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The study examined the strategies used by teacher educators in their teaching practices and gender integration in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The nature of the engagement of educational leaders and administrators in supporting teaching, learning and mainstreaming gender issues in teaching was also examined. A total of 165 sampled respondents were reached. This included 81 government officials and educational leaders (18 government officials and 63 educational leaders) and 84 tutors. The study used a concurrent mixed-method approach where the combined qualitative and quantitative data collection methodologies were applied to answer the study questions. The study data were collected directly from the project participants through semi-structured interviews and survey questionnaires. 60% of preprimary and primary tutors from Kenya demonstrated knowledge and skills in pedagogical practices compared to 13% from Tanzania and 20% from Uganda. The findings also revealed that most tutors do not think training and application of lifelong professional development strategies on key pedagogical aspects and content are essential for achieving a gender-responsive and inclusive training and support program. These key areas include support for gender-based violence victims, support for pregnant girls and mothers to continue education; gender-sensitive expectations towards girls' and boys' achievements; gender-sensitive expectations around girls' and boys' behavior, lesson demonstration, and lesson observation. The study recommends that there should be integration of gender issues in delivering training for the tutors of the colleges in East Africa. The training should focus on enhancing pedagogical practices and related educational leadership and management.

Tensions exist between providing inclusive education in mainstream classrooms and market-driven neoliberal values such as academic success and school ranking. These values impinge on teachers' responsibilities to teach students with disabilities. Schools are ranked based on students' performance in national examinations and schools sometimes use unscrupulous methods to achieve good results. In a culture that ranks schools based on test results, the schools themselves find it hard to embrace the idea of inclusion and some will use a variety of means to exclude students with disabilities to maintain their high rating. In this article we explore how some key tenets of neoliberalism in inclusive education, such as testing mechanisms to leverage accountability and improvement, inter-school competition, marketisation of education and parental choice, among others, affect the provision of education to students with disabilities in Kenya. We highlight how neoliberalism has affected inclusive education in Kenya and explain how hegemonic neoliberal culture has changed the way schools operate and how teachers teach. We also show how neoliberal culture in schools helps exclude students who are different from the norm.

The power of sport to affect social change is widely acknowledged. However, little empirical research has explored the use of sport in engaging young people in global education. This article fills the gap by exploring the role of sport using experiential learning tools as delivery methodology for global education in the context of Central Europe (Czechia). The study focuses on the experiential learning process of the study participants, a mixed intercultural team of Czech and Kenyan youth ambassadors participating in a Football for Development project with the aim of engendering cultural understanding, respecting diversity as positive and valuing differences as beneficial to society. The study benefited from a newly developed non-conventional data collection tool enhancing the research methodology and allowing for the facilitation of the participants' ability to discover and process the experience-related learning through reflexivity. By showing the changes in knowledge, skills, values and attitudes, our findings indicate how the sport for development programme contributes to creating a semi-conscious learning environment for global education.

This study was based on online university education during the COVID-19 period in Kenya. The purpose of the study was to establish the readiness of Kenyan universities for online education during COVID-19 period. Online survey method generated data from 11 universities through content analysis. The data were analyzed qualitatively and interpreted. The major findings showed that majority of the universities under study adjusted in different ways during the COVID-19 period by hiring more teaching staff to teach online, however, the capacity of these job applicants to competently teach online courses was not clearly verified before they were hired to teach at the university. The study also found that even though majority of the universities had a functional Learning Management System (LMS), its utilization was below par. The study concluded that many universities did not offer quality online education as required by the Commission of University Education (CUE) in Kenya but were using online education language for marketing and sustainability purposes. To reduce the digital gap in institutions of higher learning, the study recommended that all teaching staff at the university level must be computer literate.

Purpose: This article examines the use of English medium instruction (EMI) for teaching Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) by non-native speakers with a focus on multilingual classrooms. It also explores teachers' positive and negative beliefs about using EMI in classroom settings for JFL instruction. Methods and procedure: 274 non-native Japanese language teachers from around the world (57 countries) voluntarily participated in a survey, answering a questionnaire on Google Forms and Jotform. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed. The research instrument was piloted before the main study and was found to be effective and adequate to elicit the desired data. The research questions aimed to identify whether there were any relationships between the use of EMI and the multilingual classroom. Findings: The results showed a clear correlation between the extensive use of EMI and the multilingual character of JFL classrooms. Translanguaging turned out to be a common practice adopted by non-native Japanese teachers regardless of the primary language of instruction. The article concludes that EMI can be a valuable tool for JFL instruction in multilingual classrooms. Based on the investigation of the teachers' beliefs, the results showed a changing positive attitude towards English employed in JFL classrooms. Implications for research and practice: The findings can be used to further investigate EMI in JFL instructional practices in multilingual classrooms, improve the quality of JFL instruction and facilitate the integration of multilingual education into foreign language teaching. Future research can explore the effectiveness of EMI in different JFL contexts and investigate the impact of EMI on students' language learning outcomes.

