Gitau / Wiezorek / Kamau Kenyan Education System:Are We Preparing Students to Meet Current Global Needs and Challenges

1. Auflage 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5439-1129-9
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet/DL/kein Kopierschutz

E-Book, Englisch, 244 Seiten

In an attempt to answer the question posed by the title of this book, 'Are We Preparing Students to Meet Current Global Needs and Challenges', the contributing authors, explore the development of education in Kenya, the challenges facing the education system, and the concrete ways education stakeholders can transform education. The aim is to prepare students who are ready to embrace current societal needs and address global challenges. The book offers case studies, research findings, and preliminary studies designed to provoke discussion and strategies appropriate to transforming education in Kenya at all levels. Precisely, the book explores four broad themes: 1) foundations of education in Kenya and understanding education policies; 2) teachers training and professional development imperatives; 3) contemporary challenges facing higher education in Kenya; and 4) tapping into diaspora talents & educational technology. This book features contributions from educators with a heart for advancing education in Kenya and who serve as content authors. Ideas of the book emerged from Kenya Scholars and Studies Association (KESSA) 9th Annual Conference held in Atlanta Georgia in September 2016.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Gitau, Mary

Wiezorek, Carolyn

Kamau, Caroline

Ngundi, James

Leseproben

Chapter One Critical Conscious Approach in Re-conceptualizing “The New Normal” of Kenya Education by Philliph M. Mutisya and Jerono Rotich Abstract: After 70 years of direct rule by the British Colonialism, Kenyan became independent in 1963. Since independence from the British colonial rule, Kenyans had not only been alienated from one another based on ethnicity (Tribal boundaries) but also by leadership through divide and rule process. Kenya’s post-independence faced an enormous task of trying to unite its people to start seeing each other as one people and not as different groups with unique identities and cultures. However, colonialism had created oppressive conditions among the Kenyans that were main obstacle to uniting people who existed in their own regional areas along ethnic and language boundaries. Education process for the Kenyans and most of the African continent has been guided by foreign view that alienates the indigenous people along their ethnic boundaries, their ethos, mores, philosophy and psychology. Thus, internalization of differences continued to fester orchestrated by empty slogans by politicians, government policies, and laws that have shaped education system creating skepticism among leaders and educators. As are result “little or none” inter-ethnic integration in political and educational process was established. However the slogans used by both politicians who were also the policy makers aimed at uniting the nation. Slogans such as “Harambee”, “Uhuru na kazi”, or “Elimu ni nguvu-Education is power” sounded good but rung hollow that are now rarely heard nor recognized anymore. Latest implementation of devolution and the new constitution has created a need for developing a “New Normal” because it is the first time the Kenyans have to identify with their own identity and shift from traditional cultural laws- contradicted by western thought in their interpretation and implementation to a constitutional law that has Kenyan context an identity. Such a transformation however, requires a carefully developed framework that would also lead to developing a unified ideology to guide the new trajectory of the country’s governance and its educational, economic, and political process conceptualized in a conscious approach that informs and engages the citizenry. This chapter addresses the need to establish as study that explores the perceptions and attitudes of Kenyans. Also, the study should be designed to measure the implications on social change, the impact of the conceptualization of new ways (New Normal) the new world-view in socialization and identity development for Kenyans as they implement the new constitution and devolution. The discussion concludes with a proposal of a model that can be applied reconceptualization of education in the context that promotes positive cultural socialization and education, especially in higher education. Mutisya, et al (2014) developed a model that came to be known as “Comm-Uni-Versity Model”, a transformational approach in revisioning education process, education institutional development, and social change. The conclusion in this chapter proposes reconceptualization of the devolution to include the Kenya Diaspora as part of identity and socialization as a civic imperative as a means to tapping the Diaspora experience as we navigate the Global village. Introduction The discussion in this chapter attempts to address the complexity of a complex Kenya educational development and its evolution from European appropriation in context to newly re-conceptualized context that is not dependent on foreign concept but its own shaped by law and order. The recent creation of the new constitution and the devolution of the government of Kenya not only calls for change but reconceptualization of the country identity and how it will identify itself geopolitically, national identification, and