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ISSN 2640-1533s

Open Access

Editorial Team

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Potential reviewers can register for an account on the GJTE website:

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 i

Global Journal of Transformative Education
Volume 2, December 2020

Published by the Global Insitutute of Transformative Education (http://www.gite.education)
© GJTE. 2020. GJTE is a peer-reviewed Open Access journal produced as part of the  
IU ScholarWorks system, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA.

Editors-in-Chief
Michael T. Ndemanu, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, USA
Serafín	M.	Coronel-Molina,	Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA

Managing Editor
Tom J. McConnell, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, USA

Editorial Board
Kennedy N. Bota - Masinde Muliro University of Science & Technology, Kakamega, Kenya 
Judah M. Ndiku - Masinde Muliro University of Science & Technology, Kakamega, Kenya 
Wilfridah M. Mucherah - Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, USA
Daniel Baron - The Bloomington Project School, Bloomington, Indiana, USA
Ernest Davis - University of Cape Coast, Ghana
Nuboonyin Fokong - University of Bamenda, Cameroon
Michael Fonkem - University of Wisconsin Oskhosh, USA
Patience Fonkem - Appleton Area School District, Wisconsin, USA
Isaac Galyuon - University of Cape Coast, Ghana
Carla Gull - Inside Outside Michiana, Elkhart, Indiana, USA
James Hollenbeck - Indiana University Southeast, New Albany, Indiana, USA
Seema Lasi - Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan
James Kigamwa - Literacy International, Newark, Delaware, USA
Maxwell Seyram Kumah  - St. Teresa's College of Education, Hohoe, Ghana
Daniel Mpolomoka - Zambian Open University, Lusaka, Zambia
Maxwell Nyatsikor - University for Developmental Studies, Tamale, Ghana
Rose Opiyo - Masinde Muliro University of Science & Technology, Kakamega, Kenya 
Stephanie Oudghiri - Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
Jerry Parker - Southeast Louisiana University, Hammond, Louisiana, USA
David Roof - Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, USA
Fai Wiysahnyuy - University of Bamenda, Cameroon

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Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2  
ISSN 2640-1533s

Open Access

ii

Published by the Global Insitutute of Transformative Education (http://www.gite.education)
© GJTE. 2020. GJTE is a peer-reviewed Open Access journal produced as part of the  
IUScholarWorks system, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA.

Multiple Perspectives on Tranformative Education

Transformative Education from Multiple Perspectives: 
Second Volume of the Global Journal of Transformative Education       .............................         1
           Serafín M. Coronel-Molina & Michael T. Ndemanu, Editors-in-Chief

Implications of Outdoor Environment on Children’s Learning Experiences in
Public Preschools in Borabu Sub-County, Kenya   ........................................................................         4
          Godfrey Nyaoga Ayaga &  Edward Khasakhala Okaya

Effect of Hands-on Science Activities on Ghanaian Student Learning, 
Attitudes and Career Interest: A Preliminary Control Study   ...............................................      18
          Heather Beem

Collaborative Teams for Self-Publishing - A Model for Creating Locally 
Relevant Educationial Books    .................................................................................................................      33     
          Tom J. McConnell & Barbara Giorgio-Booher

Classroom Democracy and Learning Outcomes in Primary Schools 
in Francophone Africa    ...............................................................................................................................      46
          Aloysius Mom Njong

Transformative Learning Potentials of Trainee Health Workers 
in Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria    ...........................................................................................................      60
          Evelyn N. Nwagu

The Impact of School Locale on Pupils’ Competencies in Selected Subjects: 
Does	it	Matter	More	for	Specific	Regions	in	Ghana?    ................................................................      72
           Maxwell Kwesi Nyatsikor, Winston Kwame Abroampa, & Kweku Esia-Donkoh

Education for Sustainable Development in Kenya:  
Rhetoric and Reality in Basic Education   ...........................................................................................     86
           Benard O. Nyatuka

Transformational Leadership and Wealth Creation in Education Organizations: 
The Case of Higher Education in Cameroon     .................................................................................     99
           Patience P. Teneng

Open Call for Papers     ...................................................................................................................................   114
          GJTE Editors

Contents

Global Journal of  
Transformative Education

Volume 2, December 2020



Global Journal of  Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2  
DOI 10.14434/gjte.v2i1.31758

Open Access

Published by the Global Insitutute of Transformative Education (http://www.gite.education)
© Coronel-Molina & Ndemanu, 2020. Open Access This journal is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons 
Attribution NonCommercial NonDerivative 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), 
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction without revision in any non-commercial medium, provided 
you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license,

Transformative Education from Multiple Perspectives: Second 
Volume of the Global Journal of Transformative Education

Serafín M. Coronel-Molina1 & Michael T. Ndemanu2, Editors-in-Chief

Full listing of authors and contacts can be 
found at the end of this article.

The Global Journal of Transformative Education 
(GJTE) is an open-source, peer-reviewed journal de-
signed to share high impact educational research and 
practical applications germane to transformative edu-
cation worldwide. GJTE publishes academic articles on 
high impact practices in the area of pedagogy, curricu-
lum, learning environment, educational policy, instruc-
tional materials, and reviews of educational resources 
that support transformative teaching and learning in 
PK-20 institutions and adult education programs. GJTE 
is focused on sharing educational research and re-
search-based practices with all stakeholders in the de-
sign and implementation of transformative education. 
Articles are offered as resources for teacher educators, 
teachers, school leaders, policy makers, community 
groups, and academic researchers. Content may include 
research articles, lesson plan ideas, assessment and 
management strategies, book reviews, and discussions 
about curriculum and connections between schools 
and communities that are geared toward maximiz-
ing educational outcomes for learners. It is becoming 
increasingly clear that traditional educational models 
are no longer sufficient to benefit vast sectors of the 
world’s population; hence the need for new, transfor-
mative education models. And it will take transforma-
tive research to light the way to these new educational 
paradigms.

Most of the articles published in this second volume 
of GJTE were initially reviewed and accepted for pre-
sentation at the 2020 World Conference on Transfor-
mative Education (WCTE) in Cape Coast, Ghana, under 
the theme, “The Future of Africa and the Role of Trans-
formative Education.” The conference was postponed to 
a later date due to COVID-19. A call for papers was then 
sent out for to the would-be conference participants to

submit their manuscripts to be considered for publica-
tion in the second volume of GJTE. All the submissions 
underwent a rigorous double-blind peer-reviewed 
process prior to being accepted for publication. Out of 
several manuscripts submitted, eight were found to 
meet the standards and rigors of transformative edu-
cation ideals as enunciated on our website, www.gite.
education

This volume is composed of eight articles that delve 
into transformative education from multiple perspec-
tives. They focus on diverse topics such as learning 
spaces, science curriculum and pedagogy, schooling 
and pedagogy, school and democracy, health education, 
geography of education, and education and develop-
ment. The articles included in this volume cover four 
geographical locations which include Kenya, Ghana, 
Nigeria, and Cameroon. The contributions are relevant 
to scholars, educators, practitioners, educational poli-
cymakers, graduate students, governmental and non-
governmental organizations, academic institutions, and 
grassroots organizations interested in transformative 
education across the globe. 

The first article, titled “Implications of Outdoor En-
vironment on Children’s Learning Experiences in Public 
Preschools in Borabu Sub-County, Kenya” is authored 
by G. N. Ayaga and E. K. Okaya. Their research was im-
pelled by the evident failure of the current competen-
cy-based learning paradigm in Kenya, particularly for 
early childhood learners. It is known that environmen-
tal quality is key to enhancing learning, so they set out 
to investigate the implications of an outdoor environ-
ment on children’s learning experiences in public pre-
schools. They found that a rich outdoor environment 
proved beneficial to preschoolers’ learning experiences 
and development of locomotor and rhythmic movement 
abilities, as well as to their general academic achieve-
ment and development of various social, emotional and

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Coronel-Molina & Ndemanu, Transformative Education from Multiple Perspectives 2

cognitive skills. Based on the findings of their study, the 
authors make recommendations for the incorporation 
of outdoor play in the preschool curriculum. 

The second article, “Effect of Hands-on Science 
Activities on Ghanaian Student Learning, Attitudes, 
and Career Interest: A Preliminary Control Study” by H. 
Beem, focuses on junior high school-aged students in 
Ghana and their participation in STEM-focused classes. 
More specifically, it examines the effect of training the 
teachers of these students to employ hands-on activi-
ties using low-cost, locally available resources on stu-
dent learning outcomes, attitudes towards learning sci-
ence, and interest in STEM majors or careers. Although 
objective results (e.g., exam scores) were mixed across 
schools, more subjective measures, such as students’ 
engagement in class and enjoyment of science, im-
proved significantly. These effects were disproportion-
ately visible among females, who experienced decidedly 
greater learning gains, increases in engagement, and a 
shift in interest towards STEM majors and careers than 
their male counterparts.

T. J. McConnell and B. Giorgio-Booher coauthored 
the third article, “Collaborative Teams for Self-Publish-
ing: A Model for Creating Locally Relevant Educational 
Books.” Realizing that the learning materials are still 
mostly Eurocentric and not culturally responsive in 
many developing countries, these two authors share 
a model used to develop a series of books called Con-
servation Tales. They developed these books, which 
were designed to make education more relevant and 
accessible for children, in collaboration with university 
faculty, students, and scientists, and leveraged the skills 
of artists, writers, and content experts from among 
these groups to provide a rich learning experiences 
for readers while also offering affordable options for 
self-publishing. 

In the article, “Classroom Democracy and Learning 
Outcomes in Primary Schools in Francophone Africa,” 
A. M. Njong offers a look at existing data on student 
performance and indicators of classroom democracy 
to evaluate the impact of democratic practices in the 
classroom on learning outcomes. The results show the 
importance of both teachers and parents in the process 
of children internalizing democracy in the classroom, 
and further highlight the importance of preserving and 
promoting indigenous cultural values, because they 
facilitate learning achievements.

With respect to health education, E. N. Nwagu au-
thored “Transformative Learning Potentials of Trainee 
Health Workers in Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria.” In this

article, she focuses on health workers in training and 
the impact of transformative learning and demograph-
ic characteristics on their absorption of the material. 
This was a descriptive study based on self-reporting 
by the respondents (learners). Participants indicat-
ed a high degree of transformative learning, with the 
most frequently selected learning components being 
field trips and presentations. Students felt that such 
hands-on activities gave them a better understanding of 
health, illness, and health care. The study demonstrated 
the importance of discussion and debate in developing 
critical reflection among learners.

In current educational research, the geography 
of education analyzes the disparity of educational 
outcomes based on the geographical location of the 
schools students attend. The urban and rural schools 
in Ghana exhibit that disparity. M. K. Nyatsikor, W. K. 
Abroampa, K. Esai-Donkoh examine the difference 
between rural and urban environments in “The Impact 
of School Locale on Pupils’ Competencies in Selected 
Subjects: Does It Matter More for Specific Regions in 
Ghana?” They were specifically interested in student 
competency on English and Mathematics tests at the 
primary level. Results showed statistically significant 
differences in achievement between rural and urban 
school pupils both nationally and regionally, with urban 
schoolchildren outperforming rural ones on both tests. 
Rural school children in the Eastern Region were the 
most disadvantaged. The paradigm flipped in Northern 
Region, where rural schoolchildren achieved higher av-
erage scores than their urban peers. This would suggest 
that it makes a significant difference in which part of 
the country a child attends school, and leads to the con-
clusion that it is necessary for resources for schools and 
communities to be equitably distributed and effectively 
utilized in order to provide quality inclusive education 
for all pupils.

In the next article, B. O. Nyatuka discusses “Educa-
tion for Sustainable Development in Kenya: Rhetoric 
and Reality in Basic Education.” The importance of 
sustainable development is becoming increasingly 
clear, and the role of education in forming responsible 
global citizens to believe in and engage in such prac-
tices cannot be overlooked. The ultimate goal of such 
education is to foster ideal policies and practices for 
enhancing the social, economic, and ecological viability 
of present and future generations. This article offers a 
review of research on the importance of Education for 
Sustainable Development (ESD), reflecting on its utility 
for realizing the objectives of Kenya’s Competency-

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



Coronel-Molina & Ndemanu, Transformative Education from Multiple Perspectives 3

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

Based Curriculum (CBC), particularly with regard to the 
acquisition of core competencies like creativity, prob-
lem-solving, and self-efficacy. The author presents some 
of the challenges that ESD implementation faces, as well 
as some of the pertinent pedagogical theories and their 
implications, and relevant legal and policy frameworks.

In the final article, “Transformational Leadership 
and Wealth Creation in Educational Organizations: The 
Case of Higher Education in Cameroon,” P. P. Teneng 
explores the education industry and the influx of edu-
cational subsidiary enterprises created by graduates 
who have been unable to find jobs upon graduation. 
Most of these enterprises end up failing within five 
years. This raises the question of what prevents these 
small- and medium-sized education businesses from 
thriving, which is the question Teneng seeks to answer 
in this survey study of 210 small and medium-sized 
educational firms. The findings suggest that a lack of 
transformational leadership, due in large part to a lack 
of leadership or wealth creation education, is a major 
contributor to the failure of these businesses. The au-
thor makes recommendations for transformational and 
strategic leadership education to be a required part of 
higher education curricula, to introduce students to the 
business world through meaningful partnerships and 
quality entrepreneurship courses.

Invitation to Prospective Authors
We invite authors keen on transformative education 

from all walks of life to consider GJTE as an avenue for 
dissemination of their ideas germane to curriculum and 
teaching. GJTE accepts submissions for its Open Call, 
with no deadlines for submissions, and no publishing 
fees for authors. The journal’s website includes Author 
Guidelines to help prospective authors with formatting 
specifications, and an online Submissions system to 
help with the submission, review and editing process. 
New authors are invited to register in the system. GJTE 
also invites readers to join our Editorial Board of Re-
viewers by selecting the “reviewer” role and indicating 
content expertise.

Acknowledgments
The Global Journal of Transformative Education 

(GJTE) is a singular publication venue since its main 
objective is to share educational research and re-
search-based practices on transformative education 
from local and global perspectives. Despite the great 
amount of time and effort we have invested in the con-
ceptualization, development, implementation, produc-
tion, and publication of this second volume, we could 
not have done all this by ourselves. The publication of 
this volume is the result of the hard work and dedica-
tion of many people. First of all, our profound gratitude 
goes to the Global Institute for Transformative Educa-
tion (GITE) and its founding members for their sus-
tained sponsorship to make this volume happen. We are 
deeply thankful to Tom J. McConnell, who provided us 
with invaluable assistance in his role as Managing Ed-
itor, taking care of the daily operations of GJTE. We are 
also grateful to our colleagues who serve on the Edito-
rial Board, as well as to institutions, friends, colleagues, 
and social media networks from around the world for 
their help in publicizing the GJTE website and Facebook 
page widely. 

We would also like to thank all the contributors to 
this second volume for choosing GJTE to publish their 
work. Many thanks to IUScholarWorks for hosting 
GJTE’s website. Without the generous assistance and 
contribution of all these great people and institutions, 
GJTE would never have become a reality.  

We are equally grateful to our colleagues worldwide 
who spent significant number of hours reviewing the 
papers. We thank them for their time and diligence in 
the review process. We also owe an immense debt of 
gratitude to Fred Bay for his continuous generous dona-
tions to GITE for transformative education conferences, 
which have been the springboard of GJTE. We wish him 
a long life. 

1Serafín M. Coronel-Molina (scoronel@indiana.edu) is an 
Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and 
Instruction at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, 
USA.

Authors

2Michael T. Ndemanu (mtndemanu@bsu.edu) is an 
Associate Professor of Education in the Department of 
Educational Studies at Ball State University, Muncie, 
Indiana, USA.

