129 American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS) ISSN (Print) 2313-4410, ISSN (Online) 2313-4402 © Global Society of Scientific Research and Researchers http://asrjetsjournal.org/ Teacher Factors Influencing Effective Implementation of Artisan and Craft Curriculum in Community Colleges in Kenya Peter Kigwilua*, Joyce Githinjib aCentre for the Promotion of Life Skills Education, Box 24450, Nairobi 00502, Kenya bMarist International University College, Box 24450, Nairobi 00502, Kenya aEmail: pchangilwa@gmail.com bEmail: joyskabui@yahoo.com Abstract The study examined the influence of teacher factors to effective implementation of Artisan and Craft courses in community colleges in Nairobi, Kajiado and Machakos counties, Kenya. Three teacher variables- teacher qualifications, teaching experience and levels of motivation were studied. The study adopted the mixed methods research design. The sample comprised 24 Artisan and Craft teachers and four directors of community colleges. The study triangulated questionnaires and interview guides which were content-and face-validated and reliability determined using Cronbach’s alpha. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics while qualitative data were analyzed and presented in form of narratives and direct quotations. The findings showed that teacher qualifications, teaching experience and teacher motivation had a high influence on the implementation of Artisan and Craft curriculum. Based on the findings, the study recommends employment of more qualified teachers, adoption of effective teacher motivation strategies and capacity building for teachers to ensure effective implementation of Artisan and Craft curriculum. Moreover, further studies on a wider geographic spectrum or a replication of this study in other parts of the country are recommended. Keywords: Artisan and Craft; community colleges; TVET; teacher qualifications; teaching experience; levels of motivation. 1. Introduction A plethora of challenges have continued to impinge the teaching and learning in TVET institutions in Kenya over the years. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- * Peter Kigwilu. http://asrjetsjournal.org/ mailto:joyskabui@yahoo.com American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS) (2015) Volume 14, No 2, pp 129-143 130 These challenges range from an inflexible and antiquated curriculum, a mismatch between skills taught and those demanded by industries and low participation of the private sector in bridging the school-work gap [1]. Moreover, failure to remedy unsystematic implementation and allowing TVET policies and reforms to be driven by economic rationale have been identified to be perennial problems in TVET curriculum implementation [2]. Other challenges include poor infrastructure, inadequate and obsolete tools and equipment, negative perceptions towards Artisan and Craft courses, and, gender stereotyping in courses such as hairdressing [3, 4, 5, 6]. According to Technical and Vocational Education and Training Bill (2012), institutions offering TVET are organized at five levels namely: Vocational Training Centers (VTCs), Technical Colleges, Technical Teacher Training Colleges, National Polytechnics, and Technical Universities established in accordance with the provisions of the Universities Act (2012). The study probed curriculum implementation in Catholic Church sponsored Vocational Training Centers and Technical Colleges, referred to as community colleges. The community colleges concept was introduced in Kenya by the Catholic Church and Stitching Porticus Foundation to integrate life skills into the training programs of Vocational Training Centers and Technical Colleges which offer Artisan and Craft course to youth. Basically, these colleges emphasize the promotion of job-oriented, work-related, skill-based and life-coping education. The underlying intent is that students should acquire skills which they can use to earn a living (gained-employment of self-employment) and simultaneously contribute to development [7, 8]. These community colleges are spread in three counties namely: Nairobi County, Kajiado County and Machakos County. Existing evidence shows that Kenya lays a lot of emphasis on the relevance of TVET in meeting the needs of the labor market with concerns about students' preparation for work and the impact of education on productivity and competitiveness [5, 9, 10]. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that although enrolments in TVET institutions have been declining over the years [11], Church sponsored youth polytechnics and institutions enjoy high enrolment and great demand for their graduates [12]. The high enrolment has been attributed to factors such as notions of access, flexibility in curriculum and teaching methodology, cost effectiveness, good student- teacher relationships and equal opportunity [13, 14]. The cited studies do not however interrogate the influence of the teacher on TVET curriculum implementation. Moreover, even those studies on teachers’ influence such as [15, 16, 17, 18, 19] interrogated only a single aspect of teacher development (in-service training) thereby making unknown the influence of pre-service teacher qualifications. Others studies hardly investigated teachers’ attitudes on Artisan and Craft curriculum implementation [20]. Hence this study sought to determine the influence of teachers’ qualifications, teaching experience and motivation levels on effective implementation of Artisan and Craft curriculum in community colleges in Nairobi, Kajiado and Machakos Counties. 