The degree to which international immersion programs affect participants can be influenced by and attributed to their experiences in the host country or community. Embedded critical experiences allow participants to immerse themselves within the breadth and depth of humanity, thus fostering connections and relationships. Further, critical experiences can heighten emotions and disrupt values discourse. A mini-ethnographic case study of 20 Australian pre-service teachers' immersion in Kenya explored the impact of embedded critical experiences on participants' values, emotions, and relationships. Analysis of participants' journals, researcher's field notes and recorded debrief sessions identified key themes: emotions are heightened; values are questioned; relationships build community through positive connections; and relationships and understanding are at the core of teaching. Embedded critical experiences allowed for points of comparison across the data, which illustrated that while the participants valued the immersion for many reasons, the cultural interface of those experiences had the most significant impact.

Deans of students are the main points of contact between the university management and the students they serve in Kenyan universities. This position exposes them to acts of hostility both online and offline. This article explores the experiences of deans of students in Kenyan universities with cyberbullying. It specifically analyses the prevalence of cyberbullying among deans of students in Kenyan universities, the nature of cyberbullying meted out to deans of students, the strategies used by the deans to counter cyberbullying, and the effectiveness of these strategies in mitigating cyberbullying. This study was qualitative. Data was collected through interviews with 25 deans of students from eight private and seventeen public universities in Kenya. The study findings show that most of the deans of students have been bullied online at some time or another by their students. Deans of students were bullied for their looks, competencies, and associations. This, in turn, has affected how they perform their duties. The deans countered cyberbullying by blocking the bullying accounts, unfriending hostile "friends", deactivating or disengaging from social media, seeking legal redress, creating rapport with the students to stem hostility, seeking counselling, or confronting the bullies directly. The study revealed that the strategies used by the deans of students to curb cyberbullying were largely ineffective. This study recommends that universities provide staff sensitization training on cyberbullying and strengthen counselling and peer support systems among staff. This would enable their staff, such as deans of students, to deal with the effects of cyberbullying. These recommendations, if implemented, could help secure a favourable online working environment for the deans of students at Kenyan universities as they interact with their students, increase their morale at work, and improve the working relationship between students and the deans of students.

The study examined the types of language errors made by learners in the English narrative essays. It also assessed the feedback techniques employed by teachers of English in the handling of language errors in the English narrative essays. A descriptive research design was employed to examine errors of English narrative essays of 181 form two learners obtained through stratified random sampling and simple random sampling techniques. The eight teachers of English selected through purposive and simple random sampling completed interview schedules. Qualitative data generated from the essays of the learners was analyzed using Error Analysis and Content Analysis. The findings reveal that a total of seven categories of language errors which include: word order, verb tense and form, subject -- verb agreement, spelling, plurality, word choice, and capital letter errors were made by the learners in their English narrative essays. The most preferred corrective technique was to involve the learners actively by encouraging them to read extensively and write severally on various narratives in the target language. The findings will provide reliable feedback to teachers of English because it will guide on the development of teaching methods and evaluative measures to narrative essays. The study will also be useful to curriculum developers in designing materials for teaching English language in secondary schools. It will also be of invaluable benefit to learners of English as it will guide on the way narrative essays need to be written.

There are rising cases of disrespect in Kenyan society amid efforts by Christian Religious Education (CRE) in secondary schools to make the learner appreciate and respect their own, and other people's cultural beliefs and practices. The morals of the secondary school graduates enrolled in colleges and society do not reflect the acquisition of values learnt through CRE. Despite the exposure of students to the Christian Religious Education curriculum, cases of disrespect, for instance, drug abuse, abortion, arson in schools, hate speech, religious and ethnic hatred continue being witnessed everywhere. The purpose for this study was to examine the Christian Religious Education teachers' perception on the use of valuing methods for learner value acquisition in National Secondary Schools in Kenya. The objective of the study was to establish the Christian Religious Education teachers' perception on the use of valuing methods for learner value acquisition and to find out the challenges they face in the process. The study was based on the Theory of Development of values. The study adopted mixed methods under the convergent parallel design. The target population of the study was 95 national secondary schools in Kenya with a total of 224 CRE teachers. However, 30% of schools and teachers were sampled. The study sample size was 67 CRE teachers. The study employed stratified and simple random sampling to select the schools for study and purposive sampling technique to select CRE teachers to participate in the study. Data was collected through the questionnaire, document analysis, and interview and observation schedules. The validity and reliability of data collection instruments was done through use of experts and piloting respectively. The quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics presented in frequencies and percentages while the qualitative data was analyzed in thematic coding. The study revealed that CRE teachers are conscious of certain values that the CRE content is to facilitate to learners and are aware that particular content may not only transmit a single value depending on how it is facilitated they are however not keen on being specific on relating particular content to particular values. The main reasons perceived by the teachers to this non-use was noted as overcrowded curriculum, insufficient in-service training and the seeming neglect of the affective domain in teaching and examinations. Much as majority of the teachers do not use valuing methods, they however perceive them as having positive characteristics that can enrich content acquisition by learners. Study recommends that the syllabus be explicit in mentioning particular values in relation to particular teaching content. On this note the study recommends that KICD should work very closely with CRE subject specialists to ensure that the affective domain in the teaching of CRE is given adequate guidance.