GJTE is published by the 
Global Insitutute of Transformative Education 

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Ayaga, G. N, & Okaya, E. K..  
Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2  
DOI  10.14434/gjte.v2i1.31198

Open Access

Published by the Global Insitutute of Transformative Education (http://www.gite.education)
© Ayaga, G. N., & Okaya, E. K. 2020. Open Access This journal is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons 
Attribution NonCommercial NonDerivative 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), 
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction without revision in any non-commercial medium, provided you 
give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license,

Implications of Outdoor Environment on Children’s Learning 
Experiences in Public Preschools in Borabu Sub-County, Kenya 

Godfrey Nyaoga Ayaga1 & Edward Khasakhala Okaya2

Abstract

This paper presents results from a study conducted in Borabu Sub-county in Kenya to determine the 
implications of outdoor environment on children’s learning experiences in public preschools. The major 
findings suggest that the general state of outdoor environment component was unsatisfactory. It found a 
positive relationship between the outdoor environment and pre-schoolers learning experiences and ability 
to perform loco-motor activities and rhythmic movement activities and general academic achievement. The 
results further indicated that all the four states of outdoor environments (the site, availability, adequacy and 
effectiveness) combined to explain 35.2% of the variance in the preschool overall learning experiences. The 
results indicated that a rich outdoor environment has a positive influence on preschool children‘s development 
of various social, emotional and cognitive skills. The study recommends that teachers and pupils should 
participate in outdoor play, and governments should enact policy guidelines to increase the availability, 
adequacy and effectiveness of outdoor activities.

Keywords: Competency-Based Curriculum; Outdoor environment; Learning experiences 

Full listing of authors and contacts can be 
found at the end of this article.

Introduction
The government of Kenya recognizes early child-

hood development and education as an important 
pillar for accelerating the attainment of Education for 
All (EFA, UNESCO, 2010) and the Sustainable Develop-
ment Goals (Republic of Kenya, 2006). To ensure quality 
education and learning environment during a child’s 
formative years, EFA’s first goal stipulates that it is the 
responsibility of every government to expand and en-
hance comprehensive early childhood education where 
young boys and girls fully develop their competencies 
which facilitate smooth learning in other advanced 
levels. According to a 2002 report by The World Fit for 
Children Conference, it is important for every child to 
have a good start to life whereby a child receives quality 
nurturing, care and safe environment (Githinji & Kanga, 
2011). 

In this regard, many developing and developed  
nations have been developing and implementing pol-
icies that are perceived to improve the state of early 
childhood education in various countries (Kang’ethe, 

Wakahiu & Karanja, 2015), this has galvanized many 
countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), 
into confronting their historically low access to qual-
ity early childhood education (Murunga, 2015). This 
has brought a remarkable success in attracting many 
children into schools (UNESCO, 2010). However, filling 
the classrooms is not enough in the process of ensuring 
access to basic education and Education for all. The goal 
is geared towards having positive social and economic 
returns in which improving the quality of Education is 
the key emphasis. Unfortunately, the 2010 UNESCO re-
port indicate that the quality in terms of pre-schoolers’ 
acquisition of early year competencies is not satisfac-
tory in many countries and many preschool learning 
centres have poorly established learning environment 
in most sub-Saharan Africa countries Kenya inclusive.

Ideas of Early Childhood Development and Edu-
cation (ECDE) can be traced back to 400BC in Plato’s 
book, “The Republic”. Plato advocated that early child-
hood education should be made interesting, and attrac-
tive through music, plays, number work and geometri-
cal exercises which are implemented better in a rich



Ayaga & Okaya, Outdoor Environment & Children’s Learning  5 

a rich outdoor environment (Njoroge, 2011). Similarly, 
Githinji, & Kanga (2011) notes that philosophers like 
Jean Jacques, Rousseau and Jean Heinrich Pestalozzi 
emphasizes on the significance rich outdoor environ-
ment to help children acquire the necessary skills, 
knowledge and attitudes necessary for holistic develop-
ment. 

In particular, a child’s psycho-social development is 
a long process that requires a critical mass of organized 
individuals involved in a variety of participatory educa-
tional processes and actions to produce cumulative re-
sults (Lyabwene, 2010). Therefore, the children’s inter-
actions with a rich outdoor environment is necessary 
for the children’s holistic development and acquisition 
of early year’s competencies.  It has consistently been 
observed by many scholars that for effective learning to 
take place, children need mental stimulation and plenty 
of opportunities to exercise and develop their talents 
through the use of both fixed and movable equipment 
(Lyabwene, 2010). Thus, for preschool centres to foster 
social competencies, prepare children for future inter-
actions and acquiring of early literacy and numeracy 
skills, the use of adequate, safe and effective outdoor 
environment is usually regarded.

In the last three decades, the use of rich outdoor 
environments has held a prominent place in the field 
of early childhood education since its beginning with 
German educator Friedrich Froebel’s kindergarten and 
nursery school movement in the early 1800s (Gray 
& MacBlain, 2015). The founders of early childhood 
education emphasized the importance of learning 
within a well-established outdoor environment. This 
was in stark contrast to the predominant theory of the 
day which held that learning was done within class-
room (Gray & MacBlain, 2015). These early educators 
were viewed as radicals as they promoted the theory 
that children learn through their interaction with the 
environment.

In the USA, children’s playtime has steadily de-
creased due to limited access to play spaces, changes 
in the way children are expected to spend their time, 
parent concerns for safety, and digital media use among 
young children (Bishop, 2013). Social changes and new 
technologies in the country have also impacted nega-
tively on the way children play and the amount of free 
time they are given because children between the ages 
3-11 use most of their free time at school completing 
homework and shopping with parents (Ginsburg, Lee, 
& Boyd, 2008). In addition, Lovell (2009) observes that 
children’s playtime continues to decrease in th USA as

a result of an emphasis on academic preparation at an 
early age, 30% of American kindergarteners no longer 
have recess, 71% of children and teenagers have a TV in 
their bedroom, and parental perceived risk of play envi-
ronments and limited access to outdoor play spaces.

A study done by Nairn and Mori (2011), evaluat-
ing the lives of children in United Kingdom, Spain and 
Sweden, pointed out that children in the United King-
dom had less chances for pleasurable outdoor activities 
compared with Spain and Sweden and that this was a 
contributor towards reduced well-being and learning 
in United Kingdom. The study further found that the de-
cisions to reduce funding for outdooor play and spaces 
was disadvantageous for children, particularly those 
from poor groups of children whose families struggle to 
find reasonable play provisions. 

In Singapore, early childhood education remains a 
self-regulated programme as preschools in the country 
vary in terms of their programme content and overall 
teaching and learning approaches, catering to differ-
ent social strata and cultural groups (WenTzuo, 2010). 
Despite of the fact that play should be an integral part 
of the preschool teaching in the country, it remains un-
clear whether preschool centres incorporate play-based 
methods of teaching into their practice as recommend-
ed under the Kindergarten Curriculum Framework 
(Peng, 2011). In some instances, preschool supervisors 
in Singapore are not advocating or adopting play-based 
teaching into their curriculum because of parental 
expectations and the demands of a meritocratic and 
economically-driven society that perceives education 
as a commodity to be obtained for financial success and 
social mobility (WenTzuo, 2010). 

Despite the relevance of early childhood education, 
Tanzania is among African countries that has given 
Early Childhood Development (ECD) program minimal 
attention in the past three decades (Tarimo, 2013). 
However, in 2001, the government of Tanzania adopted 
an inter-sectoral ECD service delivery initiative result-
ing in the inclusion of ECD in the National Strategy for 
Growth and Reduction of Poverty (NSGRP). Since then, 
emphasis has been put on use of Child-Centered Teach-
ing Methods (CCTMs) like the use of play as a teaching 
approach in both indoor and outdoor teaching (United 
Republic of Tanzania, 2008). Despite the government’s 
effort, a report by UNICEF (2007) indicates that more 
than 95% of young children in the country lack access 
to early childhood stimulation characterized by rich 
outdoor environment.

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



Ayaga & Okaya, Outdoor Environment & Children’s Learning  6 

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

Despite the challenges facing Early Childhood 
Education in many parts of the world, the early years 
of a child’s life are globally accepted as the most critical 
years for the lifelong development of a child (Kang’ethe, 
Wakahiu & Michael, 2015). In this regard, there is evi-
dence of a positive correlation between the child’s qual-
ity of early childhood nurturing, health, environment, 
learning and future holistic development and academic 
achievement in subsequent grades in primary, second-
ary schools and colleges (Bradbury, 2007). This fact has 
been emphasized by most founders of Early Childhood 
Development and Education (ECDE), especially Johann 
Froebel, Heinrich Pestalozzi and John Dewey, among 
others who consistently indicated that early childhood 
is a crucial stage of life in terms of a child’s physical, in-
tellectual, emotional and social development. Growth of 
mental and physical abilities progress at an astounding 
rate and a very high proportion of learning take place 
from birth to age six (Murunga, 2015).

To address the problems inherent in early child-
hood education in Kenya, the Constitution of Kenya 
(Republic of Kenya, 2010) establishes government at 
two levels, national and county governments. There-
fore, Kenya transited from a centralized government 
to devolved system of government. With the advent of 
the implementation of the Constitution of Kenya (ROK, 
2010), the devolution process heralded the devolution 
of pre-school among other devolved functions of the 
county governments. In this regard, Article 43 of the 
Constitution says that every person has a right to edu-
cation including preschool children. Further, the edu-
cation sector is governed by the Basic Education Act, 
2013 and the Sessional Paper No.14 of 2012 on Reform-
ing Education and Training Sectors in Kenya. The Basic 
Education Act, 2013, aims at giving effect to Article 53 
of the Constitution, and to promote and regulate free 
and compulsory basic education. However, this has not 
been the case because there is no county government in 
Kenya which provides free preschool education.

A major landmark in education in early years learn-
ing has been a shift from 8-4-4 system of education to 
Competency Based Curriculum. The 8-4-4 system of 
education was introduced in 1985 following the rec-
ommendations of the 1981 Presidential Working Party 
on the Establishment of the Second University in Kenya 
(Republic of Kenya, 1981). The guiding philosophy of 
the system was education for self-reliance. Several Task 
Force reports as well as summative and formative eval-
uation reports led to curriculum reviews in 1992, 1995 
and 2002. However, these reviews only addressed

issues of curriculum content, unnecessary overlaps 
and emerging issues. The reviews have not adequately 
addressed fundamental issues that would transform 
society by enhancing the productivity of every Kenyan 
citizen and accelerate economic growth.

The summative evaluation of the curriculum (ROK, 
2006) indicated that the curriculum content and its im-
plementation was academic and examination-oriented. 
In addition to curriculum overload, most schools were 
not adequately provided with equipped workshops to 
facilitate the learning of practical skills and teachers 
were not sufficiently trained. Furthermore the 8-4-4 
system of education did not provide flexible education 
pathways for identifying and nurturing the talents and 
interests of learners early enough to prepare them for 
the world of work, career progression and sustainable 
development.

In the same vein, the 2010 Report of the Task Force 
on the Re-alignment of the Education Sector to the Kenya 
Vision 2030 and Constitution of Kenya 2010 was formed 
which led to the sessional paper No. 2 of 2015 on “Re-
forming Education and Training in Kenya” (ROK, 2015). 
The Sessional Paper states that the education sector is 
guided by the national philosophy, which places edu-
cation at the centre stage of the country’s human and 
economic development. The Sessional Paper recom-
mends reforming the education and training sector to 
provide for the development of the individual learner’s 
potential in a holistic and integrated manner, while 
producing intellectually, emotionally and physically 
balanced citizens. It recommended a competency-based 
curriculum; establishment of a national learning as-
sessment system; early identification and nurturing of 
talents; the introduction of national values and national 
cohesion and their integration into the curriculum; and 
the introduction of three learning pathways at senior 
secondary school level among others. The Competency 
Based Curriculum Framework vision and mission (ROK, 
2006) are supported by three important pillars: values, 
theoretical approaches and guiding principles.

Currently, in many counties, early childhood edu-
cation programs operate on the basis of partnership, 
collaboration and networking. However, in 2003, free 
primary education was introduction in Kenyan primary 
schools. ECDE was not included in this setup despite 
the fact that most components that make a rich outdoor 
environment are expensive. With the current poverty 
index in most rural Kenyan setting, most preschool cen-
tres operate under poor conditions which are perceived 
to hinder their full participation and full development



Ayaga & Okaya, Outdoor Environment & Children’s Learning  7 

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

(Ngaruiya, 2006). Worse still, parents do not under-
stand why primary education should be free and not 
Early Childhood Education [ECE]; they have therefore 
begun resisting paying ECE fees, choking off a vital 
source of funding.

Many county governments have devolved Early 
Childhood Education to bring efficiency in the manage-
ment of these units of education. There is, however, a 
small but convincing body of research knowledge which 
indicates that there are still many challenges in imple-
mentation of Early Years Education in most counties 
(Mahindu, 2011) Currently there are disparities in the 
47 counties on their priorities in the implementation of 
early childhood education where some counties have 
set some reasonable funds to support preschool edu-
cation, while to other counties, ECDE is not a priority 
in their budgetary allocations. This has resulted in 
diversity of practices by various county government 
and stakeholders, compromising the quality of service 
offered at preschool centres. 

In Kenya, Mahindu (2011) conducted a study in 
Nairobi and found that many pre-schools had many 
children learning indoors without outdoor play expe-
riences because some of the pre-schools were located 
in residential plots with rooms turned into classrooms. 
Hence children stay indoors most hours of school day. 
Mahindu (2011) also found that many pre-schools did 
not have play items for their pupils and in most cases 
where pupils were found playing or learning outside, 
they were left to play and learn on their own without 
teachers’ supervision and guidance.

The researchers are of the opinion that if the issue 
of outdoor environment and play is not addressed well 
with the seriousness it deserves, the quality of pre-
school education will be hampered leading to negative 
implications in schooling. There was therefore a ne-
cessity to undertake a study to assess the implication 
of outdoor environment on pre-schoolers’ learning 
experience. 

Statement of the Problem
The government of Kenya initiated Competen-

cy-Based Curriculum in the view to enhance skills of 
learners. A competency-based approach focuses on the 
skills and talents needed to be able to perform a partic-
ular task to a certain standard. Early childhood care and 
education offers a holistic development of a child’s so-
cial, emotional, cognitive and physical needs in order to 
build a solid and broad foundation for lifelong learning 
and well-being. This eventually shapes young learners’ 

minds, attitudes and often behaviours. If it is not well 
managed its likely to compromise holistic development 
of these pre-schoolers, leading to maladjustment. This 
calls for proper structuring of pre-school learning envi-
ronment to foster creativity of learners through play. It 
is however becoming clear from emerging research that 
children spend limited time doing outdoor activities. 
This is against the findings of current literature and 
theories of child development that advocate for pro-
viding appropriate outdoor learning environment that 
offers a sense of freedom for children to play freely with 
peers, expand their imagination beyond the restraints 
of indoor activities, release energy, and explore their 
senses of touch, smell, taste and motion. 

An attempt has been made by the government of 
Kenya, to cater to the well-being of young children, by 
developing service standard guidelines to ensure that 
quality services are delivered efficiently and effective-
ly at all times in ECDE centres. This was envisaged to 
ensure the provision of adequate, safe and effective 
outdoor learning environments. Despite the Kenyan 
government’s effort to ensure quality and rich outdoor 
environments, the strategies and efforts have not been 
effective due to the current condition of the outdoor 
environment and equipment in most pre-school learn-
ing centres, characterized by inadequacy and unsafe 
fixed and movable equipment. It is against this setting 
that the proposed study sought to investigate into the 
influence of outdoor environment on pre-schoolers’ 
learning experience.

Research Questions 
The following specific questions guided the study: 

i. What is the state of outdoor environment in 
ECDE centres in Borabu Sub-County? 

ii. How does the outdoor environment affect 
children’s learning experiences and physical 
development in Borabu Sub-County?



Ayaga & Okaya, Outdoor Environment & Children’s Learning  8 

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

Theoretical Framework
This study was guided by socio-cultural theory. 