adapting to social change (Kibua & Mwabu, 2008). Above all, Kenya educational system already is faced with complex implications in terms of cultural integration and socialization of its citizenry. Naturally, as we understand that human development is conceptualized through understanding of social and behavioral sciences, which make a complex lifetime learning process. Human beings make complex life complicated in the way we implement life experiences by applying theories and interactive approaches with ideas that are contradictory to what we want to see and be due to the conflicting interpretation of science itself in our lives. While the new change as well as the new approach is necessary, its implementation is not problematic but the problem has been exacerbated by the lack of leadership in civic and educational engagement that reflects the natural complex aspect of the society. The education for any citizenry has to reflect his or her way of being and integration of his/her beliefs his/her own cultural context and not foreign to one’s environment. Thus, education as a theory to understand human development and as an empowerment process has to be humanized to through human social and behavioral sciences and the laws and rules of social order must be interpreted from the natural sciences that we tend to apply in a fragmented approach which not only creates dissonance but disequilibrium and thus cause conflicts and disharmony, thus leading to distrust among the human beings. The constitution law and devolution policies were developed without engaging the education system. Thus, the laws and policies are only known to the politicians and this poses a challenge as far as institutionalization is concerned. Post-independence disillusionment came as a result of false promises that leaders who were supposed to create harmony and develop education that was focused on healing or transforming the internalized oppression continued to perpetuate the colonial experience and that pushed the Kenyans farther from each other and their leaders because there was no a uniting ideology based on a carefully inclusively designed framework of implementation that the people could follow and think in terms of unity. Thus, the ethnic rivalry through education, politics, economy, sports, media, and regionalism became the mainstay of the country’s identity. Therefore, resistance to change without cause became hard to prevail as the political process continued to promise empty slogans.  Beck (2002) and others point out the serious need for re-examining the theories that have influenced education systems in both Kenya and the rest of the Africa including the world. In the case of Kenya education and Africa as whole, and looking from global perspectives, in order to arrive to viable reform process that is sustainable must address the perceived contradictions that the education systems face and how it impacts the culture and identity of the people. Ogutu (2002) in his seminal article “African Renaissance: A Third Millennium Challenge to Thought and Practice in African Philosophy” points out the dilemmas that African institutions face in their conceptualization of educational development: Following political independence, the emergent African states established universities modeled on those of the west. The pioneer “Masters” were trained in Britain, France, and Portugal. Some of them have remained more European than the Europeans themselves” Ogutu raises a very important question that African institutions are facing today, which begs the question, if the westerners, specifically, USA and Europe are faced with the challenge of what beliefs, or theoretical-philosophical approaches are appropriate to use in reforming their educational reforms after 200 years of independence, then what about the African institutions-especially Kenya who just developed its own first constitution? What changes needs to be addressed, and what theoretical frameworks are appropriate to use? (Mutisya, 2014) proposes a Comm-Uni-Versity model that can be a foundation of a theoretical framework in conceptualizing the foundation of Kenya education. Comm-Uni-versity is designed to engage the communities, community agencies, and the universities in a dialogue from local to global level of citizenship by being aware of the world we live in and recognizing that all change begins within our own community.  The New Normal is about understanding that everything we do at the local level affects the world as a whole and everything happening globally affects us locally by “thinking global but acting local” in the way we interact environmentally, economically, and socially. Global citizenship is a way of thinking and behaving, which shapes the “New Normal”. It is an outlook on life, a belief that we can make a difference. The model employs methods that have proven successful in transforming communities through a Critical Conscious Approach to Dialogue, an approach designed to engage participants to develop a level of consciousness that enables them to see social systems critically. Participants are able to perceive and understand the contradictions that affect their lives arising from educational, economic, social, and political forces, and generalizing those contradictions to others around them (Freire, 1994). The outcome of the process is a heightened awareness that leads to self-awareness as empowerment process, and developing competencies on Knowledge, Skills and dispositions that lead to guidance of...