Abstract:
The declared aspirations by the community of countries to achieve both Education for All (EFA) and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is a critical part of educational initiatives in Kenya. Schools are the physical places through which some of these goals can be achieved. Majority of the schools, particularly those in rural and remote places, as well as those in slums in Kenya have remained unfriendly spaces for the purposes of proper learning. This paper shares findings from a doctoral research that entailed teachers’ professional development accompanied by other intervention initiatives to improve the school situation including a school-to-school curriculum exchange partnership involving grade 5 and 6 students of a Canadian school and grade 6 students of the Kenyan school, and provision of safe water for the school community of 1200 members in rural western Kenya. The objective of the interventions was to initiate a whole school improvement process focusing on teachers’ and learners classroom interaction, teachers’ professional development and interaction of the learners in a Kenyan rural setting with learners in a developed setting in Canada. The data was gathered through documentation of school-to-school partnership project between the Kenyan school and a school in Alberta province of Canada, observation of teachers in classrooms in the Kenyan school and interviews with teachers. Findings reveal teachers’ enthusiasm to teach despite very difficult circumstances including poor infrastructure and lack ofteaching and learning resources. Students on the other hand were inspired through the initiatives to enjoy their learning through active learning approaches. The school community received water filters, revived their water sources and got safe water in school.