The theory arises from the works of Vygotsky (1978) 
who emphases on the role socio-cultural factors on 
children’s development and learning. Vygotsky (1978) 
believed that planned learning should be learner-cen-
tred and oriented towards activities through which they 
can construct their knowledge as a result of recognition 
of one’s experience. Vygotsky’s theory supports that 
learning must not just based on classroom theories of 
teaching, but with learning to learn, developing skills 
and utilization of indoor and outdoor learning strat-
egies which make learning experiences relevant and 
meaningful for the benefit of holistic development. 
Vygotsky argues that enhanced environment, social in-
teractions, and shared outdoor activities assist children 
attain skills and master various activities, moreover 
to reason in a meaningful manner. Vygotsky proposes 
that the nature of development and learning in young 
children takes place in a social environment. Vygotsky 
(1978) believed that young children don’t develop in 
isolation, but in a social matrix.

Vygotsky´s socio-cultural theory (1978) has an 
imperative contribution for studying the environments 
essential for physical activity and learning. Vygotsky´s 
advancement advocates for modification of varied chil-
dren’s contexts. In this case, the outdoor environment 
should offer children with opportunities to experience 
phenomena that contribute to their meaning making 
and skill development. The child’s experiences in the 
outdoor environment give rise to describing things 
that cannot be experienced indoors (Norling & Sand-
berg, 2015). During outdoor activities children use 
their experiences to perform meaning making in social 
relationships with peers, grown-ups and their immedi-
ate environment. Constantly changing outdoor envi-
ronment expands children’s range of experiences and 
stimulates their activity level and learning. 

Proponents of the constructivist theory have 
pointed out that human beings construct all knowledge 
while participating in different mental and physical 
experiences. In constructivism, the learner builds a per-
sonal interpretation of the world based on experiences 
and interactions (Pierucci, O’Brien, McInnis, Gilpin, & 
Barber, 2014). On the other hand , social constructivism 
suggests that the curriculum should ultimately produce 
learners who would be able to deal effectively with the 
modern world. Therefore, curricula should not be pre-
sented as finished abstractions, but should include the 
child’s preconceptions and should incorporate how the

child views his or her own world (Pellis & Pellis, 2007).
The other learning theory that has shaped and 

influenced the provision of Competency Based Curricu-
lum (CBC) is the visible learning theory as advanced by 
John Hattie (2012). This theory postulates that funda-
mental changes in education systems have important 
implications for curriculum reform. Learners need to be 
able to think about and solve problems, work in teams, 
communicate through discussions, take initiatives and 
bring diverse perspectives to their learning. Learners 
also need to demonstrate the impact of the achieve-
ment of national goals of education. Visible learning 
means an enhanced role for teachers as they become 
evaluators of their own teaching. Hattie asserts that 
visible learning and teaching occurs when teachers see 
learning through the eyes of students and help them 
become their own teachers (Wilson & Myers, 2000).

Literature Review
Historical Dimensions of Child Play

There is a considerable body of research which is 
indicative, relating children’s play and aspects of their 
learning and development. This evidence includes work 
in evolutionary and developmental psychology, anthro-
pology, neuroscience and educational studies. However, 
while researchers in these fields have hypothesized 
about how play might enhance child outcomes, much 
of this evidence merely establishes associations rather 
than firm, causal relationships. In fact, there is little or 
no conclusive evidence regarding possible explanatory 
mechanisms. From evolutionary psychology, Bruner 
(1978) argued that as more and more complex animals 
evolved, the length of immaturity increased facilitating 
an increased level in learning. (Whitebread, 2017). In 
the same vain, Pellegrini & Bohn, (2005) in a review of 
evolutionary play concluded that play contexts allow 
human beings to engage in exploratory activities.

Much of research on play in developmental psychol-
ogy has been advanced by Vygotsky (1978). He states 
that during spontaneous play, learners exercise control 
over their own activity and set for themselves challeng-
es which lead to their holistic development. A close fol-
lower of Vygotsky, Karpov (2005) carried out an analy-
sis of Neo-Vygotskian practices and concluded that play 
allows children to regulate their own behaviour making 
it a significant factor in their self-regulation.



Ayaga & Okaya, Outdoor Environment & Children’s Learning  9 

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

Importance of play to children
Much of a child’s early years are spent playing, ex-

ploring and testing their environment and own person-
al boundaries. All of this play has significant and proven 
benefits for a child’s early development (Whitebread, 
2017). Research has shown that children who regular-
ly engage in play-based learning have better cognitive 
flexibility, working memory and self-regulation ability 
(Karpov, 2005). School administrators need to build 
playgrounds, train teachers in how to guide play-based 
learning and make their own play materials using natu-
ral materials. He recommends the involvement parents 
in the production of play materials

There is a steadily growing body of research knowl-
edge on the importance of play (Karpov, 2005; Pelligri-
ni & Bohn, 2005; Whitebread, 2017). Children behave 
better in the classroom when they have had the chance 
to blow off steam and release energy on the playground 
during the day. Playing is a known method of stress 
release that can help with a child’s emotional welfare. 
Play can help young children become more aware of 
other people’s feelings and develop empathy. During 
play, whether it is inside or outside, children must 
interact and cooperate with each other, as well as share 
play equipment which requires good communication 
skills. Children can build relationships, learn to resolve 
conflicts, negotiate and regulate their emotions. Play 
can nurture qualities like self-discipline and attention 
control, which can be just as vital for school readiness 
as content knowledge. Children with longer attention 
spans and self-control can focus more on tasks in the 
classroom (Wilson &  Myers, 2000). This is because 
when children engage in make-believe play that in-
volves role playing, there are generally rules that they 
must follow which involves regulating their natural self 
and behavior (Vygotsky, 1978). By practicing this in a 
safe, fun environment, their self-control is enhanced, 
which can then be transferred to a classroom setting.

There is a growing body of research that shows a 
link between play and the development of cognitive 
and social skills that are prerequisites for learning 
more complex concepts as children get older (Oren, 
2008). For example, play is linked to growth in memory, 
self-regulation, oral language, and recognizing symbols 
(Wilson & Myers, 2000). It has been linked to higher 
levels of school adjustment and increased social devel-
opment. Play has also been linked to increased literacy 
skills and other areas of academic learning (a view held 
by Piagetian and Vygotskian theories of child develop-
ment). Children create a pretend scenario by

negotiating and talking to peers and usinge props in a 
symbolic way. Children create specific roles and rules 
for pretend behaviour and adopt multiple themes and 
multiple roles. When children engage in this kind of 
play for most of their early years, they learn to delay 
gratification and to prioritize their goals and actions. 
They also learn to consider the perspectives and needs 
of other people. They learn to represent things sym-
bolically and to regulate their behaviours and act in a 
deliberate, intentional way.

Today, many children do not have enough play 
opportunities at home because of TV, videos, and the 
computer (Bodrova & Leong, 2015). They interact with 
toys that are not conducive to building imagination and 
interesting dramatic play themes. In many instances, 
pretend play with siblings and neighbourhood chil-
dren is not available. There are more adult-organized 
and directed activities than in the past. They tend to 
be in groups of children of the same age rather than in 
mixed-age groups, which would include older children 
who could act as “play mentors.”

Early childhood classrooms provide a unique set-
ting to foster the kind of dramatic play that will lead to 
cognitive and social maturity. There are other children 
to play with, a setting that can be organized to accom-
modate imaginative play, and adults who can encourage 
the play, guiding children to play effectively with each 
other. 

Location of the Study
The study was carried out in Borabu Sub-County 

of Nyamira County. Borabu Sub-County is the largest 
Sub-County in Nyamira with an area of 248.3 kilo-
metres square.   The Population Density of Borabu 
Sub-County is 296 people per square kilometre.  Ac-
cording to Monda (2012), Borabu Sub-County has a 
poverty index of 48.6. This is an indication that many 
people are poor. In fact, Borabu region is a former 
white settlement region and even though it is said to 
be economically stable, pockets of poverty are evident 
especially among the causal labourers providing labour 
in the tea plantations and well-to-do homes. Although 
Early Years of Education is devolved, financing is still 
low, therefore most financing of ECDE has been has 
been left in the hands of communities or parents. 
Studies also indicate that dropout and repetition rates, 
especially in lower primary, are high in Nyamira County 
which influenced the selection of the location. Since the 
majority of young children spend a significant part of 
their day at early childhood development and education



Ayaga & Okaya, Outdoor Environment & Children’s Learning  10 

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

centres, it is therefore imperative to find out whether 
outdoor experiences provided are positive and support-
ive enough to enhance physical activity and learning.

Methods
The study employed a mixed method approach 

(Creswell, 2009). This involved the collection, analysis 
and integration of both quantitative and qualitative 
research methods within a single research study in 
order to answer research questions (Creswell & Plano, 
2011). The combination of qualitative and quantitative 
methods occurred at different phases of the research 
process, such as formulation of research hypothesis 
and questions, data collection and analysis (Bryman, 
2006). Mixed methods approach was suitable because 
it allowed the researcher to validate or corroborate the 
results obtained from various sources (questionnaires, 
interview schedules and document analysis) (Creswell, 
2009). This allowed for a wider understanding of a re-
search problem from different angles, therefore clarify-
ing and comparing quantitative and qualitative data so 
as to uncover and understand the unexpected findings 
and potential contradictions from various sources. The 
approach further fostered scholarly interaction and 
provided methodological flexibility that were adaptable 
to a variety of data collection, analysis, and interpre-
tation strategies and procedures that elucidated more 
information than was not possible to obtain through 
quantitative or quantitative approach alone, therefore 
offsetting the weaknesses of quantitative and qualita-
tive approaches when used alone (Creswell, 2009).

Within the mixed method approach, the embedded 
research design was employed. The purpose of the 
design was to collect both quantitative and qualitative 
data concurrently, but to have one form of data play a 
supportive role to the other form of data. The reason for 
collecting the second form of data was to support the 
primary form of data. In regard to this study, the qual-
itative data were collected to support the quantitative 
data (Creswell, 2009). This approach was appropriate 
because it enabled the study to gather adequate data 
that provides a better understanding of the research 
problem and adequately answers the entire research 
questions (Creswell & Plano, 2011). This increases the 
overall strength of a study by enhancing the validity 
and trustworthiness of data collected (Denscombe, 
2010).

The design also had the capacity of collecting data 
concerning the existing position of the problem in 
which the researcher had no direct control of the

independent variables because the manifestation had 
already taken place during the time of data collection 
(Denscombe, 2008). The design was also more appro-
priate because it allowed the researcher to gather infor-
mation from a large number of cases through question-
naires, interviews and document analyses. 

The study was carried out in Borabu Sub-County of 
Nyamira County. Borabu. The study targeted 50 public 
pre-schools, 50 primary head teachers, and 50 pre-
school lead teachers and 1603 final pre-school class pu-
pils. To obtain the required sample the study employed 
cluster, purposive and simple random sampling design 
were used to recruit participants. The final sample for 
the study included 44 primary head teachers, and 44 
preschool lead teachers and 309 final pre-school class 
pupils. The research instruments that were used to col-
lect data consisted of questionnaire, interview sched-
ules and document analysis. 

Validity for various research instruments was also 
determined. Validity is the extent to which the research 
instrument measures what it purports or intends to 
measure (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2007). The main 
purpose of ensuring the validity of various research 
instruments in the current study was to enhance the 
accuracy and usefulness of the findings by controlling 
the confounding or intervening variables (Creswell 
& Miller, 2000). To ensure validity of research instru-
ments in the present study, face, construct and content 
validities of the questionnaires, interview schedules 
and document analysis was determined by presenting 
and discussing the various items in research instru-
ments with two experts in the area of early childhood 
education. The experts’ suggestions, together with the 
findings from the pilot study were used to modify the 
items in the research instruments. This ensured that 
the test items were clear, relevant and well organized. 
The study further adopted the triangulation approach 
so as to ensure the validity of the research instruments. 
In other words, the study used multiple methods of 
data collection: interviews, questionnaires as well as 
document analysis. By so doing, an area that was over-
looked by one method was strengthened and checked 
by the other method of data collection. 

The study gathered both quantitative and quali-
tative data. Quantitative data were gathered through 
questionnaires and document analysis while qualita-
tive data were obtained through the use of interview 
schedule and document analysis. Both descriptive and 
inferential statistics were used in analysing quantitative 
data. Descriptive statistics such as measures of central



Ayaga & Okaya, Outdoor Environment & Children’s Learning  11

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

tendency and percentages were used to describe data. 
The descriptive statistics allowed the researcher to 
meaningfully explain the distribution of scores or 
measurements using a few indices (Mugenda & Mugen-
da, 2003). This involved the researcher transforming 
large groups of data into a more manageable form that 
was easy to understand and interpret (Mbwesa, 2006). 
Inferential statistics, including the Pearson’s product 
moment correlation coefficient, simple and multiple 
regression analysis were used to test hypotheses. All 
hypothesis testing was done at α=.05. All these analyses 
were done with qualitative data, the principles of the-
matic analysis as proposed by Braun & Clarke (2006).

Results and Discussion
The results were obtained from 42 primary head 

teacher, 42 preschool lead teachers and 381 final pre-
school class pupils. 

Availability of Components of Outdoor Environment
The results on the availability of various outdoor 

components in ECDE centres are represented in Table 
1. The results show that several outdoor environmen-
tal components were of interest to the current study. 
The study establishes in general that in almost half 
(46.44%) of the ECDE centres, the components of a rich 
outdoor environment were not available at all while 
less than a quarter (22.61%) of the ECDE centres had 
few elements in existence. With a lot of concern, the

results further indicated that only 4.19% of the ECDE 
centres in which all the elements required for a rich 
outdoor environment were available. Although the chil-
dren’s outdoor environment should be equipped with 
standardized structured such as swings, slides, and 
climbing structures often installed over asphalt.

Outdoor environments should be equipped with 
standardized structured such as swings, slides, and 
climbing structures often installed over asphalt (Frost, 
Wortham, & Reifel, 2001). The current findings indicat-
ed that the school outdoor environment was typically a 
part of schools’ playground which had few structures. 
Contemporary playgrounds lacked structures that 
provided various means for children to explore and 
develop various skills. This seems not to be in line with 
the recommendations of the Competency Based Curric-
ulum which aims at nurturing every learner’s potential 
so that they are fully engaged and empowered in order 
to develop as ethical citizens. This calls for a paradigm 
shift in schools to provide play materials that would 
lead to holistic development of learners. 

During the interview with the primary school head 
teachers and pre-school lead teachers on the availabil-
ity of various outdoor components, majority (76%) 
of preschool lead teachers in general expressed their 
concern about the acute shortage of various outdoor 
components that makes an ideal outdoor environment 
that facilitate the children’s physical development and



Ayaga & Okaya, Outdoor Environment & Children’s Learning  12

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

physical skills. For example, one teacher stated,
“In my school, there are no equipment needed for 
preschool children’s physical development like 
climbers, slides and swings. This makes it difficult 
for me to conduct outdoor activities, however 
there is a large playground with space where kids 
can run and develop their own ideas (T-12).”
 

Effectiveness of Outdoor Components 
The study established that on average, 64.97% of 

preschool centres had effective components that made 
the outdoor environment. This implies that the remain-
ing 35.03% of centres did not provide effective enabling 
outdoor environment for preschool children to partic-
ipate in various outdoor activities. On the other hand, 
69.1% of centres had effective physically developed 
equipment that were adaptable to users’ needs and 
catered for children’s interests, 66.7% of centres had 
school gardens that provided an enabling environment 
for a wide range of stimulating activities, 61.9% had 
construction areas that were large enough and allowed 
for a wide variety of activities, and 69.0% had sand pits 
that enabled children to engage in a variety of stimu-
lating and imaginative activities. This positive finding 
needs to be emphasized in our Kenyan schools because 
psychomotor and creative activities at pre-primary lev-
el enable learners to develop both fine and gross motor 
skills which are necessary for the control and co-ordi-
nation of different parts of the body. These activities 
also allow children to explore and develop social skills 
and personal talents and skills as well as appreciate 
their cultural heritage.

