The perceptions of teacher trainers and trainees on the relevance of the content of creative arts teacher education curriculum to learners’ and societal needs in Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the perceptions of teacher trainers and trainees on the relevance of the content of Creative Arts teacher education curriculum to learners’ and societal needs in Kenya. This study was guided by Structural Functionalism theory. The philosophical stance adopted was pragmatic paradigm. The study adopted mixed methods research approach. This study targeted teacher trainees, trainers and Head of Departments (HoDs) of Creative Arts drawn from public primary teacher training colleges in the Western region of Kenya. Purposive, stratified and simple random sampling methods were used to select the sample whereby 310 participants were selected for the study. These comprised of 270 teacher trainees, 30 teacher trainers (tutors) and 10 HODs for Creative Arts. Data analysis was done by the use of descriptive statistics whereby frequencies and percentages were calculated using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The findings indicated that the content of Creative Arts teacher education curriculum was perceived to be relevant to trainees and societal needs in terms of the array of skills on offer drawn from fine arts, performing arts, domestic arts, and outdoor arts. Inadequacy in space, time and support were however perceived as key barriers to making the content practically oriented. The recommendation was that there was need to use a practical approach to teaching so that trainees could actually actualize their needs; to set aside adequate space so that the content which was perceived to be adequate could be taught more practically; curriculum developers to avail more time for the teaching of the specific arts so that trainees could be able to master them; parental and community support could also go a long way in enhancing content coverage. The results of this study will be useful to curriculum planners and educational stakeholders in curriculum design and implementation of the teacher education curriculum for Creative Arts in Kenya and elsewhere.