1.1. Research questions The study was guided by the following research questions:  What is the influence of teacher’s qualification on effective implementation of Artisan and Craft curriculum in community colleges in Nairobi, Kajiado and Machakos Counties? American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS) (2015) Volume 14, No 2, pp 129-143 131  What is the influence of teacher’s teaching experience on effective implementation of Artisan and Craft curriculum in community colleges in Nairobi, Kajiado and Machakos Counties?  What is the influence of teacher’s motivation levels on effective implementation of Artisan and Craft curriculum in community colleges in Nairobi, Kajiado and Machakos Counties? 1.2. Significance of the Study The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MOEST), Kenya may use the findings to develop policies in capacity building of teachers that will enhance quality and relevant education and training in community colleges. Besides, the sponsors of community colleges may put in place teacher development strategies that will guarantee effective implementation of Artisan and Craft curriculum in order to produce relevant and well equipped graduates. Moreover, community college teachers, who are the prime implementers of the Artisan and Craft curriculum, will better understand how to leverage the teacher factors under study in enhancing the effective implementation of the curriculum in community colleges. Finally, given the paucity of literature on private provision of TVET, it is hoped that the findings will provide literature for use by scholars and practitioners in the field of Artisan and Craft education. 1.3. Theoretical framework for the study The study was underpinned in the Capital Theory of School Effectiveness and Improvement [21]. The theory is built around four key concepts: outcomes, leverage, intellectual capital (human capital) and social capital. Hargreaves contends that education should initiate youth into intellectual and moral outcomes in order for them to make sound intellectual and moral judgments and choices. Leverage, manifested through evidence-based practice and innovation, is a function of the level of teachers’ invested energy. This yields four possible relationships: high teacher input against little impact on students leading to frustrated and exhausted teachers; high teacher input producing a high level of positive change that does not last long; low teacher input for what teachers do not approve yielding a low output; and a high leverage, that is, a balance between input and output leading to a large impact on effectiveness from relatively low levels of teacher effort. He further posits that teachers in effective schools share and regularly apply combinations of high leverage strategies and avoid low leverage strategies by working smarter, not harder. The theory asserts that intellectual capital grows by two important processes: the creation of new knowledge and the capacity to transfer knowledge between situations and people. Finally, the theory holds that a school rich in social capital will exhibit strong networks and collaborative relations among its members and stakeholders and a strengthened intellectual capital. Hargreaves maintains that high leverage can be achieved only by developing strong combinations of teachers’ classroom practices and enhancing the participation of teachers in school-based professional development groups. School-based professional development, he contends, necessitates the mentoring of teachers and provides them an opportunity to develop and test new teaching strategies. Thus high social capital is realized if mentoring becomes part of teachers’ social learning. American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS) (2015) Volume 14, No 2, pp 129-143 132 He advances the view that teacher effectiveness results in knowledge transfer, knowledge creation and innovation thereby ensuring high cognitive outcomes. Studies have shown that social capital impacts the teaching effectiveness, teacher professionalism, continuous professional development of teachers, and students’ performance [22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27]. In relation to the study, the independent variables constitute a combination of the leverage, intellectual capital and social capital concepts. For instance, lack of teacher motivation connotes the leverage concepts of a frustrated teaching force while teacher qualifications and teaching experiences are aspects of the intellectual capital of a learning institution. Finally, effective implementation of Artisan and Craft curriculum, the dependent variable, is measured by the outcomes concept which is limited to aspects of student enrolment, completion and achievement in examinations. 