The results further revealed that 61.9% of the cen-
tres did have loose materials (tyres, bean bags, ropes, 
balls) that were appropriate for the different age level 
learners, but 73.8% of the centres did not have water 
play areas that accommodated a variety of learning 
styles among learners, and 86.2% did not have a play 
house that provided opportunities for social interac-
tions among children. This finding is not consistent 
with the literature reviewed that called upon schools 
to develop play areas to lead to holistic development of 
learners (Pelligrini & Bohn, 2005; Whitebread, 2017). 
This calls for transformative education whereby schools 
should take initiative and involve all the stakeholders 
in education to provide basic materials to be used by 
learners in early years. Teachers need to transform 
their approaches in engagement with parents and com-
munity members so that they are actively involved in 
sourcing materials for learners in pre-school centres.

Assessing the State of Outdoor Environment
The results affect the state of outdoor environment 

in terms of the condition, adequacy, utilisation, adapt-
ability, design and appropriateness of various outdoor 
components in various ECDE centres. In this regard, 
the study established that the conditions of the outdoor 
components that make a rich outdoor environment 
were unsatisfactory in 40.48% of the ECDE centres. The 
data establish that the condition, adequacy, utilisation, 
adaptability, design and appropriateness of various 
outdoor components in various ECDE centres is below 
average. On considering whether the outdoor facilities 
in various ECDE centres were in good condition, it was 
found that in majority (47.8%) of the ECDE centres the 
condition of the outdoor facilities were unsatisfactory. 
It was further established that in 40.1% of the cen-
tre the storage facilities for outdoor equipment were 
insufficient, 47.8 % of the ECDE centres the equipment 
in the outdoor environment were not logically well-de-
signed in a manner that accommodated for integrated 
activity based systems of learning. In more than half 
(52.5%) of the schools, the appropriate equipment for 
various age level activities were inadequate. In almost 
half (48.2%) of the preschool centres the science 
activities were not provided with sufficient space and 
equipment with science materials, and in almost half 
(47.9%) of the preschool centres the overall design of 
the outdoor environment was not aesthetically pleasing 
and appropriate for the different age level pupils. In 
about two thirds (67.0%) of the ECDE centres the out-
door working environment was not sheltered from sun 
and inclement weather. 54.9% of the ECDE centres the 
outdoor equipment did not provide an attractive colour 
and texture, 43.1% of the ECDE centre the location of 
outdoor facilities did not enhance the learning climate 
of the pre-school and in 55.2% of the ECDE centre the 
exterior noise and surrounding environment frequently 
disrupt outdoor learning. It will be important for teach-
ers and other community members to change their 
approaches in order to transform the outdoor environ-
ment. 

This may require paradigm shift in contextualising 
the value of outdoor environment as a precursor to 
classroom learning. The findings of the study indicates 
positive correlation (p=0.00) between the overall out-
door environment (availability, adequacy, effectiveness 
and state outdoor components)and all the three aspects 
of pre-schoolers’ learning experience (children’s ability 
to performing various rhythmic movement activities, 
children’s ability to perform various locomotor



Ayaga & Okaya, Outdoor Environment & Children’s Learning  13 

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

activities, children’s general performance in various 
learned activity areas) and the overall learning expe-
rience. Table 2 further indicates that although a posi-
tive correlation was established, the magnitude of the 
correlation was different between various aspects of 
pre-schoolers’ learning experiences and the outdoor 
environment. For example, preschool children’s general 
performance in various learned activity areas had the 
highest correlation (r=.687), while children’s ability to 
performing various loco-motor activities had the least 
correlations (r=.357) to the outdoor environment. It is 
also evident that there was a strong positive correlation 
between pre-schoolers’ general performance in various 
learned activity areas and general outdoor environ-
ment. The correlation was moderate between children’s 
ability to perform various rhythmic movement activ-
ities and general outdoor environment while there 
was a weak relationship between preschool children’s 
ability to perform various loco-motor activities and the 
general outdoor environment in which the children 
learned. 
 
Regression of Overall Outdoor Environment and 
Pre-schoolers’ Learning 

In order to estimate the level of influence of the 
overall outdoor environment (availability, adequacy, 
effectivenwss and outdoor components) and pre-

schoolers’ learning experience, a coefficient of determi-
nation was computed using a regression analysis whose 
results were as shown in Table 3.

The model shows that pre-schoolers’ outdoor 
environment accounted for 35.2% of the variation in 
the overall pre-schoolers’ positive learning experience, 
as signified by coefficient R2 of .352. In addition, a 
linear regression was generated to estimate the actu-
al influence of the overall outdoor environment and 
pre-schooler’s learning experiences, as shown in Table 
4.

It is evident from Table 4 that if the overall out-
door environment (availability, adequacy, effectiveness 
and stateoutdoor components) was improved by one 
standard deviation, then perceived scores in the level 
of preschoolers’ overall learning experience (preschool 
children’s ability to performing various rhythmic move-
ment activities, preschool children’s ability to perform-
ing various loco-motor activities, pre-school children’s 
general performance in various learned activity areas is 
likely to improve standard deviation units. On the same 
note, if the overall children’s ability to performing vari-
ous rhythmic movement activities, preschool children’s 
ability to performing various loco-motor activities, 
pre-schoolchildren’s general performance in various 
learned activity areas is likely to improve standard de-
viation units. On the same note, if the overall outdoor



Ayaga & Okaya, Outdoor Environment & Children’s Learning  14 

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

environment increases by one unit, then the level of 
the pre-schoolers’ overall learning experience would 
improve by 3.034 units; this is a substantial effect from 
one independent variable. In addition, the P-value was 
0.000, confirming a statistically significant influence of 
the overall outdoor environment on the overall pre-
schoolers’ learning experience. 

During the interview schedules with the primary 
school head teachers, the study further established that 
outdoor environment usually facilitated pre-school chil-
dren‘s physical, social, emotional, and mental develop-
ment in their various ECDE centres. On this note, some 
of the respondents had this to say:

     “Play gives the child with the opportunities 
to explore with his/her own world where he or 
she was free of adult values and external reali-
ties.’”(HT-03) 
     “As the preschool children were interacting 
through play, they developed the feelings of be-
longing in peer groups, positive feelings for chil-
dren like enjoyment, happiness, freedom, relax-
ation, excitement, and entertainment.” (HT-13)

On the development of various skills, 39 (92.86%) of 
the preschool lead teachers noted that rich outdoor 
environments enabled children to learn about coopera-
tion and collaboration. It was also observed that chil-
dren from pre-school centres which had adequate and 
rich outdoor environment generally worked together 
sharing space and materials amicably, worked toward 
the same goal and talked with one another as they 
played, unlike those centres which did not have ade-
quate rich outdoor environment. Like in SCH19, the pre-
school children were observed sharing experience that 
required them to listen to others in order to understand 
how to work together to achieve mutual goals.

As children interacted in the school, 
they communicated their needs, ideas, 
feelings, desires, and knowledge to 
each other, and to their preschool 
teacher. 

In SCH15, a girl was observed 
assigning tasks and roles to others, 
or assumed roles and volunteered for 
certain tasks which involved inviting 
other children into their play. In school 
SCH11 children were observed engag-
ing in collaborative problem-solving 
and at various times, assuming leader 

and follower roles. As they shared space, materials and 
plans, they learned to take turns, negotiate, and com-
promise. When there was conflict, they had the oppor-
tunity to practice conflict resolution skills. 

During the interviews, it was established that a 
rich outdoor environment facilitated pre-schoolers’ 
development of early mathematics and problem-solving 
skills. For instance, in SCH06, some boys were ob-
served exploring patterns, the attributes of objects, and 
shapes. In SCH01, some girls were counting as a way to 
identify and describe their play using a song. Children 
also used counting to convey information to others 
and to solve problems when there was a disagreement 
among four girls in SCH07. 

On the development of science skills, children in 
SCH24 were observed exploring nature by trying to dis-
cover various parts of the flowers and chancing butter-
flies. This often involved telling others what they knew 
about flowers and butterflies. 

During the researcher’s visit to various preschool 
centres, it was reported by HT18 that the space and na-
ture of the materials in a rich outdoor environment pro-
vided many opportunities for children to purposefully 
move and use their bodies. It was also observed that 
preschool who were in school that had rich outdoor en-
vironment had better balance and confidence abilities 
as they manipulated various outdoor equipment than 
those schools which did not have rich outdoor compo-
nents. 

During the observation schedules, it was observed 
that the space and materials within the outdoor envi-
ronment were provided multiple opportunities for chil-
dren to develop construction skills as they engaged in a 
variety building experiences (evident in more than half 
69.05% of the preschool centres). Some of the specific 
skills that were identified during the observations



Ayaga & Okaya, Outdoor Environment & Children’s Learning  15 

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

included: learning the concept of construction through 
experimentation; creating enclosures, walls and bridg-
es; emptying and filling, balancing and bracing objects 
as they experimented with weight and stability.

During the interview schedules, a statement was 
put to the preschool lead teacher with a view to solicit 
their views regarding the importance of play in learn-
ers’ cognitive development. The majority of preschool 
teachers observed that a rich outdoor environment 
with adequate and safe playground was important for 
learners’ cognitive development. In elaborating their 
answers, the teachers had the following to say:

“Play develops the children’s sense of 
reasoning and imagination which also stimulates 
creativity.”(T-02)

“Learners enhance their cognitive skills by 
thinking while enjoying themselves within the 
outdoor environment.” (T-7)

“Play develops the child’s brain to think for 
themselves and find solutions to the challenges 
they face as they play.” (T-13)

“The ability to think critically and solve-
problems help in their growth.” (T-22)

“Play allows children to think critical and 
coherent.” (T-37)

 “Play develops children’s fine motor skills, 
reasoning and thinking.” (T-40)

Implications
The findings of the present study are important for 

the Kenyan education system because improving the 
outdoor environment and pre-school learning experi-
ences will have a positive impact on the long-persisting 
challenges facing the pre-school education sector in 
Kenya. In addition, the results could serve as a basis for 
developing a hypothetical model for studying the direct 
and indirect effects of the fore-mentioned factors on 
improving the education standards in Kenya. In general, 
these findings could serve as a guideline for teachers, 
educational practitioners and curriculum developers 
in developing and utilizing educational policies, meth-
odologies and activities that could help in improving 
ECDE programmes. The study findings finally fill the 
existing gap in other research carried out to identify the 
factors contributing to the existing low enrollment and 
high rates of grade retention in pre-primary schools in 
Kenya. This paves way for more comprehensive nation-
al and international research.

Conclusion
The study sought to establish the links between 

utilization of the outdoor environment and pre-school 
children’s learning experiences. It has shown that there 
is general agreement about a positive relationship
between use of rich outdoor environment and pre-
school children’s positive learning experiences associ-
ated with development of various skills and competen-
cies. From the study it can be concluded that the ability 
of pre-school children to perform various loco-motor 
and rhythmic movement activities is associated to the 
adequacy, availability, site and effectiveness outdoor 
components. Based on the results of this study, it can 
be concluded that, despite the many challenges that 
constrain having a rich outdoor environment, children 
continue to use the playgrounds as a major component 
of the outdoor environment. This study undoubtedly 
exemplifies the significance of children spending time 
in a well-designed, nature-filled outdoor environment 
under the support of peers and preschool lead teach-
ers. This outdoor environment is crucial in supporting 
children’s success and skill development. 

As educators take charge of outdoor activities, they 
need to be flexible in their expectations of children in 
nature-based outdoor classrooms. It is through this 
expanded freedom that children more fully experience 
the space, materials and environment, adding to their 
skill development and to the depth of their understand-
ing of the world around them. Lastly, the overarching 
philosophy of outdoor environments should embrace 
the value of unstructured play for children, the role of 
child-initiated activities in learning, and the importance 
of children spending time outdoors, connecting with 
nature. All children deserve the rich learning that can 
occur through opportunities to experience the beauty 
of nature that spending time in an intentionally de-
signed outdoor classroom can provide.

Recommendations
It is the aim of all educational systems and, indeed, 

all parents, teachers and all stakeholders in education 
at all levels, to improve the foundation of their chil-
dren’s education. Based on the findings of this study, 
the following recommendations are made with the view 
of improving the state of outdoor environments and 
pre-school children’s learning experiences while within 
the pre-schools’ outdoor environment.



Ayaga & Okaya, Outdoor Environment & Children’s Learning  16 

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

Recommendations for Policy Makers - For the head 
teachers in the field, regular in-service may be nec-
essary so that they are updated with current trends 
relevant to pre-school education. This will make them 
aware of the children’s rapidly changing world from 
which their learning experiences emanate. The govern-
ment of Kenya should have in place policy guidelines to 
all pre-schools with regard to the availability, adequacy 
site and effectiveness of outdoor environment. 

Recommendations for Head Teachers - The head 
teachers should have schools’ policies for monitoring 
outdoor activities. They should regularly assess and 
monitor children’s learning and development. 

Recommendations for the ECDE Teachers - The ECDE 
teachers should participate in outdoor play as well as 
involving all children in outdoor play. They should also 
enrich the ECDE learning environment with locally 
available teaching and learning support materials,

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1 Godfrey Nyaoga Ayaga (gayaga@mmust.ac.ke) is a 
Lecturer in the Department of Educational Psychology 
at Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, 
Kakamega, Kenya.
2 Edward Khasakhala Okaya (eokaya@mmust.ac.ke) is a 
Lecturer in the Department of Educational Psychology 
at Masinde Muliro University of Science & Technology, 
Kakamega, Kenya.

Authors

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Beem, H.  
Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2  
DOI 10.14434/gjte.v2i1.31224

Open Access

Published by the Global Insitutute of Transformative Education (http://www.gite.education)
© Beem. 2020. Open Access This journal is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 
NonCommercial NonDerivative 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which 
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction without revision in any non-commercial medium, provided you 
give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license,

Effect of Hands-on Science Activities on Ghanaian Student Learning, 
Attitudes, and Career Interest: A Preliminary Control Study

Heather Beem

Abstract
A quasi-experimental study was carried out with 309 Form 3 students across 9 public Junior High 

Schools in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The effect of Practical Education Network (PEN)’s approach of 
training STEM teachers to employ hands-on activities using low-cost, locally-available resources was studied 
in terms of student learning outcomes, attitudes towards learning science, and interest in STEM majors/
careers. Over a 2.5-month period, the science teacher at each experimental school received a weekly training 
on a hands-on activity and lesson observation by the respective PEN Trainer. A survey on attitudes towards 
science and a previous edition of the national exam (BECE) were administered to all students before and 
after the intervention. The mean pre-post differences were compared between the experimental and control 
schools. The intervention caused an average of 10.9% increase in exam scores (difference-in-differences), 
but the results were mixed at the school-level. Unpaired t-tests and Hedge’s g tests were used to determine 
statistical significance between the two groups. Student engagement increased significantly (p = 3 x 10-7, g = 
0.85), and student enjoyment of science increased 22% more, on average. The intervention disproportionately 
affected the females positively, enabling greater learning gains (14.5% vs. 5.3% for the males), greater 
increase in engagement, and a significant shift in interest towards STEM majors and careers, which their male 
counterparts did not experience. Results from this study should inform the design of future studies with longer 
duration and which account for factors such as school infrastructure quality.
Keywords: STEM, Ghana, Hands-on activities, Attitudes

Full listing of authors and contacts can be 
found at the end of this article.

Introduction
In Ghana, students use the phrase “chew and pour, 

pass and forget” to describe their experience of learn-
ing in school. This phrase expressively captures how 
students are asked to “chew” information, repeating 
facts over and over again, “pour” (vomit) them out on 
the exams, attempt to pass the exams, and then prompt-
ly move on with their lives (Blench & Dendo, 2006, 
Quansah & Asamoah, 2019). The dominance of this 
phrase in the Ghanaian vernacular points to the wide 
recognition that a shift in pedagogical practice is need-
ed. Ghanaian educationists have pointed out the detri-
mental effects that “chew and pour” has on students’ 
creativity (Haffar, 2016) and ability to translate theory 
to useful outcomes (Adomako-Ampofo & Kaufmann, 
2018).

