Most societies around the world strive to transmit their culture and world view to succeeding generations through education. This is important because individuals with strong cultural identities become independent and self-reliant people who are functional in their own environment. People who have little sense of their cultural identity or have been alienated from their culture often become dependent and lack the skills of meaningful survival in their own environment. Societies that have suffered colonial domination in the past can find themselves socializing their children with the cultural values and world view of the colonizing power which obviously undermines their own cultural identity. In the republic of Kenya, this problem has been acknowledged and documented by academics and educators but there seems to be a lack of political will to make effective and lasting changes to the curriculum. This study explored the kind of curriculum that fosters cultural relevance. It examined ways in which curriculum can become a place in which cultural values, knowledge, skills and beliefs that provide foundations for identity can be understood, defined and interpreted. Five teachers and I came together to explore the possibilities of tapping the local resources to enrich the school curriculum in Kenya so that teachers begin to use both material and human resources which are locally available to meet curriculum goals. By using the local resources, the learners began to view the local knowledge and skills as being important to school knowledge. The study employs participatory action research which derives strength from its emphasis on shifting the power balance between the researcher and researched, encouraging dialogical relationships, providing a voice and feelings to disenfranchised peoples and showing commitment to social transformation through action and reflection. The research methods were primarily dialogue and conversations, discussions, creation of discourses and reflections. The thesis documents some of the struggles, tensions and frustrations associated with participatory action research for educational change. This research makes clear that experiential knowing emerges through participation with others and people can learn to be self-reflexive about their world and their actions within it.

The groundwork for this study was established between 1955 and 1964 when the writer was employed as an expatriate Education Officer in Kenya. This was a period which covered the final years of colonialism, internal self-government, final Independence, and the formal beginning of the Republic of Kenya. The writer's first appointment was to the Teacher Training College at Meru in the Central Province, prior to helping to set up the Government Secondary School in adjacent premises belonging to the Intermediate School. Later, completely new premises were designed and built for the secondary school, which had been in full operation for one year before the writer was transferred to the Government Teacher Training College at Kagumo on the western side of Mount Kenya, This was a larger college with a wider range of students. As head of the Mathematics Department, and one of the senior members of the college staff, the writer was responsible for the arrangement and supervision of much of the practical teaching experience of two hundred students in schools from primary to secondary level. It was only after some three or four years in Kenya that the writer became aware of the complete absence of relevance of the whole educational system to local and traditional social or economic structures. Even in the matter of teaching primary arithmetic, no attempt was made to incorporate local number concepts, and the skill of the children in learning by rote, and extensive memorising covered up the lack of understanding of fundamental concepts. A tentative study of tribal number systems—as yet unpublished—led to further study, at U.B.C. in anthropology in an attempt to relate what had been achieved in the field of education in Kenya with what might have been achieved, had colonial educators and administrators been more aware of their African charges as tribal individuals and groups. Purpose The purpose of this study is to consider: 1. The effects of colonial influence on the social structure, education and economic structure of the many and varied tribal groups of Kenya. 2. The extent to which these effects are reversible if considered to be undesirable for the future development of the country. 3. The extent to which such effects are considered to be desirable and advantageous to the future development of independent Kenya. 4. The extent to which traditional values, perhaps long neglected under colonial and missionary influence, may yet be incorporated into the social, educational and economic structures of an identifiable national Kenya, Format The study will be divided into three separate, but closely related sections: 1. Society 2. Education. 3. Economic Structure. Each section will follow the same basic pattern, and to the extent that all three sections are related and interdependent, treatment will be cyclical, and to some extent, repetitive. (a) The traditional structure, organisation and function. (b) The immediate effects of colonialisation. (c) The persistent effects of colonialisation. (d) The present situation. (e) Future trends. Detail Since the Kikuyu represent the largest single tribal unit in Kenya, and also the most closely associated with, and directly influenced by the early European missionaries and administrators, examples of traditional structures and practices will be of Kikuyu origin. Ethnography of many of the tribes of Kenya is limited and not readily available, but the Kikuyu life-style has been clearly and comprehensively detailed by Jomo Kenyatta—presently, His Excellency Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, President of the Republic of Kenya—in his book "Facing Mount Kenya"₁ which has been used extensively for reference / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