1.4. Review of related literature The author in [28] investigated the challenges facing the implementation of Technical College curriculum in South West, Nigeria. The study sought to determine whether the teachers and instructors were professionally qualified or not to teach Technical and Vocational Education in Technical Colleges. Adopting survey research design, the study sampled 120 Basic Science Teachers and Technical instructors selected from Technical Colleges in Ondo and Ekiti states using multi-stage sampling technique. Questionnaire with reliability coefficient of 0.72 was administered and data collected analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The study revealed that 65.83 % of the teachers and instructors were professionally qualified to teach in Technical Colleges. Despite this finding, the cited study did not examine whether the teachers’ professional qualifications influenced the implementation of the curriculum in Technical Colleges in Nigeria. Thus this study investigated the influence of teacher’s professional qualification on the implementation of Artisan and Craft curriculum in community colleges. On the contrary, an analysis of the qualifications of the teaching staff in a case study on private TVET in Zambia conducted by author in [29] found that private TVET institutions faced a shortage of qualified lecturers. The survey showed that out of 159 teaching staff, only 36 % had a teaching certificate. This implied that a large proportion of the teachers were not qualified to teach TVET courses thereby posing a major challenge to the effective implementation of the TVET curriculum in the country. In the Kenya context, the author in [30] established that majority of the TVET teachers in Kenya possessed Diploma certificate and degree (37% and 33% respectively), about 20 % and 10 % held a certificate and a Masters degree respectively as their highest qualifications. This finding showed that TVET teachers had the requisite minimum qualifications to teach in TVET programs. However, authors in [15, 16] also cited lack of qualified instructors as one of the constraints that prohibit the effective implementation of TVET in Kenya. This finding corroborates the findings of authors in [16, 18] that showed that TVET teachers are inadequately prepared to discharge the task of curriculum implementation. American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS) (2015) Volume 14, No 2, pp 129-143 133 Similarly, the UNESCO National Education Sector Support Strategy (UNESS) for the Republic of Kenya 2010- 2011 reiterates that the lack of adequately trained tutors to teach at the TVET institutions in Kenya impedes curriculum implementation [19]. Thus the study sought to establish the influence of teachers’ qualifications on effective implementation of Artisan and Craft curriculum in community colleges. A similar study by authors in [31] examined the needs and challenges in postsecondary technical and vocational institutions in Kenya. The study specifically sought to describe, inter alia, the challenges faced by TVET institutions and suggest ways to address the challenges. Adopting case study design, two public postsecondary technical and vocational education institutions; Kenya Polytechnic (KP) and Nyeri Technical Training Institute (NTTI) were studied. The study established that majority of the instructors at KP (80 %) held bachelor’s degrees or lower, 19.5 % held masters degrees, and one instructor in Health Science and Biotechnology had PhD qualification. However, these advanced qualifications were not evenly spread in all the academic programs. Despite the low proportion of TVET teachers with advanced degrees, it appears that for public TVET institutions, teacher qualification is not a major concern, more so for Artisan and Craft curriculum that is at the basic level in the ladder of TVET programs. This is because from the foregoing findings, 80 % of the teachers had the minimum qualifications to teach Artisan and Craft courses. Thus, this study sought to unearth the proportion of qualified Artisan and Craft teachers in community colleges and find out whether this adequacy influenced Artisan and Craft curriculum implementation. In a study on the factors that determine teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards Art and Design curriculum in public secondary schools in Nyanza Province, the author in [17] used simple random sampling technique to select 131 students (who had dropped Art and Design) and 15 Art and Design teachers. The study found that teachers had no in-service training despite the introduction of new topics in the Art and Design syllabus. In- service training being a