The future world of work in Africa is technology-

based (World Economic Forum, 2017). For the growing 
youth population in Africa to rise to these demands, the 
education system needs to be able to engage students, 
drive deep learning, and build their interest in STEM. 
Ghanaian education stakeholders clearly express that 
a shift in teaching practice is key to achieving this. The 
new national curriculum states “Ghana believes that 
an effective science education needed for sustainable 
development should be inquiry-based” (Ministry of 
Education Ghana, 2019). Interventions that can create 
enduring, transformative change in STEM teaching in 
Ghana should be developed and tested.

Practical Education Network (PEN) is an NGO 
seeking to shift the dominant pedagogical mode in West 
African STEM classrooms from rote to experiential. Sur-
vey data collected from a few hundred Ghanaian public 
Junior High School (JHS) teachers reveals that virtually 
all teachers see the benefit of using hands-on activities, 
but 80% cite the lack of resources as the main challenge



Beem, Effect of Hands-on Science Activities  19 

they face in teaching more experientially. Furthermore, 
less than 5% reported having attended any relevant 
training towards this challenge within the last year 
(Practical Education Network, 2016). With minimal 
resources and training available, most Ghanaian teach-
ers feel there are no realistic alternatives to the “chew 
and pour” approach. PEN is tackling this challenge by 
training science and mathematics teachers to employ 
low-cost, locally-available materials for the develop-
ment and deployment of hands-on activities, which are 
aligned to the national curricula. The aim of this study 
is to determine the impact of PEN’s approach on stu-
dents in the Ghanaian classroom. We hypothesize that 
regular use of these low-cost, hands-on techniques in 
the science classroom will improve Ghanaian students’ 
exam scores, attitudes towards learning science, and 
their interest in pursuing STEM in the future.

Literature Review
Research in science education has established 

strong positive effects when students are taught using 
experiential pedagogies. These approaches have been 
shown to enhance student attitudes (Gormally, Brick-
man, Hallar, & Armstrong, 2009), improve exam scores 
(Abdi, 2014), increase scientific process skills (Ergul et 
al., 2011), and potentially encourage more students to 
pursue STEM-related careers (van den Hurk, Meelissen, 
& van Langen, 2019). The body of literature has largely 
been developed in the Global North, but a recent study 
(Bando et al., 2019) compiled the results of randomized 
controlled trials deployed across four Latin American 
countries, assessing the efficacy of the inquiry-based 
approach across a total of 17K students. Their results 
showed a 0.16 standard deviation increase in science 
test scores after 7 months of practical science learning. 

There is a pressing need to understand how to 
contextualize international best practices for African 
education, given the low learning outcomes presently 
being recorded here. In the early 2000’s, Ghana began 
participating in the Trends in International Mathemat-
ics and Science Study (TIMMS). Ghana has continu-
ally ranked near or at the bottom of the participating 
countries (Buabeng, Owusu, & Ntow, 2014). Despite 
Ghanaian education stakeholders’ recognition that 
improvements in learning outcomes are needed, only 
a few studies have been conducted to determine the 
efficacy of experiential pedagogies in the local science 
education context. One study at the senior high school 
level (Aboagye, 2009) compared the effectiveness of a 
particular constructivist approach (the three-phase

learning cycle) with the traditional approach used 
in Ghanaian science classrooms. It was used in the 
context of teaching one specific topic (direct current 
electricity). In South Africa, Kibirige, Rebecca & 
Mavhunga (2014) studied 60 high school students, half 
of which were undergoing three weeks of experimental 
work (using standard laboratory equipment) and the 
other half which were undergoing traditional lecture 
methods. In both cases, they measured improvement 
on exam scores as a result of the practical sessions. 
These studies indicate that experiential pedagogies 
can improve learning outcomes in the African science 
classroom. More such studies should be done to 
understand details of implementation, and they should 
also be carried out at earlier levels of schooling. In 
Ghana, students in senior high school have already 
chosen a major of study. In order to understand and 
impact students’ career prospects, interventions and 
studies are needed at the primary and junior high 
school levels. 

Even if the efficacy of such pedagogies is 
established in the African context, the question of 
how to implement such approaches still remains. In 
Ghana, less than 10% of public junior high schools 
contain any laboratory equipment (S. Mohammed, 
personal communication, March 2015). For hands-on, 
experiential lessons to be widely deployed, teaching 
and learning materials must be low-cost. (Davis & 
Chaiklin, 2015) studied the use of classroom objects, 
such as tables and chairs, as teaching and learning 
resources for Ghanaian students to learn measurement. 
With over 500 hands-on activities made from materials 
available locally in Ghana (Practical Education Network, 
2020), PEN’s content is one of the most extensive and 
relevant resources currently available to the Ghanaian 
science teacher. Its alignment with the Ghanaian 
national curriculum also warranted its infusion into 
the latest revision of the primary school science 
curriculum (Ministry of Education Ghana, 2019) and 
the accompanying Teacher Resource Pack’s list of 
“Practical Science Lesson Resources” (National Council 
for Curriculum & Assessment, 2019).

In addition to the content itself, teacher training 
is a key component in enabling a shift from rote to 
experiential pedagogies. In Ghana, where teacher-
centered approaches tend to dominate science 
teaching (Buabeng, Ossei-Anto, & Ampiah, 2014), 
teacher training has been pointed out as a key factor to 
improving student outcomes (Buabeng, Owusu, & Ntow, 
2014). The details of how a teacher implements

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



Beem, Effect of Hands-on Science Activities  20 

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

practical content also affects the efficacy of the 
approach (Abrahams & Millar, 2008). Various teacher 
training interventions have been successfully carried 
out in Ghana, but they have mostly been focused on 
literacy and numeracy (Aizenman & Warner, 2018; 
Johnston & Ksoll, 2017).

The role of gender as it relates to science education 
in Ghana has been subject to some investigation. 
(Donkor & Justice, 2016) sought to uncover the reasons 
behind the gender gap in students pursuing science in 
the Upper West Region of Ghana. Further research is 
needed to elicit key mechanisms that can close the gap. 
The study in South Africa mentioned above (Kibirige et 
al., 2014) found no difference in results across gender 
lines.

This study seeks to understand the efficacy of 
Practical Education Network’s approach, which aims 
to tackle the aforementioned challenges through its 
STEM teacher training program that equips Ghanaian 
teachers to leverage local materials and carry out 
hands-on, experiential pedagogies in their classrooms. 

The research questions are as follows:
1. What effect does PEN’s approach have on 

learning outcomes?
2. What effect does PEN’s approach have on 

student attitudes to learning science?
3. What effect does PEN’s approach have on 

student interest in STEM majors and careers?

Finally, any difference in results across gender and 
geographical (rural vs. urban) lines are to be elicited.

Methodology
Overview
A quasi-experimental, quasi-controlled method was 
employed to measure the effect of training Ghanaian 
science teachers to use practical, hands-on activities in 
their Junior High School classrooms. Three PEN trainers 
were selected to lead the intervention. All three are 
public JHS science teachers who had attended PEN’s 
Introduction to Hands-on Science training program in 
the past and performed well enough to be invited for 
a second round of training, the completion of which 
promoted them to PEN Trainer status. Each PEN 
Trainer was enlisted to train 1-2 science teachers in 
their respective Circuits- the next geographic division 
below a District and usually composed of 5-20 schools. 
Those teachers were, in turn, prepared to deliver at

least one hands-on activity per week in their classroom 
over a 2.5-month period. The study took place during 
the 3rd (final) term of the 2016/7 Academic Year at 9 
public schools in various locations within the Greater 
Accra Region. In total, N = 309 students were involved 
in the study: 135 from the experimental schools and 
174 from the control schools. The trainers solicited and 
received permission from each participating school to 
include information on their teachers and students in 
this study, All school, teacher and student names have 
been kept anonymous, but select pictures are shown to 
aid in depicting the intervention. 

School Selection
The trainers were asked to select their own 

participating schools- both experimental schools 
and control schools. They were allowed to choose 
any schools so long as they were located within their 
Circuit. In all cases, the selection ended up being 
driven by 1) those which were most easily accessible 
for the trainers, in terms of distance to travel, and 
2) those at which they were positively received by 
the headteachers. The author’s assumption was that 
all schools within the same Circuit would be similar 
socioeconomically and in terms of exam performance. 
The trainers were briefed on the goals of the study, 
including the intention that both experimental and 
control schools be similar. They were asked to use their 
knowledge of the schools to select those they deemed 
to be comparable. 

All of the schools are located in the Greater Accra 
Region of Ghana. Two of the Circuits are located in 
rural areas (Kofi Kwei and Ashalaja - both within the 
Ga South District) and one Circuit is in an urban area 
(Kwabenya - within the Ga East District). The total 
number of experimental schools is five and that of 
control schools is four. Table 1 provides the code

Table 1. List of participating schools



Beem, Effect of Hands-on Science Activities  21 

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

used to refer to each school in the course of this 
study, their type (experimental: “Exp” or control: 
“Ctrl”), the location of the school (Urban or Rural), and 
the total number of students engaged in each school. In 
each case, all of the students in the final year (Form 3) 
class were engaged in the study. This Form was chosen, 
as their students would be taking the terminal exam for 
JHS, Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), 
shortly after the end of the study.

Tools Administered
After permission was solicited from the Ghana 

Education Service (GES) District Offices and the schools 
were selected, a pre-test was administered to the 
students at all 9 schools (experimental and control). 
This pre-test was used to determine a baseline for the 
three main outcomes of interest in this study: student 
exam scores in science, student attitudes towards 
learning science, and student interest in STEM majors 
and careers. One tool was used to measure the first 
outcome and a second tool was used to measure the 
other two outcomes.

The first tool, which was used to assess the first 
research question, was the full Integrated Science 
portion of a previous Basic Education Certification 
Examination (BECE). Nearly all students write this 
exam in June, but a second version of the exam is 
offered in the following February for a small minority 
of students who require writing it then. The February 
2017 version of the BECE is the tool which was 
administered to the students participating in this study. 
This was at the suggestion of a former examiner for the 
West African Examinations Council (WAEC), the body 
overseeing the national exams, as he believed that few 
to none of the students in this study would have seen 
that particular exam. That person also created the 
marking scheme used for assessment in this study.

The second tool administered was a paper survey, 
which included the following survey questions (SQ): 

SQ1. Which of the following subjects do you 
intend to study in Senior High School (SHS)? 

SQ2. What job are you most interested in working 
after you leave school? 

SQ3. How frequently does your science class 
include hands-on activities? 

SQ4. How engaged are you in the hands-on 
activities? 

SQ5. How easy is it to learn science?
SQ6. Do you enjoy learning science? 
SQ7. If you do, why? If not, why not? 

The second research question (students’ attitudes 
towards learning science) was measured via SQ4-7. The 
third research question (students’ interest in pursuing 
STEM majors and careers) was measured via SQ1-2. 
Finally, SQ3 was simply used as a check for whether 
the experimental schools were indeed receiving the 
intervention. 

For SQ1, all potential subjects that students have as 
options for their SHS “major” were listed. SQ2 and SQ7 
were open-ended responses. Options for SQ3 included 
”Never”, “Once per month”, “Once per week”, and “More 
than once per week”. SQ4 and SQ5 were answered on a 
Likert scale from 1 to 7. SQ6 was a yes/no question. 

Both the survey and the exam were administered in 
paper form to the students. PEN staff administered the 
surveys so as to best enable students to provide honest 
feedback in the absence of their teacher. The trainers 
administered the exams. 

At the end of this period, similar tools were 
administered to the students to serve as the endline. 
The survey was the exact same as that administered 
at the beginning of the intervention. The exam 
administered at the end was, however, a different 
version. The post-test exam was shorter, composing 
only Part 1 of the two parts composing the BECE. It 
was created by compiling questions from different 
years’ versions of Part 1 of the Integrated Science 
portion of the BECE. Given the short duration of 
the intervention, only a portion of the syllabus was 
covered. The selection of past questions ensured that 
the syllabus topics covered by both sets of teachers 
would appear on this exam. The selection was done 
by the research team and checked for fairness by the 
WAEC examiner mentioned above. Both experimental 
and control schools completed this endline exam. One 
intern completed the marking of all exam scripts so as 
to ensure uniformity.

Intervention (Training + Lesson Observation)
Once the pre-test (survey and exam) had been 

administered at all 9 participating schools, a 2.5-month 
period of the intervention commenced at the 5 
experimental schools. The intervention consisted of the 
following steps, was repeated on a weekly basis, and is 
also depicted schematically in Figure 1.

1. The experimental school teacher notified PEN’s 
Logistics Officer of the science curriculum topic 
they would be treating in the next week.

2. PEN’s Logistics Officer procured locally-available 
materials for a PEN hands-on science activity



Beem, Effect of Hands-on Science Activities  22 

 corresponding to that topic, and he delivered 
the materials to the PEN trainer.

3. The PEN trainer trained the experimental 
school teacher on PEN’s hands-on science 
activity for that syllabus topic.

4. The teacher delivered the practical lesson to 
their Form 3 students, while the PEN trainer 
observed.

5. The PEN trainer provided feedback to the 
teacher on their lesson delivery.

The PEN trainer visited the experimental school(s) 
in their Circuit twice a week- once to train the 
teacher and once to observe the deployment of the 
practical lesson. This cycle continued every week in 
the experimental schools, while the control schools 
were exempted. Figure 2 shows a picture of one of the 
teacher training sessions and trainer observation of the 
lesson on heat energy. Figure 3 shows the PEN activity 
used to teach the digestive system, as carried out by 
students at one of the experimental schools after their 
teacher had been trained on the lesson.

Data Analysis
Research Question 1 – student exam scores:

In order to determine the level of effect that the 
intervention had on the exam scores, a difference-in-
differences analysis was carried out between the means 
of the experimental and control groups. Pre-test and 
post-test exam scores are first presented independently.

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

Figure 1. The process flow completed weekly over the course of the intervention.

Figure 2. Teacher training and lesson monitoring of a PEN 
activity on heat energy transfer through painting of Milo tins. 



Beem, Effect of Hands-on Science Activities  23 

whose responses were captured in both the pre and 
post surveys were considered in this analysis. Before 
carrying out the t-test, an F-test was carried out to de-
termine whether each dataset was of equal or unequal 
variance. The final method was included as an addition-
al measure of the magnitude of difference between the 
two groups due to its utility in working with smaller 
sample sizes. The effect size is considered small if g ≥ 
0.2, medium if g ≥ 0.5, and large if g ≥ 0.8.

For Research Question 3, the potential responses to 
the corresponding survey questions (SQ1 - SHS major 
and SQ2 - future job interest) were first categorized 
into STEM or non/STEM responses. For SQ1 (SHS 
major), STEM responses were considered to be “Gen-
eral Science”, “Agric Science” or “Other” if the response 
included something in the line of “Technical” or “Elec-
tricals”. For SQ2 (future job interest), STEM responses 
were ones such as “engineer”, “doctor”, “nurse”, “tech-
nician”, “accountant”, “pharmacist”, “architect”, etc. The 
survey results were digitized and analyzed in Excel. For 
Q6 which has a binary choice of answers, the number 
of respondents in each category was counted before 
and after the intervention. The pre-post difference in 
number of respondents in each category was compared 
between the experimental and control schools. For the

questions which were answered on a scale (Q3-5), 
statistical analysis was done to determine the signif-
icance of any difference in the means over time. Both 
the means between the pairs of schools and the means 
between the experimental and control schools were 
compared. The schools in the Ashalaja Circuit (ES2, ES3, 
CS2) were excluded from this analysis due to the logisti-
cal challenges of the trainer falling ill and not being able 
to administer the post-survey at all of his schools. 

The same statistical analyses were carried out with 
the data disaggregated across gender and geography, 
with the goal of elucidating any effects that may have 
been felt more strongly within either the female or male 
subsets and within either the rural or urban subsets. 

