruction and assessment based on learner abilities, motivation and profiles that come with the humanistic approach will not only enhance inclusiveness in the learning systems but also promote equity among learners. (Tomlinson et al., 2004, Ornstein & Hunkins, 1993).

4. The Conditions to be Met to Achieve the Humanistic approach to Curriculum in Kenya

Humanism in Curriculum approach dictates a complete culture, behavior and belief change among the teachers to adopt a holistically approach to learning. This entails a complete shift from the rigid and performance centered collection code (presented by the behavioral approach) into the flexible and student engaging integrated code (Bernstein, 2000). The most important step in making this switch in Kenya is to modify the bureaucratic rigidity of the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development into a flexible and engaging system. The teachers and students must be allowed to make key contributions to the curriculum development to ensure practicality and integrating of the local perspectives. This will minimize the gaps between the formal and learned curricula.

Teacher preservice training must also be modified in Kenya. Teachers should be trained to facilitate the student-centered approach to learning and differentiation based on the profiles, interests and readiness levels of the students. Kobiah (2016) determined that teachers in Kenya feel under pressure to implement the technocratic curriculum that they feel no connection with. Mosothwane (2012) and Malebye (1999) as such suggest ways of involving teachers in the process by, for instance, conducting in-service workshops, seminars and school committees and including the teachers´ inputs into the curriculum.The school administrators must also be trained to be leaders of the change process and to create safe environments that would easen the curriculum processes at the local levels.

References

Bernstein, B. (2000). Pedagogy, Symbolic control, and identity: Theory, Research, Critique. (Revised ed.). New York City, New York: Rowman & Littlefield, INC.
Daily Nation. (2015). High dropout rates in Kenyan primary schools worrying. Retrieved from http://www.nation.co.ke/news/education/Primary-schools-dropout-rates-Kenya/2643604-2930304-sm2nvf/index.html. Accessed 24.10.2017

Georgescu, D., Stabback, P., Jahn, K., Ag-Muphtah, E., & Castro, P. D. (2008). Preparation for Life and Work: Comparative Study with a focus on Basic (Primary and Lower Secondary) Education in Developing African Countries (1st ed.). Eschborn, Germany: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH. 

Kobiah, L. K., Dr. (2016). Teachers’ perspective towards their involvement in selection and organization of learning experiences and implementation of secondary school curriculum in Kenya. Journal of Education and Practice, 7(28), 53-59.

Malebye, L. M. 1999. Teachers Role in Curriculum Development. M.Ed Thesis: Rand African University: S. A. Retrieved from:

Mosothwane, M. (2012). The role of senior secondary school mathematics teachers in the

development of mathematics curriculum in Botswana. International Journal of Scientific

Research in Education, 5(2), 117-129.

Nganga, L., & Kambutu, J. (2017). Preparing teachers for a globalized era: An examination of teaching practices in Kenya. Journal of Education and Practice, 8(6), 200-211.

Ornstein, A.C., & Hunkins, F.P. (1993). Curriculum Foundations, Principles and Issues (Second ed.). Washington DC, Washington: Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data.

Tomlinson, C. A., Righton, B., Hertberg, H., Callahan, C. M., Moon, T. R., Brimijoin, K., & Reynolds, T. (2003). Differentiating instruction in response to student readiness, interest, and learning profile in academically diverse classrooms: A review of literature. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 27(2-3), 119-145.