This article provides an analysis of how equitable, inclusive, and meaningful partnerships between the Global South and Global North, which have been characterized by challenges (Kumar 2019), can be established and enhanced by minimizing the power dynamics that undermine their intended goals. This article argues for a relook and disruption of the current models of partnerships and collaborations that have over the years not worked well for partners in the Global South by proposing a consideration and adoption of more responsive and mutually beneficial options through the ACE (Aware, Connect, Empower) principles. The ACE principles provide for new ways of action, including alternative strategies for equitable collaborations across cultures and regions. This includes the adoption of the African Ubuntu philosophy advocating for the creation of awareness amongst partners in collaboration with the need for transformations and empowerment to enable students to gain both intentional intercultural and international experiences. [Note: The publication year (2023) shown on the PDF is incorrect. The correct year of publication is 2024.]

Context: For many businesses, one of the key indicators in their management is the adaptation of Information Technology in their operations. In Kenya, there has been a phenomenal growth in access to mobile phones, by June 2023, over 66 million mobile phones were connected to various telecommunication operators of which 58.3% were smart phones constituting 67.1% of internet connections. There are many digital technologies which can be adapted to facilitate the processing, dissemination, and access of information. The modern world has become competitive due to the uptake of Information Technology as one of the main business management skill, with the availability of smart phones and many applications that are easily available and easy to use. One of the main beneficiaries of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) is the Jua Kali artisans who are a key player in the Kenyan economy. Entrepreneurial competencies help the growth of businesses along the dimension of innovation. Kenya intends to entrench the use of Information Technology for public service delivery, business, skills, and innovation. The Jua Kali sector cannot be ignored, it contributes more than 80% of the total employment in Kenya. Approach: This research was carried out in the Eastlands of Nairobi, Kenya. Data were collected using a questionnaire, an interview and observation schedule. The study used an interview schedule to collect data from Jua Kali artisans carrying out their artisan businesses in the Eastlands of Nairobi and a questionnaire survey to collect data from a sample of identified Nairobi residents who had engaged an artisan to work for them six months prior to the research. Findings: The research established that most Jua Kali artisans acquired their skills in the Jua Kali sector by apprenticeship (86.3%) while a small percentage (12.7%) trained in Technical Vocational Education Training (TVET) institutions while a further one percent were trained by their former employers. Most of the artisans had attained the basic formal education qualifications i.e. primary education (27.9%) and secondary education (47.6%). The Chi-square (?²) test was used to test the relationship between use of the basic social media digital platforms in business management and the formal education attained by artisans owning artisan businesses. Conclusion: At 0.05 level of significance (a) the research established that there is a significant relationship between the adaptation of digital platforms in business management and the formal education attained by the artisans.

This article casts light on informal caregiving, an essential aspect of the international postgraduate researcher (PGR) experience, but which is often invisible in literature and discourses on international education. Drawing from qualitative semi-structured interviews with international PGRs in a British university, it highlights their dual role as care recipients and lesser known caregivers across transnational and local spaces. It gives insights into the forms and dynamics of care that they give to and receive from family, friends and others, uncovering the emotional and affective aspects of undertaking a postgraduate research degree overseas which impact on their mental wellbeing. The findings have implications for the improvement of university support for international PGRs which has relevance for the wider international student community.

This study aims to understand the effectiveness of online training for pre-service and in-service teachers by exploring any differences between pre-service and in-service teachers' satisfaction and learning following an online professional training video. Additionally, the study focused on evaluating any differences in satisfaction and learning of pre-service and in-service teachers based on age, experience, subject taught, and grade level, as well as nationality. An online 20-minute video session was shown to the participants and a survey questionnaire, based on the Kirkpatrick Model, was used to explore their reactions and learning. The study employed Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) with independent sample t-test and ANOVA techniques to compare the training outcomes in pre-service and in-service teachers' satisfaction and learning. The results showed that the teachers were highly satisfied with the video assessment, content, and content structure. Moreover, there was no significant difference found in satisfaction levels or learning between in-service and pre-service teachers. Furthermore, no impact of age, experience, grade taught, or subject taught was found, though nationality was found to impact satisfaction with the video. The study recommends the expansion of similar online professional development programs, considering the high levels of satisfaction among pre-service and in-service teachers alike. Personalization of content to accommodate diverse learner needs, learning preferences, and backgrounds is suggested to further enhance satisfaction and learning outcomes. Lastly, this study's findings emphasize the need to improve teacher training programs, especially in different geographic and cultural contexts, to increase teaching efficacy and address the unique challenges teachers face.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced higher education institutions to provide education online. Yet, little is known about students' and teachers' experiences of the shift in pedagogical modality in low-resource contexts. This study explored undergraduate students' and teachers' experiences of online education during the pandemic in Kenya and Nepal. Semi-structured interviews with students (n = 24) and teachers (n = 8) suggest that the pandemic further exacerbated existing inequalities. Furthermore, it affected the mental wellbeing of students; almost all reported heightened anxiety associated with their career prospects and learning. However, the findings also suggest that the pandemic created a conducive atmosphere to enhance digital literacy, and to foster peer support practices. Pedagogical implications of the study are highlighted in the context of promoting equity in future learning environments.