Confirmation of activity implementation
 In addition to information received from the 

PEN Trainers regarding details of the intervention im-
plementation, the results from Survey Question 3 (“How 
frequently does your science class include hands-on activ-
ities?”) were used to determine whether the hands-on 
science activities had indeed been delivered regularly 
at the experimental schools. Using the same statistical 
analyses described for the above (t-test, Hedge’s g), the 
difference in results over the course of the interven-
tion was compared across the combined experimental 
schools and combined control schools. 

Follow-up school visits
After this analysis was done, follow-up visits to the 

schools were carried out. The results to the study’s 
Research Questions were presented to the teachers and 
trainers involved, and their interpretation of the find-
ings were elicited. Quotes were collected and key ones 
are reported here.

Logistical Challenges
The trainer for the Ashalaja Circuit fell severely ill 

partway through the study. He was therefore unable to 
carry out the full intervention at his set of experimen-
tal schools. He was also unable to be reached after the 
study, so the exact number of trainings he ran remains 
unknown. For this reason, the only results included for 
the Ashalaja Circuit schools (ES2, ES3, CS2) are the pre-
test (exam and survey). Those schools were excluded 
from all analyses involving a comparison over time.

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

Figure 3. The PEN model of 
the digestive system, utilizing 
locally-available resources, 
constructed by students at 
ES2.

The difference in the means 
over time is presented last, 
and only includes students 
who completed both pre-
test and post-test exams.

Research Questions 2&3 
– student attitudes to 
learning science; student 
interest in STEM majors/
careers:

Three main methods 
were used to answer these 
research questions through 
comparison of the experi-
mental and control groups: 
1) comparison of yes/no 
responses over time, 2) 
two-tailed, unpaired t-test 
to determine the p-value 
using a 5% significance 
level, 3) test for effect size 
using the Hedges’ g statis-
tic. Only those students 



Beem, Effect of Hands-on Science Activities Activities  24 

Results
Confirmation of activity implementation

Results from SQ3 “How frequently does your science 
class include hands-on activities?” (scale of 1 to 4) 
are shown in Table 2, with sample size (N) included. 
Overall, the experimental schools reported significantly 
higher increase (Δ) in frequency of including hands-
on activities compared to that of the control schools 
over the course of the intervention (p = 0.007). A 
small effect size (g = 0.47) was also measured. This 
serves as a confirmation that, on average, the trainings 
were successfully being translated to classroom 
implementation in the two Circuits that this analysis 
was done on.

Disaggregation of respondents whose gender was 
reported shows that both males and females at the 
experimental schools reported significant increase 
in frequency of hands-on activities compared to their 
counterparts at the control schools. The males reported 
an even higher increase than the females.

Research Question 1 (Exam Scores)
The results of the student scores on the old 

(February 2017) BECE exam administered before the 
intervention (Pre-Test) are shown in Figure 4 (left). The 
scores are presented in the form of box-and-whisker 
plots to capture the average (marked with an “X”), 
the range of the 1st to 3rd quartile (the box edges), 
and the overall range (the whiskers). One box-and-
whisker plot is shown for each school, and the results 
are grouped into the three Circuits. The experimental 
schools are marked in red and the control schools are 
marked in blue. Before the intervention, all schools 
scored between 20 to 39%, on average. On average, 
the urban schools (Kwabenya Circuit: ES1, CS1) 
performed slightly higher than the rural schools before 
the intervention (35% vs. 27%). On average, there was 
minimal difference in the pre-test results between the 
experimental schools and their counterparts within 
their own Circuit. In each Circuit, the experimental 
schools scored slightly higher on average (Circuit 1 by 
8%, Circuit 2 by 1%, Circuit 3 by 2%).

Figure 4 (right) shows the student exam scores 
after the intervention. All schools improved on the 
exam, with post-test averages at each school ranging 
from 45 to 72%. The overall range of results increased 
for most of the schools, indicating a widening of the gap 
between the higher- and lower-performing students. 
The Ashalaja Circuit schools (ES2, ES3, CS2) were 
excluded from here on. 

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

Table 2. Significance of change in SQ3 (frequency of hands-
on activities) results.

Figure 4. School-level Pre-Test and Post-Test exam scores. 



Beem, Effect of Hands-on Science Activities  25 

 In order to determine the effect of the intervention 
beyond any learning that occurred in the normal mode 
of teaching (as observed in the control schools), the 
difference between the pre- and post-tests was calcu-
lated for each school. These results are shown in Figure 
5. Each experimental school(s) is best compared to the 
control school(s) within its own Circuit. In the Kwaben-
ya Circuit, the experimental school (ES1) showed a 
larger improvement in learning than its control school 
(CS1): 33% vs. 20%. In the Kofi Kwei Circuit, one 
experimental school (ES4) showed a smaller improve-
ment than the control schools (CS3, CS4) (9% vs. 25% 
average) while the second experimental school (ES5) 
showed a much bigger improvement (48%) than those 
control schools.

The overall difference-in-differences of exam scores 
was +10.9%, with the experimental schools improving 
more than their counterparts over the course of the 
year. The difference-in-difference within Circuit 1  
alone was +12.8%. Circuit 3 had mixed results  
across the different schools, resulting in an aver- 
age difference-in-differences +4.1% in that Circuit.  
Results from the surveys and follow-up visits  
reveal reasons for the difference in results with- 
in Circuit 3.

Table 3 presents these results, disaggregated  
across gender. Note that gender information was  
missing for one student, so there is a discrepancy  
in sample size (N) between the overall value and  
the disaggregated ones. 

The female students improved 14.5% more than their 
counterparts, which is a greater change than the male 
students experienced (5.3% more than their counter-
parts).

Research Question 2 (Attitudes to Learning Science)
Enjoyment of learning science (SQ 6-7)

The results of the survey question that elicited stu-
dent enjoyment of science (SQ6) are shown in Figures 6 
and 7 (before and after the intervention, respectively). 
On average, students in both sets of schools reported 
similar attitudes before the intervention: 89% of ex-
perimental school students responded that they ”Enjoy 
Science” as did 84% of the control school students. 

In the schools that did not receive PEN’s interven-
tion, student interest decreased over the course of the 
2.5 months. The opposite trend was recorded in the 
experimental schools. Those who reported enjoying sci-
ence in the experimental schools increased by 7% and 
their counterparts in the control schools decreased by 
15%. Therefore, on average, the students who received 
the intervention experienced a 22% greater increase in 
enjoyment of science.

The open-ended responses to SQ7 reveal some 
reasons why students enjoyed learning science. 
Examples include “The teachers make it interesting,” 
“The practicals make it more fun,” “helps me to define 
things in my own words,” “helps me to picture,” “helps

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

Figure 5. School-level change in exam scores over the course 
of the intervention. 

Table 3. Difference-in-differences of exam scores at experi-
mental schools (ES) and control schools (CS).

Figure 6. Pre-Test student survey responses on enjoyment of science 
at the experimental and control schools



Beem, Effect of Hands-on Science Activities  26 

give me an idea about the topic,” “helps in making 
learning easier,” “helps me remember well,”

Engagement level,ease of learning science (SQ 4-5)
A summary of the results of changes in student 

engagement level and ease of learning science are 
captured in Table 4. Both questions were answered 
on a scale of 1 to 7. The mean of the change in values 
(∆) between all the control schools and experimental 
schools is shown for each question. The significance of 
the difference between the two sets is captured through 
the t-test and Hedge’s g test. The sample size (N) of 
respondents (those from the 2 eligible Circuits and who 
answered both the pre and post surveys) is listed. 

For SQ4 “How engaged are you in the hands-on 
activities?”, a significant difference and large effect size 
were measured (p = 3x10-7, g = 0.85). This reveals that 
the intervention had a significant impact on the level of 
engagement that the experimental school students felt, 
compared to their counterparts. There was, however, 
no significant difference or effect size in the pre-post

change between the control and experimental 
schools for SQ5 “How easy is it to learn science?” 
(p = 0.672, g = 0.07). 

Disaggregation of this data across gender and 
geography is captured in Table 5. Both genders 
experienced a change with large effect size for SQ4 
(Engagement), but the effect size on the females 
was even higher, nearly reaching a value of 1 
(gfemale = 0.92, gmale = 0.77).

Disaggregation of this data across urban 
schools (Kwabenya Circuit) and rural schools (Kofi 
Kwei Circuit) also reveals two differences of note. 
For SQ4 (Engagement), there was a large effect 
size for the urban schools (g = 0.981) compared

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

Figure 7. Post-Test student survey responses on enjoyment of sci-
ence at the experimental and control schools

Table 4. Significance of change in SQ4-5 (level of engagement, ease of learning science) results

Table 5. Significance of change in SQ4-SQ5 results, disaggregated across gender and geography

to a medium effect size for the rural schools (g = 
0.528). One of the experimental schools in the rural 
circuit (ES4) only reported a change of 1.33 points out 
of 7, on average, on this survey questions. The other 
experimental schools (ES5 and ES1) had changes of 
2.143 and 2.204 points out of 7, respectively. Note that 
ES4 is the same school whose students experienced 
less improvement on their exam scores than its 
counterparts (Figure 5), suggesting that this school may 
not have implemented the intervention as effectively as 
the other two experimental schools. For SQ5 (Ease), the 
urban schools experienced no effect size (gurban = 0.059) 
but the rural schools did experience a small effect size 
(grural = 0.284).



Beem, Effect of Hands-on Science Activities  27

Research Question 3 (Interest in STEM Majors and 
Careers) 

Results from the final two survey questions are 
shown in Table 6 and are disaggregated across gen-
der. When asked of the SHS major they intended to 
study and the career they were interested to pursue, 
the males at the experimental schools did not shift 
their response between non-STEM and STEM options 
with statistical significance or effect size (g = 0.07), 
compared to their counterparts at the control schools. 
The females at the experimental schools, however, did 
significantly shift towards both. They shifted towards 
STEM majors with small effect size (g = 0.22) and to-
wards STEM careers with medium effect size (g = 0.48), 
compared to their counterparts at the control schools.

Follow-up visits to the schools
Remarks by the Trainers and Teachers were cap-

tured during follow-up visits to each of the sites, except 
for the schools in Ashalaja Circuit, due to an inability to 
establish communication with the Trainer. They cited 
factors that influence the state of the learning

environment in each respective school. These are 
captured in Table 7 along with observations made by 
the data collection assistant, which are categorized as 
that of the Researcher.

From these remarks and observations, it is seen 
that the pair of schools in the Kwabenya Circuit had 
comparable key factors in terms of their learning 
environment. The infrastructure in both schools was 
similar and both teachers had similar levels of teaching 
experience. They also did not experience any major 
attendance issues. Hence, in this pair of schools, the 
intervention was able to be conducted as intended, and 
with an accurate comparison. 

For the Kofi Kwei Circuit, the Trainer observed that 
learning gains in his Circuit, which is a rural one, would 
be harder to come by than those achieved in the urban 
schools. Visits to the two experimental schools in his 
Circuit revealed key differences between them. ES4 
struggled to get regular attendance, due to the school’s 
poor infrastructure. The infrastructure was of such low 
quality that the school would not operate during any 
day in which it rained. Also, the students there were

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

Table 6. Significance of change in SQ1-2 (desired SHS major, career) 
results, disaggregated across gender

Table 7. Remarks and observations captured during follow-up visits to the schools

found to have poor English reading ability. 
Finally, the teacher being trained through the 
intervention had been placed at the school 
through Ghana’s mandatory National Service 
program, meaning that he was a fresh universi-
ty graduate, with no prior teaching experience. 
For these reasons, the ES4 students did receive

the intended 
dosage of the 
intervention. 

Evidence 
collected in the 
follow-up visit to 
ES5 revealed that 
the intervention’s 
implementation 
had not only been 
consistent, but 
eagerly adopted 
by the school’s 
Teacher. He 
appeared to have 
fallen in love with 
the science con-
tent, as he had 
gone the extra 
mile to create 
science-based



Beem, Effect of Hands-on Science Activities  28

posters to hang around the class. This was not an 
explicit suggestion in the training provided. The school 
infrastructure was also of sufficient quality to allow 
constant attendance during poor weather conditions. 

The Trainers and Teachers also made suggestions 
for improving the intervention next time, and these 
remarks have been captured in Table 8. All agreed that 
this intervention was helping their students, but they 
suggested that if further learning gains are desired, 
then the approach should be intensified. They sug-
gested commencing the intervention with students in 
earlier year groups, increasing the frequency of the 
intervention, and increasing the number of resources 
used, so as to enable smaller group sizes.

Discussion
Over the course of a short (2.5 month) period, 

this intervention enabled significant improvements in 
Ghanaian students’ science education experience, as 
a result of the introduction of hands-on activities into 
the classroom. Key quantitative results mentioned in 
the previous section are combined with the qualitative 
perspectives elicited in the follow-up visits for discus-
sion here. 

Research Question 1 (Exam Scores)
Overall, the intervention improved the exam scores 

for students at the experimental schools 10.9% more 
than the control schools over the 2.5-month period. 
The comparison between schools was the cleanest at 
the Kwabenya Circuit, where both schools are situated 
in the same cluster and have similar teacher quality. 
The difference-in-difference of exam scores there was 
12.8%.

One experimental school (ES4) did not improve as 
much as its counterparts, but this can be attributed to 
their inconsistent implementation of the intervention. 
The experimental school who recorded the greatest im-
provement overall (ES5) found the program to be such

a significant benefit that their headteacher made a visit 
to the District Education Office specifically to thank 
them for supporting this intervention. Directly after this 
study was completed, they also announced that they 
had achieved the highest score ever documented in the 
school’s history on the science portion of the BECE that 
year.

The female students across all schools improved 
their exam scores more than their male counterparts 
(14.5% vs. 5.3%), revealing the significant 
finding that this hands-on teaching approach can 
disproportionately enable learning gains for females. 
Given the widespread theme of males scoring higher 
than females in science/STEM subjects, this result 
merits further investigation. Few approaches in 
Sub-Saharan Africa have been measured to enable 
significant improvement in exam scores in STEM fields, 
much less to disproportionately favor learning gains for 
females. 

It is also worth noting that the females reported 
less increase in frequency of hands-on activities 
experienced in their classrooms than their male 
colleagues. Nonetheless, the females managed to 
improve their learning outcomes more than the males. 
The reported lower frequency could be a result of 
teachers engaging the males more than females in the 
execution of the activities and/or the male students 
dominating the activities. These phenomena have been 
documented in Western literature (Jovanovic & King, 
1998; Tobin & Garnett, 1987). Further studies in Ghana 
should include a specific gender lens in the lesson 
observation to determine the gender dynamics at play 
in hands-on activity execution. 

Research Question 2 (Attitudes to Learning Science)
Another substantial result is that while student 

enjoyment of science decreased (−15%) in the control 
schools over the course of the intervention, there was 
an increase (+7%) in enjoyment of science in the 

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

Table 8. Remarks captured during follow-up visits to the schools: suggestions for improving the intervention’s efficacy



Beem, Effect of Hands-on Science Activities  29 

experimental schools. The inclusion of hands-on 
activities in the classroom countered the natural loss 
of enjoyment in science that students experienced in 
standard classrooms. Gains in interest in science/STEM 
likely play a role in enabling gains in the aforemen-
tioned exam scores. 

The level of engagement that the experimental 
school students reported had a significant increase 
with large effect size compared to their counterparts. 
The females reported an even larger increase than the 
males. This indicates once again that the female stu-
dents in this study were even more positively affected 
by this intervention than the males. If the previous 
explanation for the females’ response to “frequency of 
activities” is accurate, then female students could stand 
to benefit from even higher engagement level increases 
if teachers are guided to involve female students more 
in the activities. 

There was no significant improvement in the ease 
of learning science, either for males or females. Longer 
interventions should be conducted to determine if the 
gains in enjoyment and engagement captured here 
can translate into deeper learning of and comfort with 
science concepts.