critical component of teacher qualifications, the findings suggested that teachers of Art and design lacked the skills and knowledge of implementing the Art and Design Curriculum. Empirical evidence underscores the importance of in-service training for teachers. For instance, a study by the author in [32] found that teachers whose in-service training is focused on the curriculum can teach well when what has been learnt is applied in the classroom. Furthermore, findings of a study by authors in [33] showed a positive relationship between in-service training attended by the technical and vocational teachers and students’ achievement in all the technical subjects studied. The focus of the cited studies was however on in-service teacher qualifications implying that the influence of pre-service teacher qualifications on curriculum implementation has not been investigated in the area of Artisan and Craft course. Hence this study delved into the influence of both pre-service and in-service teacher qualifications on effective implementation of Artisan and Craft curriculum in community colleges. Similarly, other studies have established the existence of teacher qualification inadequacies in curriculum implementation in TVET institutions. For instance, authors in [34] conducted a baseline survey of the level of awareness and existing practices in the use of ICTs in TVET institutions in Kenya. The survey adopted face‐to‐face interviews, questionnaires and focus groups in data collection. Questionnaires were administered to 220 Heads of Department (HoDs) and lecturers. American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS) (2015) Volume 14, No 2, pp 129-143 134 The findings showed that limited ICT skills and literacy among lecturers (mentioned by 24% of HoDs) and insufficient ICT training opportunities (mentioned by 20% of the lecturers) were some of the major challenges in integrating ICTs to TVET course provision. The low proportions of HoDs and lecturers who mentioned the aforesaid challenges indicates that generally high qualifications existed among few of the ICT lectures in TVET institutions in Kenya. Given that the reviewed study did not focus on qualification of Artisan and Craft teachers in community colleges, this study examined the qualifications of Artisan and Craft teachers in community college in order to ascertain whether or not they are qualified to effectively implement Artisan and Craft curriculum. As earlier noted, author in [14] investigated the factors influencing the attractiveness of a TVET institution. The study was a case study of Kaiboi Technical Training Institute in Uasin Gishu District. Questionnaires and interview schedules were administered to the principal, the deputy principal, the registrar, the heads of departments and the heads of sections. The study revealed that the institution employed qualified and professional staff to teach the courses which were basically Artisan and Craft. Thus, this study sought to establish any concurrence or divergence with this finding given the differential features existing between conventional technical institutes and community colleges. Teaching experience for majority of teachers has remained inadequate in TVET institutions in Kenya. For instance, the authors in [30] examining the challenges of quality and relevance in TVET teacher education in Kenya. The study was part of the working document prepared the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) triennial meeting held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in 2012. The study had 150 respondents sampled from TVET institutions in Nairobi, Kisumu, Nakuru, Mombasa, Eldoret and Nyeri towns. The towns were so selected because of their relatively high numbers of TVET institutions. The respondents of the study included, TVET trainers, employers of TVET graduates TVET teacher trainees, TVET administrators and policy makers among others. The study established that majority of teachers had inadequate work experience. Out of the TVET teachers interviewed, 38 % had acquired industrial work experience of only six months or less, 26 % had work experience of between 12 - 36 months and 16 % had work experience of over 36 months. The importance of industrial experience for Artisan and Craft teachers cannot be gainsaid. Adequate initial work experience and regular updating enables the teacher to reflect on and demonstrate the appropriate work context to his or her students. The cited study was however not specific to community colleges hence this study sought to establish any parallelism in the findings of the reviewed study and this study. In a study on implications of teachers’ self perception as adult learners and professionals to their practices and professional development at Rift Valley University College in Ethiopia, the author in [35] found that TVET teachers’ perceptions negatively influenced their motivation to teach and their attitude towards their profession. In addition, the TVET teachers exhibited low motivation and