Towards Critical Citizenship Education in Kenya

Introduction

Since Kenya’s independence in 1963, there was an increasing discussion on rethinking the notions of democratic and citizenship education. These discussions centered around what democratic and citizenship education should look like in history classrooms, what Africanizing a curriculum looks like, and what national interests can contribute to the development good citizens (Bogonko, 1992, Eshiwani, 1993, Merryfield & Tlou, 1995). While this chapter focusses on discussions on notions of citizenship education, it also inspired by my own personal experiences growing up in Kenya and going through an education system where we learners were less engaged in the classroom and in our communities. As Freire (2002) noted about traditional education, teachers in Kenyan classrooms applauded passive learners who would receive and store knowledge and then produce it in examinations. Therefore, when I later become an elementary social studies teacher, in an era of polarized and contentious local and national debates during multiparty politics in Kenya, I became interested in finding ways to actively engage my students both in the classroom and in the communities.

In a recent research I did in Kenya, my interest was in understanding how teachers utilize controversial issues as a path through which to develop involved and active learners. I had often seen in classrooms how issues that cause controversies and sometime heated arguments were being silenced and avoided in the classrooms and in the curriculum. I remember during the heated multiparty politics in the early 1990s in Kenya, when a teacher said that she could not teach about the different opposition political parties and their different perspectives because she does not want to get into trouble with the government. Therefore, she had to go along with the single story advanced by the government, whose political party had maintained power since Kenya’s independence. Or another teacher who could not teach about abortion because it was a taboo topic. Such views led to questions about why teachers do what they do and what epistemologies or lived experiences guide their action and pedagogical choices. Thus, I discuss how controversial issues teaching seems to be a pedagogical practice that allows for multiple perspectives in teaching (Oulton, Dillon & Grace 2004). Controversial issues teaching is a basis through which students can critically think about issues and then analyze and evaluate those issues that emerge in their local and global communities (Noddings & Brooks, 2017). In discussing experiences in Kenyan schools, this information will be drawn from research done in high school history classrooms and an analysis of the newly revised curriculum that was enacted in 2019.

Kenya a country in Eastern Africa, has undergone various education reforms since its independence in 1963 in order to fill the needs of the people and the country. The main goal after Kenya’s independence was to Africanize the curriculum to include skills that benefit the Kenyan people. The goals of education in Kenya underwent various revisions. In examining citizenship and democratic education goals, Kenya’s goals of education have subtly focused generally on promoting ‘citizenship education.’ For example, one of the goals states that education should be to encourage nationalism, patriotism and national unity (KIE 2002). However, this goal did not provide guidelines nor training as to how teachers can focus their pedagogy on citizenship skills. Neither did the curriculum, offer topics and guidance on citizenship training. Thus in 2019 there was another revision to this goal in education which paid attention to “foster nationalism, patriotism and promote national unity” and added a goal for learners to acquire a “sense of nationhood and patriotism” (KICD 2019, p 12). This goal was more elaborate and particularly mentioned and included citizenship to be at the core of its vision for the Kenyan education curriculum. It continues to state that education should develop “engaged, empowered and ethical citizens,” through citizenship education that fosters active democratic engagement, patriotism human rights and responsibilities” (p.2). Therefore, this discussion will examine how citizenship education has been enacted in Kenya and what possibilities are available for the future given the newly revised goals of education.