Education and Social Sciences Books, Book Reviews and Book Chapters
Permanent URI for this collection
Browse
Recent Submissions
Item Role of Latent Local Technologies and Innovations to Catapult Development in Kenya(Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) Kenya, Eucharia U.; Njiruh, Nthakanio P.The domination of “colonization shadow” may have reduced the manifestation of young indigenous technologies and innovations that with minimal value addition could help local communities overcome many challenges. Rediscovery of these technologies can bring about wealth and well-being to the local people who are also the inventors. Some of these technologies have either been suppressed or picked up by colonizers to the disadvantage of local inventors. This chapter discusses the useful, locally found technological resources that have not helped local communities but sometimes fetch millions of dollars elsewhere. This knowledge is expected to bring about rediscovery and decolonization so as to use the technologies to improve local lives. In this aspect decolonization is necessary in many sectors of the economy such as medicine which failed to take off from herbal- to industrial-based pharmaceutics. For instance, Kenya is the home of over 1100 species, many have medicinal value. While such herds are condemned at “home” as illegal herbal concoctions, they are glorified in other countries as medicine and food supplements. Today, many Kenyans import such medicine and food supplements at unaffordable prices as disease continues to bite. The conclusion is that there are a number of unexploited indigenous technologies and wealth that have remained dormant due to colonized minds and with little decolonization they can earn wealth that can increase wellness and improve livelihoods for the growing population in Kenya.Item Issues for quality enhancement and harmonization of education in East Africa.(Springer Link, 2016-03) Mohamed, Mussa; Karuku, Simon; Halai, AnjumThis chapter provides a description of the historical and political development of the current mass education system in East Africa. It goes on to provide a comparative analysis of the structure of the school education system in the East African countries, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Finally, on the basis of the historical and comparative analysis of the education system the chapter raises questions for harmonization of the education system in the partner states in the East African Community.Item Economics of Land Degradation and Improvement in Kenya(Springer International Publishing, 2016) Mulinge, Wellington; Gicheru, Patrick; Murithi, Festus; Maingi, Peter; Kihiu, Evelyne N.; Kirui, Oliver K.; Mirzabaev, AlisherKenya is an agricultural nation, with over 12 million people residing in areas with degraded lands. Unfortunately, the food crop productivity growth in the country has failed to exceed the population growth. The growth of agricultural output in Kenya is constrained by many challenges including soil erosion, low productivity, agro-biodiversity loss, and soil nutrient depletion. Land exploitation devoid of proper compensating investments in soil and water conservation will lead to severe land degradation. This will translate to loss of rural livelihoods, diminished water supplies and threaten the wildlife habitat. This study explores the causes, extent and impacts of land degradation in Kenya, discusses the costs of action versus inaction in rehabilitating degraded lands, and proposes policy options for promoting sustainable land management (SLM). In order to appropriately support SLM, there is a need to account for the total economic value (TEV) of land degradation, i.e. including the value of both provisioning and indirect ecosystem services of land. Using such a TEV approach, findings show that the costs of land degradation due to land use and land cover changes (LUCC) in Kenya reach the equivalent of 1.3 billion USD annually between 2001 and 2009. Moreover, the costs of rangeland degradation calculated through losses in milk and meat production, as well as in livestock live weight decreases reach about 80 million USD annually. Furthermore, the costs of “soil nutrient mining” leading to lower yields for three crops, namely wheat, maize and rice in Kenya were estimated at about 270 million USD annually. The cost of taking action to rehabilitate lands degraded through LUCC is found to be lower than the cost of inaction by 4 times over a 30 year period, i.e. each dollar invested in land rehabilitation is likely to yield four dollars of returns. This may strongly justify the urgent need for taking action against land degradation. Addressing land degradation involves investments in SLM. Our econometric results show that improving access to information on SLM and to the markets (input, output, financial) may likely stimulate investments into SLM by agricultural households.Item Towards a Harmonized Curriculum in East Africa: A Comparative Perspective of the Intended Secondary School Mathematics Curriculum in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda(Springer, 2016) Karuku, Simon; Tennant, GeoffThis chapter presents the results and insights gained from a comparative analysis of the national secondary school mathematics syllabuses of Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Whilst considerable commonalities were found, it was particularly Rwanda, with a different colonial past, which was found to have a more formal curriculum, exemplified in the lack of mention of measurement below the fourth year of primary school and the absence of approximation as a topic. Differences in sequencing topics were found, e.g. Uganda and Rwanda introduce number sequences in year 4 as a means of contextualizing algebra, Tanzania and Kenya introduce them in year 10 somewhat more formally. The continuance of calculations in shillings and cents in Tanzania and Kenya, and the use of logarithms as a calculation tool in Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya can be taken as evidence of a mismatch between what happens in school and the outside world. Differences are acknowledged between the stated curriculum on the one hand, and what gets taught by teachers and indeed learnt by children on the other. Whilst considerable work has been undertaken already to update the curricula in different ways, further work is required to ensure that the syllabus across the region is fit for purpose for the 21st century, not least in engaging all learners in this important subject.Item Explanatory reasoning in Junior high Science textbooks(SensePublishers, 2012) Pegg, Jerine; Karuku, SimonCurrent reforms in science education emphasize the importance of using inquiry- based teaching strategies that engage students in formulating explanations from evidence (National Research Council [NRC], 2000). Specifically, for example, the National Science Education Standards in the United States state that students in grades 5 to 8 should “develop descriptions, explanations, predictions, and models using evidence” and “think critically and logically to make the relationships between evidence and explanations” (NRC, 1996, p. 145). As an additional example, current science education curriculum documents in Alberta include outcomes that expect students to investigate, explain, interpret, and discuss evidence for scientific concepts. For example, the Planet Earth unit in Grade 7 includes outcomes such as “Investigate and interpret evidence that Earth’s surface undergoes both gradual and sudden change” and “Interpret models that show a layered structure for Earth’s interior; and describe, in general terms, evidence for such models” (Alberta Learning, 2003, p. 27).