Principals' instructional leadership bolsters and supports teaching and learning. The study aimed to explore the principals' classroom observation practices and their influence on teaching and learning in public secondary schools in Machakos Sub-County, Kenya. Weber's (1996) instructional leadership model served as the foundation for the study. The research employed a mixed-methods approach using a convergent parallel design. The target population of the research is 3434 and has a sample size of 350 participants, encompassing 10 principals, 40 teachers, and 300 students. The participating schools were selected using a stratified random sampling method. The collected data was cleaned, processed, and analyzed using SPSS 25. Quantitative data was analyzed using percentages and displayed in frequency tables. Qualitative data was labeled, appropriately coded, and transcribed under specified themes. The findings of the study revealed that the principals regularly carried out supervision in the classrooms and ensured that students' behaviors were controlled in the classrooms by setting class rules. The research recommended that the Ministry of Education, along with the relevant educational agencies, should provide in-service training for principals on their roles as instructional leaders to enable them to proficiently discharge their functions; there should be an increase in the provision of the necessary learning resources to help enhance teaching and learning.

Pharmacy practice change is facilitated by delegation, teamwork, leadership and reorganization of personnel structure and roles. The international pharmaceutical federation (FIP) recommends that society should have access to appropriately trained pharmaceutical personnel. Three cadres form the pharmacy workforce: pharmacists, technicians and pharmacy assistants or dispensers. Globally, the training, regulation, scope, and status of technicians and dispensers vary. Role tensions exist between pharmacists and technicians which impact both workplace behaviour and performance. Literature on role expansion for pharmacy technicians excludes (reference to) the contribution of the pharmacy assistant or dispenser. Unlike the technician, the dispenser largely lacks professional recognition. But overlaps between the roles of the technician and dispenser can occur leading to further tensions in the pharmacy workplace. 'Unhealthy'' intra-professional conflicts obstruct the pharmacist practice envisioned by the WHO 7-star pharmacist. A solution that brings together the 3 cadres in joint or shared action is desirable. Social theory suggests that intercadre conflicts could be both necessary and inevitable. Being political nature, the tensions can be moderated by a ''political settlement''. The present paper is a reconstruction of and reflection of the author's journey in building a harmonious pharmacy workforce. Professionalizing the dispenser cadre restructures the hierarchy of the pharmacy workforce leading to harmony which in turn improves organizational performance. Lessons learned from this case can be applied to resolve workplace tensions in other settings.

Vocational teachers participate in Continuing Professional Development (CPD) to develop their professional competencies. In developing country contexts however, it is not always clear what challenges vocational teachers face in their CPD or how they attempt to resolve those challenges. This study therefore investigated the challenges vocational teachers in Kenya face in their CPD and the coping strategies they adopt. Viewing teachers as adult learners, the study adopted a concurrent mixed methods approach whereby interview and questionnaire survey data were collected from vocational teachers in six vocational institutions in Kenya's Nairobi Metropolitan Area and analysed using thematic and statistical analysis. Vocational teachers in Kenya were found to face multiple challenges concurrently, which were categorized as lack of opportunity and access (e.g. failing to find relevant CPD), systemic restrictions (e.g. hindrances due to costs and lack of time), and personal difficulties (e.g. negative self-evaluation of ability). The strength of these challenges was found to vary with the characteristics of teachers. Coping strategies included cutting down on spending, taking loans, moonlighting, and 'juggling time'. Findings show the need for a clear policy on vocational teacher CPD, provision of financial and non-financial support, and reworking the school calendar to create time for CPD.

We live in an age of artificial intelligence (AI). Open AI, an American artificial intelligence organization, claims that generative chatbots are here to stay. Although computer technology remains unevenly distributed, the presence of AI continues to be felt in many areas of daily life. Further, AI development happens in few countries whose cultural practices and beliefs tend to be embedded in AI output and functionality. Western and Global North perspectives tend to dominate conversations about AI. How might AI technology function equitably in an ethno-racially and linguistically diverse world? This paper explores intersections of technology, coloniality, and bias to contextualize the user-experience for individuals in groups characterized as high, medium, and low-resourced languages. For whom does AI function in our globalizing world? Engaging with this question through a languacultural (Agar, 1994) lens, I employ a language and culture perspective to guide inquiry into AI's output and impact, based on a children's storybook. Specifically, I deploy Kenyan, Indonesian, and Taiwanese languacultural perspectives of three participants in a culturally cognizant reading (Washington, 2023) of a product of chatbot-human composing, 'Alice and Sparkle', a children's book illustrated by MidJourney and co-authored by ChatGPT and Ammaar Reshi. Overall, through scrutiny of encoded cultural tropes and values inscribed within text and images, this paper proposes considerations for literacy pedagogy and research that stem from a pursuit of inclusive AI.