morale for engaging in learning and professional development and cited such extrinsic factors as level of pay and benefits as contributing to their dissatisfaction in the work place. The study concluded that TVET teachers’ low motivation to learn affected negatively their overall performance in the TVET institutions. However, these findings reflect the experiences of TVET teachers in a geographically different setting from community colleges in Nairobi region. American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS) (2015) Volume 14, No 2, pp 129-143 135 Furthermore, the study examined the influence of motivation on overall performance of the teachers without specifically interrogating the teachers’ task of curriculum implementation. Thus, this study examined the influence of motivation levels of Artisan and Craft teachers on implementation of Artisan and Craft curriculum in community colleges. In the Kenyan context, the author in [3] used a case study design to investigate how model youth polytechnics in Kenya were implementing Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Data was collected from a sample of two out of five model youth polytechnics. The study identified lack of motivation among instructors and low rating of youth polytechnics in the communities as some of barriers to implementation of ESD. However, adoption of the case study design denied the generalization of the findings. In addition, study by [3] focused on implementation of ESD in youth polytechnics. Thus, this study employed mixed methods research design to investigate whether or not lack of teacher motivation and low rating of community colleges influenced the implementation of Artisan and Craft curriculum in community colleges. 2. Materials and Methods The study adopted a mixed methods research paradigm that triangulated cross-sectional survey design and phenomenology design. Survey research designs allow researchers to gather information, summarize, present and interpret for the purpose of clarification [36]. In addition, survey research designs describe trends, attitudes, or opinions and explore the existing status of and relationships between variables at a given time [37, 38, 39]. Phenomenological research design was used to identify the lived experiences of the directors about teacher motivation and Artisan and Craft curriculum implementation through engaging them in extensive interviews. Authors in [40] maintain that phenomenological designs involve studying a small number of subjects through extensive engagement to develop patterns and relationships of meaning. The target population comprised all 25 Artisan and Craft teachers that were full-time staff with at least six month’s stay in the selected community colleges. The sample comprised 24 Artisan and Craft teachers sampled using proportional stratified random sampling from each of the selected community colleges. The teachers were then stratified by gender and simple random sampling used in each gender stratum. The authors in [41] recommend a sample size of 24 for a population of 25 individuals. Questionnaires and interview guides were used in data collection. The teachers’ questionnaire captured teachers’ demographic information and the influence of teacher factors on effective implementation of Artisan and Craft curriculum. The interview guide for directors of community colleges sought information on ways used to motivate teachers and the extent to which this motivation influenced Artisan and Craft curriculum implementation. The questionnaire was piloted to 18 teachers and data analyzed to test reliability. The questionnaire had an internal consistency alpha of 0.73 that was acceptable [42, 43]. The questionnaire was further content-and face-validated by subjecting them to thorough scrutiny from experts in TVET pedagogy. Field data were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations. The study adapted the acceptable research ethics as articulated in literature [44, 45]. American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS) (2015) Volume 14, No 2, pp 129-143 136 3. Results 3.1. Demographic characteristics All the sampled teachers (24) filled and returned the questionnaires. The results showed the gender distribution as 13 (54.1%) and 11 (45.9%) for male teachers and female teachers respectively. Thus, there were more male than female teachers in the community colleges. This disparity could be attributed to the nature of courses offered in community colleges whereby most courses are traditionally perceived as male courses such as mechanics, driving, masonry, carpentry and welding [46]. Table 1 shows the teacher distribution by their age. Table 1: Distribution of Teachers by Age Teachers’ Age Male Female Total f % f % f % 16-25 2 8.3 3 12.5 5 20.8 26-35 6 25.0 4 16.7 10 41.7 36-45 3 12.5 3 12.5 6 25.0 46-55 2 8.3 1 4.2 3 12.5 Total 13 54.1 11 45.9 24 100.0 As shown in Table 1, more teachers (41.7%) were in the 26-35 age bracket and only 12.5% were aged above 45. The teachers were generally