Most societies around the world strive to transmit their culture and world view to succeeding generations through education. This is important because individuals with strong cultural identities become independent and self-reliant people who are functional in their own environment. People who have little sense of their cultural identity or have been alienated from their culture often become dependent and lack the skills of meaningful survival in their own environment. Societies that have suffered colonial domination in the past can find themselves socializing their children with the cultural values and world view of the colonizing power which obviously undermines their own cultural identity. In the republic of Kenya, this problem has been acknowledged and documented by academics and educators but there seems to be a lack of political will to make effective and lasting changes to the curriculum. This study explored the kind of curriculum that fosters cultural relevance. It examined ways in which curriculum can become a place in which cultural values, knowledge, skills and beliefs that provide foundations for identity can be understood, defined and interpreted. Five teachers and I came together to explore the possibilities of tapping the local resources to enrich the school curriculum in Kenya so that teachers begin to use both material and human resources which are locally available to meet curriculum goals. By using the local resources, the learners began to view the local knowledge and skills as being important to school knowledge. The study employs participatory action research which derives strength from its emphasis on shifting the power balance between the researcher and researched, encouraging dialogical relationships, providing a voice and feelings to disenfranchised peoples and showing commitment to social transformation through action and reflection. The research methods were primarily dialogue and conversations, discussions, creation of discourses and reflections. The thesis documents some of the struggles, tensions and frustrations associated with participatory action research for educational change. This research makes clear that experiential knowing emerges through participation with others and people can learn to be self-reflexive about their world and their actions within it. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

This study examines women’s experiences of formal education in Kenya. The study aims at making visible the cultural, historical, economic and political factors that shaped, and continue to shape, women’s educational and employment opportunities. It also highlights women’s agency exemplified in their struggle to provide their children, and particularly their daughters, with educational opportunities. The study draws attention to the gender and power issues that limit women’s participation in the public sphere. These are issues that policy makers, politicians, and development agents have not and still do not adequately address. The study employs post-positivist research methodologies, particularly feminist methodologies informed by post-colonial critiques. The women in this study are treated as social agents not as victims of men, and of economic and political trends. The women formulate strategies aimed at influencing or shaping the social system in which they are a part. The women’s agency resides in their individual and communal endeavours and is constantly reinvented in the context of political and social change. This research is an analysis of the experiences of 38 women born, raised and partly schooled in Kilome division, Makueni district. It focuses on the educational experiences of rural women living in two villages and a small town in Kilome division, Kenya. I use the women’s discourse to critique the public discourse on education articulated in policy documents produced in the last 30 years since independence in 1963. This study illustrates how women in Kenya have been largely absent at the national level where educational policies are formulated. Policy making has remained male dominated. Policy makers, charged with structuring and restructuring education to meet the country’s development needs, continue to limit women’s agency to the private sphere. The formulation of policies from the male perspective has intensified the public and private dichotomy. Absent in the public discourse on education has been the discussion of how gender, a social construction, has influenced opportunities available to men and women in colonial and post-colonial Kenya. Colonial gender constructions of femininity have continued to limit educational opportunities made available to women in post-colonial Kenya. The Kenyan women in this study are cognizant of how these gendered assumptions shaped, and continue to shape, women’s educational and employment opportunities. They re-negotiate and resist these gendered assumptions and they have become intervention agents for their children’s education. The women’s agency, however, is limited by their lack of economic power. The interplay between gendered cultural assumptions about femininity and the increased costs of schooling imposed by policy makers continue to have a negative impact on women’s education.

This research, An Exploration of Women's Transformation through Distance Learning in Kenya, applied Mezirow's theory of transformative learning to investigate how distance learning impacted on women's views about themselves and their position in society. This was done by examining whether distance learning enables women to acquire new self-perceptions about themselves and leads them to challenge the status quo and take action in order to improve their status in society. Three distance learning programmes were studied: the B.Ed. programme at the Faculty of External Studies at the University of Nairobi, Theological Education by Extension, and the Co-operative College of Kenya. This research was motivated through my own biography, with the purpose of identifying and encouraging distance learning practices that promote women's transformation. The research also hoped to draw attention to the study of women's issues in distance learning, as an area that has not attracted much attention in Kenya and to generate information which can be used to inform the use of distance learning methods in a way that favours women. Biographical methods of research were used. This involved listening to women's learning stories, noting their reasons for coming back to study, the barriers that they encountered as they studied and the coping strategies that they used to overcome the barriers. In addition, other methods were used to supplement the biographical data collected from the women. These included focus group discussions, observation and documentary evidence. The approach to data analysis was based on the use of hermeneutics methods of data interpretation. The themes and concepts that emerged from this process were compared with themes and concepts generated through other methods of data collection. The main findings were that distance learning, though based on alternative forms of provision, does lead to transformation, however, women from the three programmes experienced diverse levels of transformation. The B.Ed.programme with its face-to-face component and women with higher education had greater impact on women's transformation than other programmes. Although the TEE programme had face-to-face interaction, their curriculum, which reinforced the negative gender stereotypes in society and does not lead to recognised certificates, could not allow them to achieve this experience. The Coop programme, without the face-to-face arrangement had the lowest transformative effects on women. On the basis of these findings, it was recommended that more distance learning programmes be designed, with increased use of face-to-face components in order to help women achieve transformation. The findings and the discussions thereof also show that prior level of education had far reaching effects on the levels of transformation that women achieved. This led to the recommendation that women's education should be encouraged and the society should be sensitised about the value of educating women. Distance learning also enabled women to achieve economic empowerment, in terms of promotions, new jobs and increased salaries; however this was only noted in the B.Ed. and Coop programmes. The TEE programme, being a church programme had no economic benefits for its women learners. The women in the TEE programme were not happy with the present arrangement and were, therefore, calling for a review of the programme. The findings also showed that women's transformation is not being fully achieved because of non- supportive facilities and the use of learning materials, which reinforce the negative gender stereotypes in society. Therefore, to make distance learning more accessible to women learners and more transformational, the research recommended changes geared towards the creation of women-friendly facilities and learning materials. / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2004.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1972. / Vita. Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