Many children living in linguistically diverse low- and middle-income countries learn to read and write in multiple languages. Recent research provides implications for effective reading instruction with multilingual learners (e.g., Hall et al. in New Dir Child Adolesc Dev 166:145-189, 2019). However, there is limited empirical evidence on effective instructional practices for multilingual early grade learners who are at-risk of reading failure. The goal of our research was to examine the effect of a structured literacy intervention on literacy skills for a cohort of first grade children at-risk of reading failure as they learned to read in Kiswahili and English. Data were drawn from a larger longitudinal randomized control trial of the Primary Math and Reading Initiative in four counties in Kenya (Kiambu, Nakuru, Nairobi, and Kisumu, with 165 at-risk children identified (71 control; 94 treatment). Children in the treatment condition received daily structured instruction in letter knowledge, phonological awareness, decoding, word reading, and reading comprehension in Kiswahili and English. Children in the control condition continued with the business-as-usual approach, typically whole word instruction. Path analysis was used to examine the intervention effect of the PRIMR program through second grade. The path models further explored the within- and cross-language relationships of variables that predict oral reading fluency over time. Our analyses revealed that children in the treatment condition exhibited significantly higher growth in letter-sound knowledge for both Kiswahili and English. While growth was also observed for non-word fluency in Kiswahili and English for both treatment and control groups, there were no significant findings for this skill that can be attributed to the PRIMR intervention. Our analysis revealed that cross-linguistic elements of English reading skills contribute to oral reading fluency skills in Kiswahili. We discuss implications for aspects of structured literacy instruction essential for multilingual learners at-risk of reading failure.

Educational policies and practices in the current age of heightened globalization are increasingly grounded on unjust binary curriculum approaches that favor educational designs from Minority-World countries at the expense of epistemologies of indigenous people in Majority-World nations that are typically deemed culturally inferior (Gupta, 2015). Essentially, those opposing binaries promote neocolonial and neoliberal ideologies while disregarding lived cultural contexts of people in Majority-World countries (Lee, 2012). To grapple with this conundrum, this ethnographic study examined how educators in Kenya and Nepal (N = 26) contested, constructed, and transformed educational practices in contexts of globalization, neocolonialism, and neoliberalism. Qualitative data from four schools in Kathmandu, Nepal (16 participants) and two schools in Kenya (10 participants) revealed that educators struggled with issues of intellectual imperialism. Therefore, they strived to deconstruct the existing unjust binary curricula policies by embracing pluralist educational discourses essential to sustaining indigenous languages and dialects. In doing so, those educators focused on advancing local cultural values, rights, and ideologies without antagonizing influential stakeholders from Minority-World nations.

Research demonstrates that young people value mental health support that is tailored to their needs and preferences, rather than a "one size fits all" offer, which is often not equitably accessible (National Children's Bureau, 2021). Understanding young people's lived experiences across different sociocultural contexts is important. The aim of this research was to conduct an international qualitative study on the views of young people with lived experience and professionals, on proposed aspects of personalised support for anxiety and/or depression. Participatory action focus groups were conducted with N = 120 young people with lived experience of anxiety and/or depression (14-24 years) and with N = 63 professionals in Brazil, India, Kenya, Pakistan, Portugal, South Africa, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. Data were analysed using the rigorous and accelerated data reduction (RADaR) technique. Overall, although some country-specific differences were found in terms of what aspects of support young people found to be most important, individual preferences were considered stronger, furthering the view that support should be personalised to the needs of the individual young person. Young people experiencing anxiety and/or depression should be able to choose for themselves which aspects of support they would prefer in their own care and support plans, with families and mental health professionals providing guidance where appropriate, rather than removing the young person from the decision-making process altogether. It should also be ensured that the aspects of personalised support can be understood by young people and professionals from different contexts, including marginalised and minoritised groups and communities.

