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Learning about the water situation in other regions of the world and the devastating effects of floods on drinking water helps students study science while learning about global water quality. This article provides science activities focused on developing cultural awareness and understanding how local water resources are integrally linked to the quality of the world's water supply. After reading and discussing a case study highlighting one water situation facing the people of Kenya, students...

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to describe the perceptions of teachers and caregivers concerning gender differences in the educational experiences of children influenced by the HIV status of their parents or orphaned by AIDS in 7 orphanage schools of Western Kenya. 12 teachers and 8 caregivers participated in the study. Data were collected over 3 months using participant observation and individual interviews. Findings indicated that no gender differences in educational...

This study reports on an investigation into the impact of a national, school-based teacher development programme on learning and teaching in Kenyan primary schools. Building on a national baseline study (n = 102), 144 video-recorded lessons, covering the teaching of English, maths and science at Standards 3 and 6, were analysed to investigate whole-class teaching and group-based learning. Interviews were also conducted with school management committees, head teachers, teachers and pupils to...

This study reports on an investigation into the impact of a national, school-based teacher development programme on learning and teaching in Kenyan primary schools. Building on a national baseline study (n=102), 144 video-recorded lessons, covering the teaching of English, maths and science at Standards 3 and 6, were analysed to investigate whole-class teaching and group-based learning. Interviews were also conducted with school management committees, head teachers, teachers and pupils to...

The theme of this book cuts across disciplines. Contributors to this volume are specialized in education and especially classroom research as well as in linguistics, most being transdisciplinary themselves. Around 65 sub-Saharan languages figure in this volume as research objects: as means of instruction, in connection with teacher training, language policy, lexical development, harmonization efforts, information technology, oral literature and deaf communities. The co-existence of these...

For the African Virtual University and its consortium of African universities the implementation of quality promoting initiatives are not without challenges and scepticisms. To be discussed in this article is the case of a teacher education qualification in ten different African countries. Seven countries were sampled and visited in 2006 with the aim of understanding quality assurance cultures and practices used for promoting quality. Findings showed that quality assurance processes manifest...

Vignettes that capture Kenyan early childhood teaching practices highlight how Kenyan teachers use multiple musical and physical strategies to promote meaningful learning. These vignettes illustrate how teachers teach language development through music, use music to teach social skills and support emotional development, foster logico-mathematical skills through music, encourage physical development through music, and use music to teach personal safety, autonomy, and mastery.

The role of improved schooling, a central part of most development strategies, has become controversial because expansion of school attainment has not guaranteed improved economic conditions. This paper reviews the role of cognitive skills in promoting economic well-being, with a particular focus on the role of school quality and quantity. It concludes that there is strong evidence that the cognitive skills of the population—rather than mere school attainment—are powerfully related to...

Adopt-a-Marathoner is the outcome of an alliance between Elmwood School, Massachusetts, and John Hancock Inc. Through the program, students meet Kenyan runners who compete in the Boston Marathon. In addition, they learn about Kenya through activities integrated in the language arts, social studies, mathematics, and technology curriculum.

The writer discusses Literacy Leads to Hope, a fund-raising initiative launched to support the American Friends of Kenya organization by Danielle Rodriguez and Megan Adams, both high school juniors at the Academy of the Holy Names in Tampa, Florida. The recent political violence in Kenya, while jeopardizing the girls' objective of raising enough money to build and set up a library in Thika, has only made them more determined.

The article presents a profile of Sammy Gitau, a Kenyan who managed to overcome many obstacles and complete a two-year degree at the University of Manchester in England. Gitau began supporting his mother and 10 siblings at age 13, after his father's death. In the slums of Kenya's Mathare Valley he turned to petty crime and drugs, as there were few opportunities for legitimate work. After a personal crisis, Gitau began working with local youth to try to improve the slum area where he lived....

It is 40 years since Coombs (1967) first drew attention to the World Education Crisis, and specifically problems in the educational systems of countries in the developing world. Today, many of these problems remain, and are most visible in the educational systems of countries in sub-Saharan Africa. A large number of children remain out of school and for those who do enrol, less than half complete the primary education cycle. More worrying is the fact that those who do complete primary...

Abstract: The article traces the policy history of Kenya over more than 40 years (1963–2006) in order to tease out the tensions between the key themes of its own national agenda and the priorities of its principal development partners. The national concerns with the education-and-employment connection and with the orientation of schooling towards skills for work in the formal and informal economies can be contrasted with the aid agency priorities on quality and on education-for-poverty...

Abstract: The article traces the policy history of Kenya over more than 40 years (1963–2006) in order to tease out the tensions between the key themes of its own national agenda and the priorities of its principal development partners. The national concerns with the education-and-employment connection and with the orientation of schooling towards skills for work in the formal and informal economies can be contrasted with the aid agency priorities on quality and on education-for-poverty...

The article traces the policy history of Kenya over more than 40 years (1963-2006) in order to tease out the tensions between the key themes of its own national agenda and the priorities of its principal development partners. The national concerns with the education-and-employment connection and with the orientation of schooling towards skills for work in the formal and informal economies can be contrasted with the aid agency priorities on quality and on education-for-poverty reduction....