Research Question 3 (Interest in STEM Majors and 
Careers)

Interestingly, although student enjoyment of sci-
ence improved at the experimental schools, a univer-
sally equivalent shift towards selecting a Science-based 
program to study in SHS was not measured. The female 
students did positively shift with a small effect size 
(gfemale = 0.22), but their male counterparts did not (gmale 
= 0.07). One teacher in the study offered an interpre-
tation of this: “[The students] think they might not get 
the required grades to get admission for the Science...
They have the zeal, but academically they are not good 
enough to be taken for Science...The system tries to 
inhibit them.” These comments suggest that the Ghana-
ian educational system is not structured to support all 
students with a growing interest in science. The admis-
sion requirements to gain entry into a Science program 
are high, so a student may shut his or her mind to that 
as a viable option to pursue. It is also interesting to note 
that females did significantly shift to selecting STEM-
based careers over the course of the intervention (p = 
0.04, g = 0.48). The intervention again affected female 
students disproportionately, this time by opening up 
their mind to different aspirations for their long-term 
careers.

Limitations
Implementation Levels

A few inconsistencies in levels of the intervention’s 
implementation across the experimental schools have 
been identified. These are summarized in Table 9. At 
the Kwabenya school (ES1), the Trainer and Teacher 
implemented the intervention thoroughly, as evidenced 
by the high level of change reported by students in 
their level of engagement in the lessons (Table 5, SQ4, 
Urban). Follow-up visit observations confirm that the 
students regularly attended and therefore had the 
intended dosage of exposure to the intervention. The 
implementation at the Ashalaja schools (ES2, ES3) had 
begun, but was incomplete, due to the trainer falling ill 
partway through. Finally, the Kofi Kwei schools (ES4, 
ES5) had different levels of implementation. The ES4 
Teacher did not completely implement the intervention, 
as it was revealed during the follow up visit that 
students had not regularly attended school during the 
intervention period. ES5, on the other hand, had no 
attendance issues. Their teacher not only implemented 
the intended intervention, but he appeared to amplify 
his craft as a result. These levels of implementation 
quality have been kept in focus for interpretation 
and discussion of the results. Future studies must 
put stronger measures in place to ensure thorough 
implementation in all experimental schools.

School Selection Process
 The school selection process employed did not 

compare exam results explicitly, but the trainers were 
tasked to carry out the school selection based on their 
knowledge of the schools’ general performance. Future 
studies should include a more thorough list of criteria 
for school selection. This will help both to ensure the 
schools’ ability to implement the intervention and it 
will also enable a clearer comparison between the pair 
of experimental and control schools. 

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

Table 9. Assessment of implementation level at each 
experimental school



Beem, Effect of Hands-on Science Activities  30 

Programmatic & Policy Implications
A few potential implications for PEN’s program-

ming and other African teacher training organizations 
arise from these results. Given the strong correlation 
between implementation level and learning gains 
achieved in this study, PEN should develop systems 
to ensure that the methodologies their teachers are 
trained on get implemented in the classroom. This will 
involve working even more closely with key stakehold-
ers, such as District Education Officers, headteachers, 
and national education bodies to ensure that monitor-
ing activities reinforce the use of hands-on activities 
and that curriculum standards also encourage teachers 
to use hands-on activities. 

Given the example of the E5 school achieving its 
historically highest national exam score in science 
after going through this intervention, and thanks to 
the teacher there being enthusiastic enough to take up 
the new approach, PEN should consider identifying 
motivated teachers and focusing their interventions 
on them. A focus on intrinsically motivated teachers 
will likely result in higher learning gains than would be 
achieved through its current approach of offering train-
ing to all available participants. This must, of course, be 
balanced with the organization’s goal of seeing wide-
scale adoption of hands-on pedagogies. 

PEN and other African STEM organizations should 
consider pursuing a specific gender focus to their pro-
gramming, since the gains achieved among the female 
students are strong in both attitudes and learning out-
comes . Furthermore, PEN and other teacher training 
organizations should consider including a component 
of its training that guides teachers to reduce any bias 
they may have in involving male students more than 
females in the activities. 

Ghana’s government has a goal of seeing 60% of its 
university students pursuing STEM majors. A strong 
STEM pipeline will be achieved by having students first 
gaining interest in the subject, then electing to study 
STEM subjects, and then pursuing STEM careers. This 
short intervention achieved strong gains in building in-
terest and small gains in shifting future career pursuits. 
Future studies should be carried out to determine the 
length and type of intervention needed to achieve large 
gains in shifting career pursuits towards STEM disci-
plines. Policymakers should consider the admission 
requirements and societal perceptions around pursuing 
Science majors/disciplines as they formulate plans to 
achieve their goal.

Conclusion
A quasi-controlled experimental study was 

conducted in 2017 with 9 schools in Greater Accra 
Region to preliminarily assess the impact on Ghanaian 
students when their teachers are trained to carry out 
hands-on activities with locally-available materials. 
On average, students undergoing the intervention 
improved their exam scores by 10.9% more than 
their counterparts over the course of the 2.5-month 
period, but discrepancies existed at the school level. 
These discrepancies are attributable to challenges 
that impeded a complete implementation of the 
intervention at select schools. 

In spite of implementation challenges, the students 
in the experimental schools still experienced significant 
shifts in their attitudes and interests over the course 
of the study. Students undergoing the intervention 
increased in their enjoyment of science 22% more 
than their counterparts, and their levels of engagement 
increased significantly (p = 3 x 10-7, g = 0.85). Female 
students experienced greater gains than their male 
counterparts in terms of exam scores, engagement 
levels, and interest in pursuing STEM majors and 
careers. And despite the commonly held belief that 
learning gains are slower in rural schools than urban 
ones, the school with the highest exam score gains 
in this study was in a rural area. They even broke 
their own school record for national exam scores 
immediately following this intervention. A longer 
intervention is likely needed to achieve significant gains 
in student response to the ease of learning science. 

Preliminary evidence for multiple lines of 
questioning around the role of hands-on activities in 
the Ghanaian context have been brought to the fore 
in this study. The findings add to a nascent body of 
knowledge of the effect of hands-on pedagogies in the 
West African context. The effect of experiential STEM 
pedagogies on student attitudes, career interest, and 
societal barriers have been uncovered, call for deeper 
investigation, and merit attention from policymakers. 

A multitude of factors influence the efficacy of 
interventions such as this one. In order to accurately 
assess the role of practical teaching methodologies in 
the Ghanaian classroom, a greater number of these 
factors should be considered in the school selection 
process. In particular, the level of infrastructure should 
meet a certain level in order for the school to be 
selected. If poor infrastructure prevents the students 
from coming to school, it does not matter whether their 
teacher is equipped to teach with practical activities

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



Beem, Effect of Hands-on Science Activities  31 

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

that week or not. A refined version of this study was 
undertaken in the 2017/8 academic year (Babb & 
Stockero, 2020) to better control for some of these 
variables. Geographic proximity is no longer being 
considered as sufficient evidence of school similarity. 
School infrastructure, teacher background, and 
students’ prior years exam performance are also now 
being considered. Successful findings must be scaled 
up nationwide to shift the status quo for STEM teaching 
and learning in Ghana.

Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Evans Sackitey, 

Peace Sampson, and Fredrick Ohene Atta Opoku for 
their contributions to the logistics of this study. Thanks 
to Jacob Babb for his input in ideating some of the 
initial designs of this study. Dr. Anne Marshall of MIT’s 
Teaching and Learning Lab was a key resource in the 
design of the study as well. Finally, thanks to the PEN 
trainers, teachers, headteachers, Ghana Education 
Service officials, and students who enabled this study to 
be completed. 

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Abstract
Transforming education may mean creating new instructional materials that are culturally relevant to 

local schools. Producing new high-quality materials may seem out of reach to educators who lack experience 
in illustration and publishing or have little access to commercial publishers. We share a model used to develop 
a series of books called Conservation Tales in collaboration with university faculty, students, and scientists. 
The model presents a way for local educators to create books to make education more relevant and accessible 
for children. The model leverages skills of artists, writers, and content experts to provide a rich learning 
experience for readers and an affordable option for self-publishing. Using this model, a science educator 
developed books for grades 3-5 with illustrations and photographs. University students developed images, 
created page layouts and co-authored the stories to suit the target audience. Scientists collaborated in the 
development and review of content for accuracy and education students created learning activities. This article 
describes the collaborative model with examples and shares the processes for self-publishing of print and 
digital books via online on-demand print services. We discuss sites that allow authors to create books with 
almost no overhead budget and share information about the quality of graphics, software for creating files, and 
distribution of books.

Keywords: Self-publishing, Culturally relevant books, Collaborative writing

McConnell, T. J., & Giorgio-Booher, B..  
Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2  
DOI  10.14434/gjte.v2i1.31233

Open Access

Published by the Global Insitutute of Transformative Education (http://www.gite.education)
© McConnell, T. J. & Giorgio-Booher, B. 2020. Open Access This journal is distributed under the terms of the Creative 
Commons Attribution NonCommercial NonDerivative 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
nc-nd/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction without revision in any non-commercial medium, 
provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license,

Collaborative Teams for Self Publishing -  
A Model for Creating Locally Relevant Educational Books

Tom J. McConnell1 and Barbara Giorgio-Booher2

Full listing of authors and contacts can be 
found at the end of this article.

Introduction
“There is no technological reason why all the 
educational course books, and indeed most of 
the supplementary ones, at both primary and 
secondary level, should not be written, edited, 
designed, printed, and published in Africa rath-
er than in London, Malta, Paris or Hong Kong.”  
(Nottingham, 1969)

At the first World Conference on Transformative 
Education (WCTE) in 2018, discussion touched on ways 
to help nations in Africa and other parts of the world to 
“decolonialize” their education systems. Literature on 
the topic has described the role of education in the co-
lonialization of Africa as one of “killing of other knowl-
edge systems” (Hall & Tandon, 2017, p. 6), and the role 
it can play in rebuilding and reclaiming an indigenous 
culture to support the decolonization of social and gov-
ernment institutions (Akena, 2012; Mazrui, 2002;

Mbure, 1997). 
The literature makes it clear that by controlling 

educational content, colonial powers molded percep-
tions among African children about their role in society, 
the hierarchy of social structure, and even their own 
intellectual capacity, creativity, and language (As-
ante-Darko, 2002). Printed materials used in schools 
present stereotypical characters that portray men and 
women or people of color with specific roles in commu-
nities (Khorana, 1998). They reinforce rules about what 
languages are acceptable, and relative values placed 
on cultures from Africa versus those from Europe and 
North America. 

One way in which African schools reflect a colonial 
mindset was described by Wilfridah Mucherah in the 
opening plenary session of the 2018 WCTE. She ques-
tioned why African schools continue to teach reading 
using primers written from a European perspective – 
for example, “A is for Apple.” She learned to read using 
this common approach, yet never saw an apple until 
she attended graduate school in the United States as an



McConnell & Giorgio-Booher, Collaborative Self-Publishing  34 

adult. She proposed that African schools should use 
resources that reflect African contexts, languages and 
culture (Mucherah & Mbogori, 2019). For instance, 
in communities where avocados are so common, she 
suggested that reading books for young children could 
show that “A is for Avocado,” using an example that is 
tangible and relevant to the children’s experiences. 
Pandy and Moorad (2003) refer to the same goal when 
they emphasize that knowledge gained by pupils is 
dependent on their experiences, culture and language. 
Reformers suggest that if educational materials are de-
veloped with this assumption in mind, changes to peda-
gogies and educational structures may follow (Pandy & 
Moorad, 2003; Wooman, 2001).

Throughout the rest of the WCTE, participants in 
concurrent sessions mentioned Mucherah’s “A is for 
Apple” example as evidence that African schools need 
more control over the content of textbooks and sup-
plemental materials (readers) used in the classroom. 
These discussions made clear the need for new and 
different educational materials for African schools, 
developed by African authors and educators for an Af-
rican audience to reflect African culture, language and 
historical context. In this article, we present a structural 
framework for independent publishing that might offer 
a model for educators, illustrators, graphic designers 
and scholars in any region of the world. We present the 
model with the goal of encouraging collaborative teams 
to pursue the goals articulated by Mucherah & Mbogori 
(2019), Akena (2012) and many other academicians 
who share our goal of transforming education around 
the globe.

Educational Publishing for the African Continent
The idea of African authors publishing books for 

an African audience is certainly not new. The quote 
from Nottingham’s 1969 article about “establishing an 
African publishing industry” makes it clear that schol-
ars and businessmen alike were considering ways to 
overcome obstacles to publishing in Africa half a cen-
tury ago. There is a significant body of literature about 
efforts to create just such an industry. These efforts 
take the form of university-based presses (Darko-Am-
pen, 2004), indigenous and multinational publishing 
houses (Edwards & Ngwaru, 2012; Rosetti, 2013) and 
non-profit publishing consortia like the African Book 
Collective (Shercliff, 2016; Zell, 2016).

Early initiatives to establish an African publishing 
industry were less successful than Nottingham had 
hoped. Scholarly journals were usually owned by

American or European interests, and maintained the 
same “traditions” of content and process as their Amer-
ican and European counterparts (Darko-Ampen, 2004; 
Zell, 2016), including selecting European-language 
manuscripts based on profitability and their relevance 
to large industrialized nations (Darko-Ampen, 2004;Di-
levko & Dali, 2006). It seems clear that an industry that 
continues to operate using the traditional model has 
stifled transformation by continuing the status quo of 
the industry. Even so, there may be advantages to pub-
lishing books in Africa. The list of titles offered by the 
non-profit African Book Collective features many titles 
by and for Africans, including a growing list of titles for 
children that reflect indigenous culture, language and 
art. 

Frustration with educational publishing controlled 
by external businesses from non-African countries 
is not new. The publishing industry in Africa has not 
entirely erased all of the barriers that make it hard 
for African authors to publish books, but it continues 
to evolve. Nottingham said in 1969 that “Indigenous 
publishing in Africa is at the crossroads” (p. 141). 
Indigenous publishing in Africa, and around the world, 
is being transformed by business models that leverage 
technologies not available in 1969. The doors are open 
if only a handful of individuals with a vision for indige-
nous books are willing to step out of the traditional box 
to take advantage of the opportunities at hand.

New Opportunities in Self-Publishing
The new opportunities of which we speak involve 

a model of self-publishing that reduces overhead costs 
of publication to such a degree that small groups of 
partners can produce and distribute books with min-
imal initial investments. For authors writing for rel-
atively small audiences, this is a major advantage. In 
the traditional model, publishing a book required time, 
expertise, and significant financial backing. The most 
cost-effective model for publishing a book required 
“runs” of 500 or 1000 books, or more. The initial ex-
pense of a large run drove publishing houses to avoid 
ventures that might only reach a small group of readers. 
Independent authors were pushed out of the publish-
ing process altogether unless they could risk spending 
thousands of dollars for the first (and maybe only) run 
of a book. Self-publishers now have the option of work-
ing with “on-demand” print services that eliminate this 
barrier to the industry.

Some traditional academics have viewed self-pub-
lishing as a less-than-desirable process designed to

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



McConnell & Giorgio-Booher, Collaborative Self-Publishing  35 

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

by-pass the rigorous scholarly process of editorial 
review. However, self-publishing has grown because of 
financial considerations and the desire to control copy-
rights (Odendaal, 2008). As digital printing technology 
made it possible for companies to print and bind small 
runs of books at low costs, on-demand services have 
emerged as a growing part of the industry (Laquintano, 
2016). 

Today’s technology not only allows publishing from 
anywhere in the world, but also greater collaboration of 
individuals in different locations. Authors can now easi-
ly work with illustrators, editors, graphic designers and 
photographers from around the world. Technology also 
offers new opportunities to create digital books offered 
as downloadable files for computers, tablets or smart-
phones. These “ebooks” promise even lower overhead 
costs, and allow authors to reach a global audience in 
an instant. 

With these opportunities in mind, we share our 
experiences and offer recommendations for creating 
collaborative teams to publish high-quality culturally 
relevant books for learning. The model we present is 
the result of four years of development for the Conser-
vation Tales project, an immersive learning program at 
Ball State University in Indiana, USA.   