At the onset of COVID-19 pandemic, all higher education institutions had to abruptly migrate from face-to-face mode of learning to virtual learning. Students and faculty members were thrown into the process of acquainting themselves with a fully virtual system. How prepared were institutions, faculty members, and students for the abrupt and massive transition to online learning? The study examined the faculty and students' perspective of online learning during COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the study examined the perceptions of faculty and students on the preparedness of higher education institutions for online teaching and learning. The study also determined the perceptions of staff and students towards online education, constraints, and opportunities. A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted at a public university in Kenya. A semi-structured interview was conducted on a total sample of 36 respondents; 24 students and 12 faculty members to capture unique, idiosyncratic and whole individual viewpoints. A conventional Content Analysis was done to determine words or concepts within the transcripts. The findings showed that the study institution, faculty members, and students were unprepared for the immediate and massive shift to online teaching and learning and had challenges using virtual technologies for teaching and learning during the lockdown. These challenges ranged from insufficient or lack of internet bandwidth, training, increased teaching and learning workloads to limited time for interactions. Based on the findings, the study suggests significant implications for higher education institution leaders, policymakers, faculty, and students. The study contributes to the existing literature by analyzing the perceptions of faculty and students about the preparedness of institutions, faculty, and students on the abrupt shift to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: The literature has expounded on the impacts of international service-learning (ISL) in teacher education as positively affecting everything from improving academic achievement to developing a greater moral and ethical sense. Other studies have examined the role of cultural competence and dimensions of power between those providing and receiving service. Purpose: This paper examines a decade-long ISL immersion program to understand the outcomes on students in three key areas that have received attention in the literature: motivation, employment, and academics. Methodology: A longitudinal case study comprising a cross-section of students who were asked to reflect on their immersion experiences, which took place from 2011 to 2020. Reflective journals completed during and directly after each immersion supplemented the survey data. Findings: While much of the data supports previous studies regarding the impacts of ISL, there are some anomalous findings, especially in the longer-term effects of ISL within teacher education. While participants' perceptions of the impacts were significant, evidence of that impact was lacking. Implications: Although short-term impacts of the immersion were more significantly noted, students perceived the impact for more extended periods than previously thought. However, the evidence to suggest that these perceptions are realizable is lacking.

The paradox of documenting history through gruesome visuals depicting the prominence of stories intrigues media researchers. Foundational work on the dual representation theory explains trauma transference to brain functions following disturbing emotional triggers. The analysis suggests an existing link between exposure to disturbing information and trauma. In East Africa, trauma and related psychological effects thrive amid rigid newsroom structures devoid of intervention mechanisms. The scarcity of trauma mitigations is not just an issue in journalism, but in society, as mental health concerns and other deprivations become common. Data from in-depth interviews with journalists reporting trauma in Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda indicate a positive correlation between a heightened frequency of exposure to violent visuals and an increased manifestation of trauma. Data also show a dearth in psychosocial support, indicating a need for alternative mitigation strategies.

An important question for parents and educators alike is how to promote adolescents' academic identity and school performance. This study investigated relations among parental education, parents' attitudes toward their adolescents' school, parental support for learning at home, and adolescents' academic identity and school performance over time and in different national contexts. Longitudinal data were collected from adolescents and their parents in nine countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States). When adolescents were 16 years old, their mothers (N = 1083) and fathers (N = 859) provided data. When adolescents were 17 years old, 1049 adolescents (50% girls) and their mothers (N = 1001) and fathers (N = 749) provided data. Multiple-group path analyses indicated that, across cultures, higher parent education was associated with better adolescent school performance. Parents' attitudes toward their adolescents' school and parent support for learning in the home were not associated with adolescents' school performance but were associated with academic identity. The findings suggest somewhat different pathways to school performance versus academic identity. Implications for helping parents and educators in different countries promote adolescents' academic identity and achievement are discussed.

Effective research data management (RDM) is essential to modern scientific investigations. As the volume and complexity of research data increase, researchers, research institutions, and countries are pressured to improve data management practices to ensure transparency, reproducibility, sharing, and reuse of their findings. Researchers and institutions in Kenya, like those in many other developing countries, have begun to adopt the practice. This review examines the early indicators of improved research data management practices in Kenya to identify leaders who would drive the culture of RDM and thus improve research output.

A well-informed perception of leaders is critical in how members of worship congregations experience spiritual formation. This study focuses on six selected worship congregations of Kenya's Christ Is The Answer Ministries (CITAM). The Straussian grounded-theory design was employed to analyze interviews and focus group discussions. The findings indicated that inclusive spiritual formation for children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) in worship congregations is nonexistent due to leaders' perceptions regarding NDDs. The study recommends training worship congregational leaders to address the spiritual formation needs of children with NDDs.

This article presents the epistemological complexity inherent in the roll out of an international project on Disaster and Risk Reduction, and consequently about science education in the Indigenous context of Turkana County in Kenya. After an introduction that explains the current state of Disaster and Risk Reduction, the paper focuses on the 'Paper Volcanoes Laboratory' program and toolkit for children and teachers, which aims to spread awareness about natural hazards among children. The paper argues that the geographical, social and educational context where the project is carried out is critical to consider, and decolonial studies provide a conceptual and theoretical framework for this project. This allows to recognize reproduction of infantilization of Indigenous people and children through Western knowledge and science if implemented without consideration for local contexts, and demonstrates how Western educational projects have been a tool of discrimination and colonization. However, at the same time, it opens up the possibility for a dialogue and an encounter between the different epistemologies present in a project that was conceptualized within the Western context, but is to be carried out in Turkana County in Kenya.

