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…

Students in rural and underresourced school settings often perform poorly due to adversity. This is evident in subcounty schools where challenges such as domestic violence and low socioeconomic status further impact students' academic performance. Researchers have demonstrated that the relationship between students and teachers is instrumental in…

This paper reports the findings of a pilot project, Open Resources for English Language Teaching (ORELT), that aimed to introduce open resources for teaching English in Kenyan junior secondary schools alongside the traditional textbooks that until now have been the only teaching resources available to teachers and learners. The ORELT materials,…

The purpose of this article is to trace the academic lineage of models of inclusive education in Kenya, as some large international development organisations look to the region as a guide for disability inclusive education programs and projects. With the current focus on developing sustainable inclusive education systems in low-resourced countries…

This study critically investigates the social economic predictors of parental involvement in rural schools in Kenya and its implications on teaching and learning. Education is a major foundation for socioeconomic growth and the provision of quality education. However, teaching and learning are affected by various socioeconomic factors that this…

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…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to better understand how lesson study (LS) impacts the pedagogy and attitudes of teachers in varied sociocultural contexts. The authors investigated responses of teachers in Kenya and the USA who were new to LS. Design/methodology/approach: Teacher interviews after LS were qualitatively and inductively…

This paper compares the mixed-methods evaluation findings of the ukuFUNda Virtual School (UVS) with evaluations of three different mobile learning (m-learning) programmes in Africa: the information and communication technologies for rural education (ICT4RED); the Kenya Primary Math and Reading (PRIMR) study and the Nokia Mobile Mathematics…

Teacher classroom practices have been identified as the key contributing factor to the low learning outcomes of primary school grades in Kenya. Teacher mentoring has the potential to improve classroom practices and this study sought to determine its effects on the classroom practices of primary school teachers in Kwale County, Kenya. Using One…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine one rural Kenyan community's attempts to improve the educational attainment for primary school girls in the region. Data were gathered through field notes; school artifacts; and interviews with teachers, community members, and grade eight girls. The asset-building theory of change (social,…

The use of Open Educational Resources (OERs) in the teaching and learning of various subjects is a relatively new innovation in the Kenyan school system. With the advent and subsequent liberalisation of ICT, material developers are subsequently shifting away from the traditional modes of material development in the form of textbooks and other…

In many countries, educational policies typically mandate school activities that promote a homogeneous and narrow range of academic literacies for all learners despite the diverse nature of human learning. This ethnographic case study examines how a 12-year-old Kenyan fourth-grade student performing below average on all standardized tests used…

This study examines the relationship between teacher quality and student achievement in Mathematics among Grade 4 pupils located in 91 urban primary schools and 181 rural primary schools in Kenya. We hypothesise that teacher quality indicators including teacher characteristics, teacher qualification comprising initial teacher education and teacher…

The present study explored the role of vocabulary and decoding skills in predicting reading comprehension, utilizing data from 322 first- grade children from four elementary schools in Kenya. The children were administered a comprehensive battery of tests to assess pseudo-word reading skills, oral reading fluency, reading comprehension, and…

This paper reports on a study aimed at exploring the benefits of an international service-learning experience for teachers employed in a rural primary school in Africa. The primary school, where these teachers are employed was the focal point of an international visit in December 2012 by twenty-four undergraduate primary education students from…