youthful but with fairly large age gaps (M = 33.3, SD = 8.3). This implies that the teachers were at various career growth stages hence likely to blend fresh and experienced knowledge and skills to create a versatile teaching force for effective implementation of Artisan and Craft courses. The teachers also indicated the number of hours they taught per week as presented in Table 2. Table 2: Teaching Workload per Week Hours per Week f % 1-10 9 37.5 11-20 10 41.7 21-30 3 12.5 31-40 2 8.3 Total 24 100.0 Table 2 shows that 79.2% of teachers taught less than 20 hours per week with a mean weekly teaching load of 14.25 hours per week albeit high variations for individual teachers (SD = 8.6). The authors in [47] established a mean weekly teaching load of 14 hours for teachers in ITs with majority teaching 11-15 hours per week. Moreover, the Teachers Service Commission’s (TSCs) recommends a minimum and maximum teaching load of 12 hours and 18 hours respectively per week for lecturers in ITs and polytechnics. Thus, the finding revealed that Artisan and Craft teachers have reasonable teaching load that would enable them to adequately plan for and implement the Artisan and Craft curriculum. American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS) (2015) Volume 14, No 2, pp 129-143 137 3.2. Professional qualifications of teachers The findings about teachers’ professional training as presented in Table 3 revealed that 25.0% of the teachers had attained Certificate in Technical Education which is a minimum entry qualification to teach Artisan courses. Only 8.3% of the teachers had attained Bachelor of Education and 12.5% of the teachers had no professional qualifications in teaching. Overall, the findings showed that 87.5% of the teachers were professionally trained to teach Artisan and Craft courses. Table 3: Teachers’ Professional Qualifications Professional Qualification f % Certificate in Technical Education 6 25.0 Diploma in Education 4 16.7 Diploma in Technical Education 9 37.5 Bachelor of Education 2 8.3 None-Form Four 3 12.5 Total 24 100.0 This finding corroborates previous studies that revealed that TVET teachers had the requisite minimum qualifications and were qualified to teach TVET courses [30, 34]. However, the finding is at variance with the findings of previous studies that showed that TVET teachers in Kenya were inadequately prepared to discharge the task of curriculum implementation [12, 15, 16, 18]. Given the concurrence in findings with the more recent studies, it is clear that the challenge of inadequacy of trained teachers for TVET courses is not a concern for community colleges. On interrogating the relevance of the pre-service training received, 21 (88.9%) of the teachers affirmed that the pre-service training had prepared them to competently teach Artisan and Craft courses. The teachers further believed that their professional qualifications had a high influence on the teaching of Artisan and Craft curriculum. Given that reviewed studies had not investigated the influence of pre-service teacher training on Artisan and Craft curriculum implementation, this finding fronts a new thinking on how to effectively implement the Artisan and Craft curriculum. 3.3. Teaching experience of teachers The teaching experience of teachers was measured by the number of years of teaching Artisan and Craft courses. The results as presented in Table 4 revealed that 75% and 87.4% of the teachers had taught in their current stations and other stations for a period not exceeding 10 years respectively. Only 16.7% of the teachers had between 16-20 years teaching experience and 8.3% had more than twenty years teaching experience in current station. The mean teaching experience was 8.6 years. Despite the large variations in the teaching experience for individual teachers (SD = 6.2), the teaching experience was considered adequate for the teachers to effectively teach Artisan and Craft courses. American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS) (2015) Volume 14, No 2, pp 129-143 138 Table 4: Teaching Experience in Years Length of Service Current Station Other Station F % f % 0 0 0 2 8.3 1-5 9 37.5 10 41.6 6-10 9 37.5 9 37.5 11-15 0 0 1 4.2 16-20 4 16.7 1 4.2 21 -25 2 8.3 1 4.2 Total 24 100.0 24 100.0 The finding, however, contradicts that of the author in [30] which established that only 16 % of the TVET teachers had work experience of over three years. This therefore shows that teachers in the community colleges had more teaching experience than those in other TVET institutions in Kenya. Indeed 22 (91.7%) of the teachers believed that teachers’ teaching experience had a high influence on the effective implementation of Artisan and Craft curriculum. The study further found that 55.6% of the teachers taught both Artisan and Craft courses while the remaining 44.4% taught Artisan courses only. A scrutiny of the courses offered in the colleges revealed that Artisan courses had been mounted in all the community colleges whereas Craft courses were offered on a small scale in some of the colleges. The implications of this finding are twofold: First, the teachers who taught both Artisan and Craft courses had synergistic gains in knowledge emerging from the continuity of content from Artisan to Craft. This ultimately developed their teaching competences at any of the two levels. Secondly, while it may be argued that teaching at both levels enriched their experience in handling students across the levels, there was a likelihood of superficial exposure of students to content as the teachers would be more competent in one and not all the levels of teaching the courses. This eventually would limit the teacher’s teaching effectiveness hence impinging the implementation of Artisan and Craft curriculum. 