The 2017 general comment (GC21) to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) on children in street situations, provides a framework of legal guidance for governments developing policies aimed at protecting street-connected children and sets up the rationale for more awareness raising and public education to counter negative and deficit attitudes towards street-connectedness. Within this framework, the media has a role to play in either challenging conceptualisations of street-connected children as out-of-place within the public and predominantly adult domain described by urban streets, or in reinforcing ideological constructions of citizenship and normalised notions of childhood that result in negative stereotypes of these children. GC21 recommends that interventions targeted at street-connected children should be ethically responsible -- adopting child rights approaches aimed at using accurate data/evidence that upholds the dignity of children, their personal integrity, and their right to life. As such, these approaches should also extend to how organisations engage with and utilise the media to represent street-connected children. Focusing on media representations of street-connected children during the six pandemic-affected months of February to July 2020, this paper provides a review of the content of the sources to provide an insight into the structural barriers that face street-connected children because of how they are positioned in society, during the pandemic and in general, and the extent to which the media reinforces or counters the rescue or removal narratives that can lead to inappropriate intervention responses.

In this comparative project, we analyze three policy documents that have guided genderbased higher education initiatives in Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda. Two research questions guided our work: (1) How do key policy documents conceptualize gender equity? and (2) How is gender equity discussed in relation to economic priorities and sociopolitical realities in each country? To address these questions, we conducted a critical discourse analysis of the following: Kenya's Education and Training Gender Policy in Kenya, Rwanda's Education Sector Strategic Plan 2018/19--022/23, and Uganda's Gender in Education Policy. Corroborating the work of other scholars, we found that all three documents shared (1) an increased commitment to gender equality, (2) persistent underrepresentation of women in higher education despite increased participation of women over time, and (3) markedly low gender parity in STEM disciplines. Our findings are significant because they confirm that there is a disconnect between stated policy goals and actual student outcomes, which limits institutional success and economic development. Additionally, our analysis highlights differences in the strength in commitment to gender equity in policy mandates in these three countries. This is a key issue which warrants further research attention.

The 1998 UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education in Paris recommended that global higher education institutions should internationalize and reduce inequalities between developed and emerging countries. Since then, universities strive to incorporate an international dimension in their service. The aim was initially guided by the 20th century understanding of internationalization being just, fair, and an equitable process that promotes peace and mutual understanding. However, under the influence of the General Agreement on Trade in Services and competition, internationalization changed focus and became less inclusive. This paper explores inclusive international education in East Africa using narrative review methodology. Findings suggest that rather than promoting access and equity in higher education, internationalization, for example, excludes economically disadvantaged, disabled, and adult learners. Thus, in addition to internationalization at home, inclusive internationalization abroad strategies should be devised. Internationalization of higher education is more valuable if it translates into fair, just, and peaceful social systems.

This paper explains sustained effects and what worked for students in the Advancing Learning Outcomes and Transformational (ALOT Change III) program. Data comes from qualitative narratives from the baseline survey of the program collected by the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) between December 4, 2019, and January 31, 2020, using focus group discussions (FGDs) and dialogues. The analysis followed the Miles and Huberman (1994) framework to make comparisons and contrasts. Results showed that students transferred skills such as self-confidence from primary to secondary schools, enabling the adolescents to speak up and engage. This showed an effective implementation uptake. The implication of the study points to the efficacy of community-based programs in impacting behavior of adolescents beyond primary school.

This research examines the nature, enactment, and assessment of Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) models in the United States and South Korea to highlight lessons and strategies that Kenya can utilize to improve CBC implementation. A scoping review of various databases was conducted to search for peer-reviewed articles documenting empirical evidence on implementing and assessing CBC education models in the USA, South Korea, and Kenya. Two researchers from each country screened, extracted the data, and evaluated the records using a custom quality rating scale following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension checklist for scoping reviews. Evidence from the USA and South Korea indicated that the implementation of CBC resulted in improved problem-solving skills, lifelong learning skills, self-efficacy, and autonomy in learners. There is limited evidence from Kenya on the effect of CBC models on learners' key competencies. Challenges in the three countries include lack of teacher training opportunities, low funding for implementation, inconsistent pedagogical approaches and assessment techniques. The Kenyan government and education stakeholders can address the CBC implementation challenges by using evidence from other studies and countries on teacher training and aligning goals at the school, local authority, regional authority, and national levels.

Context: Participation in Continuing Professional Development (CPD) supports the development of vocational teacher competencies. However, it is often not clear what learning methods vocational teachers use in their CPD. This study therefore investigated the CPD practices of vocational teachers in Kenya, with a specific focus on the formal and informal learning methods used. Approach: The study used a questionnaire survey to collect data from TVET teachers randomly drawn from six Technical and Vocational Colleges in Kenya's Nairobi Metropolitan Area. Descriptive and inferential analysis of the data was used to determine how frequently different learning methods are used and to identify associations between CPD practices and teacher characteristics. Findings: TVET teachers in Kenya were found to use different learning methods depending on the availability of the learning methods and the learning goals teachers have. Formal academic learning and discussions with colleagues are frequently used while collaborative learning methods and practice-based learning activities are less frequently used. Rarely used are written reflections about practice and its outcomes. Despite viewing Lecturer Industrial Attachment (LIA) as important and therefore wishing to attend LIA, more than a third of the participants indicated that they had never attended LIA. The use of professional literature is restricted to text books with limited use of primary and secondary literature. CPD activities such as mentoring, supervising other teachers, and school visits were found to form a unique category of CPD activities that is more frequently used by teachers with administrative responsibilities. Conclusion: The limited use of active learning methods that involve critical evaluation of practices and their outcomes risks limiting the ability of vocational teachers in Kenya to transform and adopt better practices. It is recommended that vocational teachers in Kenya are encouraged to adopt a broad conception of teacher CPD that embraces collaborative, reflective, and practice-based learning.