This study examines women’s experiences of formal education in Kenya. The study aims at making visible the cultural, historical, economic and political factors that shaped, and continue to shape, women’s educational and employment opportunities. It also highlights women’s agency exemplified in their struggle to provide their children, and particularly their daughters, with educational opportunities. The study draws attention to the gender and power issues that limit women’s participation in the public sphere. These are issues that policy makers, politicians, and development agents have not and still do not adequately address. The study employs post-positivist research methodologies, particularly feminist methodologies informed by post-colonial critiques. The women in this study are treated as social agents not as victims of men, and of economic and political trends. The women formulate strategies aimed at influencing or shaping the social system in which they are a part. The women’s agency resides in their individual and communal endeavours and is constantly reinvented in the context of political and social change. This research is an analysis of the experiences of 38 women born, raised and partly schooled in Kilome division, Makueni district. It focuses on the educational experiences of rural women living in two villages and a small town in Kilome division, Kenya. I use the women’s discourse to critique the public discourse on education articulated in policy documents produced in the last 30 years since independence in 1963. This study illustrates how women in Kenya have been largely absent at the national level where educational policies are formulated. Policy making has remained male dominated. Policy makers, charged with structuring and restructuring education to meet the country’s development needs, continue to limit women’s agency to the private sphere. The formulation of policies from the male perspective has intensified the public and private dichotomy. Absent in the public discourse on education has been the discussion of how gender, a social construction, has influenced opportunities available to men and women in colonial and post-colonial Kenya. Colonial gender constructions of femininity have continued to limit educational opportunities made available to women in post-colonial Kenya. The Kenyan women in this study are cognizant of how these gendered assumptions shaped, and continue to shape, women’s educational and employment opportunities. They re-negotiate and resist these gendered assumptions and they have become intervention agents for their children’s education. The women’s agency, however, is limited by their lack of economic power. The interplay between gendered cultural assumptions about femininity and the increased costs of schooling imposed by policy makers continue to have a negative impact on women’s education. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

Since 1963, Kenya has undergone extensive upgrading of its educational system. New institutions like the "youth polytechnic" have been created to serve post-elementary school people in need of employment skills. In this study, the case method was used to investigate two, one rural and one urban, reputedly exemplary polytechnics. In particular, this study sought the organizational factors associated with the two exemplary institutions. / Data were collected using observation, interviews, questionnaires, and salient documents. / A number of factors associated with exemplary youth polytechnics were uncovered. The Polytechnics developed training that was suited to the respective areas and to employment. Dedicated principals created an environment conducive to training such as discipline, duty delegations, and a communication network. Committed staff used innovative means of instruction, and a close link to the world of work was adopted. Trainees valued their studies. Management committees had a clear vision of the polytechnics' direction, and they had community support.

This participatory action research study involved a group of teachers in transforming school grounds into interpretation resources. Approached from a critical perspective, it challenged the conventional top-down approaches to interpretation resources and materials development. Through a teacher-centred approach, a school-based ‘botanic garden’ and ‘arboretum’ were developed at Samaj and Kenya High respectively. Teachers were further actively engaged in developing a variety of interpretive materials that might engage learners in socially critical environmental education processes at the transformed sites. A process in which educators from five non-formal education organisations shared their skills and knowledge on environmental interpretation with teachers preceded the development of interpretation resources and materials. Drawing on Latour (1999), I have applied the notion of mobilising interpretive capital when describing this process. Interpretive capital within the non-formal education sector was mobilised and made available through social interactions between teachers and non-formal educators. This occurred during workshops, organisational visits and critical reviews of a sample of interpretive materials. I provide insights into how the interpretive capital was mobilised and later drawn on by teachers during the development processes in their schools. This study argues that mobilising interpretive capital with teachers through partnerships can enhance the transformation of school grounds to foster environmental learning. It shows how attempts to find solutions with teachers were made in response to pedagogical and curriculum tensions that arise around the implementation of environmental education processes in their schools. To provide orientation in environmental education processes in schools, analyses of socially critical environmental education processes and a review of theoretical perspectives on interpretation as an environmental education process are presented. I have viewed interpretation and environmental education as reciprocally necessary aspects for enabling the development of critical environmental literacy and action competence. To explain this view, the notion of environmental interpretation and education processes has been applied and presented in this study. Finally, practical outcomes of the study on transformation of school grounds, improved education practice, enhanced professional competencies amongst teachers, new interpretive materials in schools and the establishment of partnerships are examined.

No description available.