3.4. Levels of teacher motivation With regard to teacher motivation, the directors believed that the teachers’ level of motivation was low which they attributed to low remuneration. For instance, a director opined: Teacher motivation is a big challenge in this college. The staff and all the operating expenses are being met by the students. When we have less students what the teacher gets will be little. For instance there was a time we had a department of three students and we had to close it. We are not at the top, nor are we at the bottom. We are somewhere (D1). Another director argued that the teachers were motivated by students’ good performance in the Artisan and Craft courses in addition to incentives given in form of prizes and gifts, special recognition. This was echoed by yet another director: American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS) (2015) Volume 14, No 2, pp 129-143 139 When the students are taught and they succeed, the teachers are motivated. If the students do accept the knowledge the teacher is trying to impart to them, the teachers get motivated. We also give teachers encouragement through incentives and also through verbal appreciation of the work they do (D2). They are not only teaching because they have to be paid at the end of the month. They teach with hope and that someone (the student) can succeed in life (D3). Overall, all the directors agreed that staff motivation influenced the implementation of Artisan and Craft courses. This finding corroborates that of the author in [35] that low pay and benefits led to low motivation of TVET teachers. The finding further echoes the tenet of the author in [21] that inadequate teacher motivation may impinge the effective implementation of the curriculum. It is also in concurrence with the argument that job satisfaction shapes the process of curriculum implementation [48]. However, based on the findings, it suffices to conclude that teacher motivation positively contributed to effective implementation of Artisan and Craft curriculum in community colleges. 4. Conclusions The findings showed that teacher qualifications, teaching experience and teacher motivation had a high influence on the implementation of Artisan and Craft curriculum. Thus, the study concluded that teacher qualifications, teaching experience, teacher motivation teaching had a high influence on the implementation of Artisan and Craft curriculum. Several recommendations were made based on the findings of the study. Firstly, this study has demonstrated that teacher qualifications have a high influence on implementation of Artisan and Craft curriculum. Consequently, the sponsors of community colleges should employ more qualified teachers in order to enhance teacher competence in order to spur and sustain students’ interest in Artisan and Craft courses. Secondly, the management of community colleges should adopt effective teacher motivation strategies in order to develop and retain a motivated workforce that will effectively implement Artisan and Craft curriculum. In the same vein, the management should build the capacity teachers to ensure that community colleges have an experienced pool of teachers that can effectively implement the Artisan and Craft curriculum. Fourthly, given that this study was confined to community colleges in Nairobi, Kajiado and Machakos counties, we suggest that a study on a wider geographic spectrum in order to generate findings with a wider implication. Fifthly, a replication of this study in other parts of the country would yield findings that would assist in policy making geared towards enhancing effective implementation of Artisan and Craft curriculum in all community colleges in Kenya. Acknowledgements Our special thanks go to the directors of the community colleges for their willingness to partake in the interviews. We also salute the teachers and students of the community colleges who so graciously cooperated in completing the questionnaires for the study. American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS) (2015) Volume 14, No 2, pp 129-143 140 References [1] Republic of Kenya. Report on the Rapid Appraisal on the Status of TVET in Kenya. Nairobi: MOEST, 2003, pp. 15-18. 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