A multipartner agricultural and nutrition project was implemented in Kenya between 2015 and 2018. This study examined the impact of the international learning and research project on the emotional and civic engagement status of 43 Kenyan women farmers receiving agricultural and nutrition interventions, comparing this group to a control group. Some project women experienced higher emotional worthlessness in the short term but less worry in the long term in comparison to the control group women. Project women also had higher overall civic engagement levels after the 3-year project compared to the control group women. Our results demonstrate that experiential learning has advantages and disadvantages for overseas communities. For community benefits, research and learning projects should be a partnership with community members.

This article presents a design-based research (DBR) methodology to develop a teacher professional development intervention that is aimed at helping teachers become designers of student-centred e-learning activities. The intervention was tested at Gulu University (GU) and Maseno University (MU), and a set of activities and tools, as well as six design principles, were recommended for future interventions. The findings suggest that becoming a designer requires teachers to transform their understanding of their practices and to develop teachers as designers (TasD) mindsets. Further research is needed to conceptualise these mindsets and to map and compare the epistemological traditions of learning, design and teaching practices.

Good teachers are a major predictor of students' success in school and beyond it. Finding ways to increase the quality of teaching has been a concern for educational systems across various income contexts and, particularly, in the Global South. This paper discusses the iterative design of an online teacher professional development program geared to improving teachers' English language instruction by means of implementing early literacy software. The program was implemented in various modes (face-to-face, blended and online) with early primary teachers scattered throughout Kenya during the pandemic school closures and after reopening. Relying on the blended learning approach, a potentially effective technology-driven TPD offers multifaceted content, has adaptive and flexible design, and is ongoing until mastery of core concepts is achieved. Further, such solution develops motivational dispositions of teachers about teaching with early literacy software so that its perceived value and the likelihood of success are high, and the benefits outweigh the costs of implementation. The next step of this research is to learn about the specific outcomes of the blended TPD, including changes in literacy instruction and subsequent improvements in student literacy skills.

Most undergraduate students in universities are in the young adulthood stage of development, in which intimate relationships are part of key tasks. Central to intimate relationships are emotions, which play a crucial role in determining whether a relationship flourishes or decays. Capacity to manage emotions of self and others-also known as social-emotional intelligence-powered by its dimensions; emotional perception, utilization, and management of self and others-has been found to enhance individual capacity to relate with others, enhancing the possibilities of experiencing relationship satisfaction. However, most past studies have recorded inconsistent social-emotional intelligence (SEI) levels, gender-based differences, and context have differed from that of intimate relationships. The study was an attempt to investigate if there are significant gender differences in social-emotional intelligence in a sample of (n = 399) undergraduate students in universities engaged in intimate relationships in Nairobi County, Kenya. A survey design was used, and multistage sampling was used to select 234 female and 186 male students. Analysis of the data indicate moderate levels of social-emotional intelligence among undergraduate students in intimate relationships. The emotional perception dimension of social-emotional intelligence shows a statistically significant difference between the genders. However, the study findings reveal that gender should not be a deterrent when exposing students to social-emotional learning.

This paper examines the use of vignettes as a research method in a comparative exploration of the provision for children with special educational needs across eleven countries. The investigation selected in-country researchers, who responded to questions with respect to children described in 14 vignettes. The questions related to school placement options; assessment processes; support arrangements; service provision; curriculum responses and those involved in placement decisions. The vignette findings were able to highlight differences in placement decisions between the countries; the general lack of pupil voice in decision making and the ubiquitous influence of medical categories within educational settings. The utility of using vignettes in this type of research is discussed in relation to reflecting the complex reality of educational practice in different countries.

The study examined the effect of birth order differences on adjustment among first year undergraduate students in one selected university in Kenya. A cross-sectional survey research design was adopted. The sample size comprised 213 first year students selected using both stratified and simple random sampling techniques. The adjustment questionnaire was used to collect data. The inferential statistics such as Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Tukey's post hoc tests were used to analyze data. The ANOVA results indicate a significant effect, [F (5, 207)=8.279, p=0.000], of order of birth of first year students on their level of overall adjustment. The Tukey's HSD Post Hoc test results indicate that 1st born students presented a significantly higher overall adjustment compared to the rest. The study recommends that staff at university counseling centers should develop specific orientation programmes to enhance the adjustment of first year students who occupy later orders of births in their families apart from first born students.