Unity over diversity? Teachers’ perceptions and practices of multicultural education in Kenya

ABSTRACT

The current paper analyses how multicultural education is perceived and practised by secondary school teachers in Kenya, an ethnically diverse African country with a history of inter-ethnic tensions. The authors have conducted a large-scale survey among 925 secondary school teachers in Nairobi, complemented by 68 in-depth follow-up interviews. They analyse five dimensions of multicultural education using quantitative and qualitative methods . Their approach and focus are empirically and methodologically innovative since most studies in the field of multicultural education remain qualitative in nature, analyse attitudes of pre-service teachers, and are predominantly conducted in the United States. While Kenyan teachers value multicultural education and to a lesser extent implement multicultural teaching strategies, their findings indicate that Kenyan teachers seem to attach more importance to promoting unity than to recognising and celebrating diversity at school.

KEYWORDS:

• Multicultural education
• Banks
• teacher perspectives
• ethnicity
• Kenya
• multi-method

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The research was approved by the National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation, and by all District Education Offices involved.

2. List provided by the Ministry of Education. We selected 13 schools in Dagoretti, 11 in Embakasi, 8 in Lang’ata, Kasarani and Starehe, 6 in Westlands, 3 in Kamukunji and Makadara, and 4 in Njiru.

3. Two selected schools no longer existed and were replaced by the most similar school on the list.

4. Schools were revisited multiple times until we surveyed at least half of the teaching staff.

5. Kikuyu (21.1%), Luyha (19.1), Luo (18.5%), Kisii (11.4%), Kamba (10.4%), Kalenjin (4.4%), Meru (4.2%) and other groups (10.9%).

6. Six teachers do not have the Kenyan nationality.

7. The survey was confidential: teachers could provide their contact information for follow-up research if desired.

8. Grammatical mistakes have been corrected and incomprehensible utterances and stop words omitted – without losing the original meaning.

9. We have regrouped the categories ‘Rather (dis)agree’, ‘(Dis)agree’ and ‘Strongly (dis)agree’.

10. Female, English & KiSwahili, Kasarani, 14 June 2016.

11. Ibid.

12. Male, KiSwahili, Makadara, 25 July 2016.

13. Female, Chemistry, Starehe, 27 June 2016.

14. See n. 11.

15. Five major ethnic groups: Kikuyu, Luhya, Luo, Kalenjin and Kamba.

16. Male, Music and Economics, Westlands, 15 June 2016.

17. Teachers speak of tribes rather than of ethnic groups. We have retained the original wording in the quotes.

18. Male, Mathematics and Chemistry, Kasarani, 11 July 2016.

19. Female, English, Starehe, 21 June 2016.

20. Female, Biology and Chemistry, Lang’ata, 28 June 2016.

21. Female, English, Starehe, 29 June 2016.

22. Male, English, Kamukunji, 17 June 2016.

23. Male, Biology and Chemistry, Dagoretti, 28 June 2016.

24. Female, History-Government and Christian Religious Education, Kasarani, 11 July 2016.

25. See n. 16.

26. Male, Guidance and Counselling Officer, Embakasi, 21 July 2016.

27. Male, Geography and KiSwahili, Lang’ata, 28 June 2016.

28. Male, Business Studies, Embakasi, 17 June 2016.

29. Male, Biology and Geography, Embakasi, 20 July 2016.

30. 4.4% neither agrees, nor disagrees.

31. See n. 16.

32. Male, Mathematics and Geography, Dagoretti, 14 June 2016.

33. Ibid.

34. Male, Mathematics and Biology, Embakasi, 15 June 2016.

35. See n. 11.

36. See n. 29.

37. Male, Mathematics, Starehe, 29 June 2016.

38. Female, English, Kasarani, 14 July 2016.

39. Male, History and Government, Njiru, 14 June 2016.

40. Male, Economics and Commerce, Kasarani, 14 July 2016; Ethnic group has been changed.

41. See n. 38.

42. See n. 14.

43. See n. 27.

44. Ibid.

45. Female, Christian Religious Education, Westlands, 21 June 2016.

46. See n. 13.

47. See n. 14.

48. See n. 20.

49. Male, KiSwahili, Dagoretti, 1 July 2016.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Belgian Development Cooperation through VLIR-UOS [grant reference 2014-001-147]. VLIR-UOS supports partnerships between universities and university colleges in Flanders (Belgium) and the South looking for innovative responses to global and local challenges.