A Framework for Collaborative Book Development
The Conservation Tales project began as an idea 

for a children’s book about wildlife conservation, a 
niche that was largely unfilled. The initial idea emerged 
when Dr. McConnell researched books about wildlife 
for young children. He noticed that the books did not 
mention conservation issues or teach children how 
their actions impact the environment. Readers can find 
out more about the book series at the Conservation 
Tales website. To date, the project has published eleven 
unique titles, two “Junior” versions revised for young-
er children, and an education game that teaches skills 
used by manatee researchers.

As the author began outlining the first story of a 
series of books, he recognized a need for other partners 
to help produce the book. He inquired about illustra-
tion students at his university’s School of Art, and a 
partnership emerged that became a comprehensive 
team effort. The first partnership included Barbara 
Giorgio-Booher, a Teaching Professor in the School of 
Art, and an animation student, Sami Pfaff, who helped 
illustrate the first book. Bringing an illustrator into the 
project was an essential step in creating quality reading 
material for children.

Graphic design is another key element of a book 
requiring specialized expertise in graphic design and 
communications that most authors lack. “Both graphic 
design and graphic communication incorporate words 
and images to convey data, concepts, and emotions” 
(Shake It Up Creative, 2018). Graphic designers are 
trained to design work that is effective in projecting 
ideas and experiences with visual and textual content.

Graphic designers understand typography, the 
selection of fonts, and work with images, such as draw-
ings and photographs; they help maintain consistency 
throughout a story and book series. This includes both 
digital and printed promotional materials and educa-
tional resources.  They help in designing a visual identi-
ty system to define graphic design standards; including 
fonts, logos, the relative size, proportion, and position 
of individual elements, and the selection of a color pal-
ette. Typography, the selection of fonts, is more import-
ant and more complex than most people realize. When 
writing for young readers, font size and the choice serif 
versus sans serif font is extremely important, especial-
ly when writing for a specific language (Nottingham, 
1969). Including a graphic design specialist will ensure 
continuity, a high standard of quality, and a clear, con-
sistent identity that appears across all media. 

Potential authors and publishers should keep in 
mind that this framework is a flexible model. Collabo-
rations will be most successful if they base their teams 
on the availability of participants with skill sets that 
enhance the quality of the book.

The current Conservation Tales team consists of the 
following roles:
• Lead Author – author, director, editor of the project.
• Art Director – visual artist to supervise and critique 

illustrations, photographs, and graphic design to 
meet certain performance expectations.

• Graphic Designer – team manager who coordinates 
the team’s progress and sets appropriate deadlines. 
Responsible for cover design and layout of text and 
images in the final product.

• Co-Author – content or education specialist to assist 
in researching and writing the story. 

• Two or Three Illustrators – specialists in illustrating 
characters, animals, backgrounds and natural envi-
ronments.

• Photographer – expert who documents team site 
visits, contributes and edits photographs, searches 
for public domain images, and document permis-
sions for third party images.

https://conservationtales.com
https://conservationtales.com
https://www.shakeitupcreative.com/2018/10/22/why-graphic-communication-is-important-for-your-business/


McConnell & Giorgio-Booher, Collaborative Self-Publishing  36 

Recruiting Team Members
The team leaders are ultimately responsible for the 

creative concept of the book. The project goals are set 
by these leaders, with input from other team members. 
The directors must work to create a cohesive team. Any 
group planning a self-published book should identify a 
small group of two or three directors. For the Conserva-
tion Tales project, a key feature of the pair of directors 
is a shared vision for the project’s goals. Without this, 
the project may not be sustainable. 

Recruiting other team members is a critical factor 
in the project’s success. For the Conservation Tales, 
these books are created by undergraduate students 
at the directors’ university. The choice to recruit stu-
dents dictates the scope of available team members. 
Other projects may choose to include other types of 
professionals. Students were recruited from the major 
disciplines of visual communication (graphic design), 
animation, drawing, photography, elementary edu-
cation, special education, biology and environmental 
management. This choice affects overhead costs, but 
the “right team” for your project may include people 
with extensive experience.

The directors implemented a selective recruiting 
and application process. They advertised for team 
members with a request for letters of interest, resumés, 
and portfolios of the applicants’ work. The directors 
reviewed applications and scheduled interviews. Appli-
cants were asked to explain their interest in the project 
to reveal each person’s motivation to contribute to a 
children’s book about wildlife conservation. Most of the 
selected team members had strong personal commit-
ments to conservation, animal welfare or education. It 
is important to first empathize, understand and desire 
to learn about wildlife conservation. This deep personal 
connection to project goals influenced the team’s com-
mitment to completing a high-quality final product.

It was important to be inclusive and incorporate 
different perspectives when interviewing team mem-
bers. We found it valuable to incorporate their perspec-
tives when developing the characters and narratives to 
better connect with a diverse audience. Conservation 
Tales works to depict women, individuals with disabil-
ities, cultural diversity and underrepresented groups 
as the scientists and children who learn about science. 
Promoting inclusivity with team members can bring 
together unlikely allies and support transformative 
change (Opportunity Agenda, 2017).

Interviews also revealed areas of overlapping ex-
pertise. Co-authors on Tigers and Orangutans were

science majors who had some art experience. Their 
contributions extended beyond writing stories. Two 
graphic designers who worked on eight different books 
also contributed photography for the project. The 
illustrator for Elephants and Tigers used her minor in 
screen writing to help with proofreading and editing 
of four different books. Project directors should con-
sider team members with multiple skills as a way to 
ensure quality content. This cross-skill connection also 
improves the team’s communication. Collaborations 
that allow individuals to work across disciplines lead to 
innovative outcomes with an improved understanding 
of the issues being discussed (Salmons, 2019).

Individuals selected for the project were asked to 
sign a formal agreement giving “non-exclusive rights” 
to the project for materials they contributed. Team 
members in the first year were paid a stipend. Lat-
er participants earned course credits for their work 
instead of receiving a stipend. The agreement reflected 
these policies. The contract gave the project permis-
sion to use photos, illustrations, graphic design (logos 
and visual identity), and text for promotional and 
online products as well as books. The students retain 
full ownership of their creative products, giving artists 
rights to sell original illustrations and photographs. The 
agreement stipulated the number of books received by 
each team member and a policy to purchase copies at 
cost. Any project creating a similar collaborative team 
should consider the terms of “employment” for all team 
members. If possible, legal council should be consulted 
for such an agreement.

Roles of Team Members
The development of teams for the Conservation 

Tales project taught us that the team’s success depends 
on clear definitions of the roles of each member. The 
current framework includes a set of job descriptions 
and project expectations. The directors discussed the 
roles with an experienced graphic designer who served 
as a “project manager.” Their experience on other books 
helped them understand potential pitfalls in the pro-
duction process. We recommend that a graphic design-
er perform a similar role in other collaborations. The 
designer is likely the last person to handle the assets 
created by writers, illustrators and photographers 
before submitting the manuscript for printing. This 
important role makes it sensible to include the designer 
in setting a schedule of deadlines.  

The designer and directors set a final deadline and 
worked backwards to identify tentative deadlines for 

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



McConnell & Giorgio-Booher, Collaborative Self-Publishing  37 

finished illustrations, drafts of text, blackline versions 
of artwork, storyboards, cover art, and content re-
search. As the leadership team created the schedule, 
roles of each team member became more apparent. 
Table 1 contains a summary of the key activities per-
formed under each role to complete the books.

The project’s goals determined the skills needed 
to accomplish them and guided the selection of team 
members. Conservation Tales teams include three 
illustrators, with one dedicated to drawing the animals 
featured in the story to ensure that animals are drawn 
with scientific accuracy. The other illustrators focus 
on human characters and settings for the story based 
on the research the team conducted. This model fits 
well for our project because most of the illustrators are 
animation students who learn to collaborate and work 
in a similar manner. For publication projects with a 
different audience or a different type of artist design, a 
single illustrator may be a better choice. Some projects 
may have no need for a photographer, while others 
might need translators to write multiple versions of a 
manuscript in different languages. Directors need to 
clearly identify the project’s goals and the strategies 
needed to accomplish those goals before creating a plan 
for building a team.

Directors also need to consider where to find team

goals of the project – elementary education, biology 
and environmental management students. Project 
leaders can contact university instructors and depart-
ment chairs to see if they can offer course credits for an 
internship.

Students in the disciplines we have described are 
likely to have the skills needed by a publishing proj-
ect and the desire to gain valuable experience. Since 
students are expected to meet performance expecta-
tions at a high level, we suggest working primarily with 
upperclassmen – juniors and seniors who have enough 
coursework to have advanced skills in art, design, and 
technology such as publication software. If the stu-
dents can use their work with a publication as course 
assignments or credit hours in their major programs, 
the project planners and students all benefit from the 
relationship.

Team leaders need to beware of creating too large a 
team. A team with too many people, especially authors 
and illustrators, will make project management more 
difficult than with a small team. We recommend that 
planners streamline the process and select contributors 
who have skills the team truly needs.

Work Flow for Book Development
The work on the publication begins as team mem

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

members. Projects to create educational 
books are likely to be initiated by educators 
or content experts such as scientists, com-
munity health leaders, or historians. Find-
ing artists and designers may begin with 
an Internet search for freelance illustrators 
and graphics experts who advertise their 
services online. Projects that cannot afford 
to pay professionals may find that universi-
ties are a great resource. Students in visual 
communication (graphic design) and the vi-
sual arts are often expected to connect with 
community partners through internships, 
course projects, and collaborative assign-
ments. These students might be able to par-
ticipate for course credit or a small stipend, 
and will likely be eager to gain professional 
experience and use the books in portfolios 
to help with job searches. If the project can 
provide art supplies, this is an appealing 
incentive to entice student artists.

The co-authors we selected were also 
students in disciplines that matched the



McConnell & Giorgio-Booher, Collaborative Self-Publishing  38 

bers are being selected. The process we suggest is 
based on a review of the successes and challenges 
we faced in the early iterations of the Conservation 
Tales project. Figure 1 offers a general workflow that 
emerged from our efforts.

Team leaders usually begin with an initial concept 
or topic for the book. The authors can then construct 
a story outline – a general direction that identifies the 
types of research needed, characters to be developed, 
and a general plot for the story. Our team researched 
the content by shadowing and interviewing scientists, 
reading articles and websites about the featured spe-
cies, and learning about diversity issues relevant to the 
accurate depiction of children in the stories. 

Research was a key focus in the first weeks of the 
project, and continued throughout the development 
process. Team members observed and interviewed the 
consulting scientists depicted in the story to ensure the 
authenticity of the books. The team communicated with 
the consultants via email to gather additional informa-
tion. Drafts of the story were shared with the consul-
tants for a review of content accuracy. After returning 
to campus, the team used on-site sketches, photographs 
and interviews to create all of the elements of the 
books. The team’s discussions expanded upon their 
initial ideas and helped to direct the story development.

The entire team used the story outline and research 
to create storyboards to assist in the design, layout 
and placement of photographs and illustrations. Story-
boarding is the creation of a pictorial sketch of the story

that creates a more detailed roadmap for the team. 
Storyboards should be revisited regularly to update 
the plan with details and revised story elements. The 
storyboard guides authors, illustrators, designers and 
photographers in their respective roles.

One of the first important tasks for illustrators and 
designers was the creation of a cover for the book. Our 
experience suggests that developing the cover creates 
a sense of direction and a visual theme that drives the 
rest of the design process. Illustrators used this step to 
create the first character illustrations and animals as 
the graphic designer selected fonts and color schemes 
to establish a theme that was carried throughout the 
book.

Illustrators created rough sketches of characters, 
animals, and scenery that they eventually developed as 
black-line drawings and full color drawings and paint-
ings through a continual review and critique process by 
the entire team. At the same time, authors wrote more 
detailed story elements, incorporating the information 
collected during research, and creating a story that 
conveys the concepts that address the book’s goals. The 
writers worked closely with illustrators and photogra-
phers in the storyboarding process to ensure the story 
and images complemented each other.

 Graphic designers created initial layout examples 
to test placement of text with initial drawings and 
photographs. The designers combine the illustrations, 
photographs and text based on the team’s planning for 
the story. The graphic designers were responsible for 
ensuring that the book files were ready for print pro-
duction.

Reiterative cycles of review, critique and revision 
eventually led teams to a full draft of the book. The 
team then sent the draft to an on-demand print ser-
vice to produce a proof copy - a first rough copy that 
allowed the team to examine layout design, colors, illus-
trations and photographs. At the same time, the team 
shared digital drafts with external experts for review. 
This external review was extremely important to the 
quality of the final products. The team shared the drafts 
with the content consultants who served as the models 
for the scientists in the stories. We also asked practic-
ing teachers to review books and offer suggestions to 
ensure that the stories were useful for children and 
teachers. The addition of elements like captions and 
author notes was guided by early reviews by educators. 
Team members and external experts also contributed 
to a detailed proofreading and editing process for the 
text of the story.

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McConnell & Giorgio-Booher, Collaborative Self-Publishing  39 

After a thorough review of the proofs, revisions 
were made to the books. The final step was to submit 
final versions of the book for printing, followed by the 
official “release” for public purchase. This process var-
ies depending on the print service used, but the most 
common processes include online forms to enter titles, 
authors and illustrators, ISBN numbers, pricing infor-
mation, and other technical details for the book. The 
team then uploads separate PDF versions of the cover 
and book interior. Most print shops then complete a 
review to ensure that files meet their technical specifi-
cations. Once the book is approved by both the printer 
and the “authors,” the book is almost immediately avail-
able for purchase through an online store. 

The next section describes some key decisions team 
leaders need to consider in planning a publishing proj-
ect. Some of the decisions focus on business plans and 
legal issues. Others are about artistic style or are more 
technical in nature. All of these issues are important if 
the team hopes to create a marketable publication.

Key Decisions for Publication Projects
The workflow (Figure 1) gives a simplified descrip-

tion of the process of a book project. However, there are 
important decisions the team leaders need to consid-
er before and during the process. As professionals in 
education and the arts, the decisions were new to our 
team, so this section is offered to help other authors 
and self-publishers prepare for the challenges we en-
countered. Our team chose solutions based on our goals 
for the project and the resources available to us. Other 
collaborations may need to choose a different path, but 
many of the questions that planners will face are the 
same.

Business Plan 
When the team has identified the goal and topic for 

the project, the next step is to think about a business 
plan. Even if the project is a not-for-profit endeavor, we 
recommend that the project establish certain param-
eters for the project. The choices described here will 
influence the process and decisions to be made later in 
the project.

One of the first provisos we offer is that self-pub-
lishing is NOT a path to enormous wealth. A self-pub-
lished book may earn a modest income, but do not 
expect to get rich with this project. Project goals should 
address a specific need in schools or in the target com-
munities. Even so, the choices described here can help 
reduce legal liabilities and unexpected expenses that 

could prevent a publication project from reaching its 
goal.

Print vs. digital – An early decision to make is 
whether the book will be sold as a print version, as an 
electronic book, or both. Today’s technology makes 
it very easy to create e-books that can be accessed 
through applications for computers, tablets and smart 
phones. If the books will be digital, the layout and 
design need to take into consideration the size of the 
screen and how a reader advances through the pages. 

If a print book is the goal, the team will select from 
a range of book sizes, cover types, color or black-and-
white options, and paper quality. Final decisions about 
these matters are based on the audience, costs of the 
options and project goals. Hard cover books are ide-
al for libraries, especially for children, but the cost of 
binding is about three times higher than a paper back 
cover. Color printing is better for young children, but 
slightly more expensive than black-and-white printing.  
Any on-demand or self-publishing service will allow 
planners to explore options and adjust settings as the 
project moves forward.

Copyright ownership – Published materials are 
the intellectual property of the author and publisher, 
so protecting the rights to a book is an important initial 
step. There are many copyright options available to a 
self-published author. One of the early decisions should 
be about who will hold the copyrights to the book. 

First, planners should ensure that no other author 
owns the copyrights to the title you are considering. It 
is important to do some homework, and devote time to 
a thorough search for books of the same title. The Con-
servation Tales project considered a few titles that were 
eliminated because other publishers had copyright or 
trademark protections that made those titles legally 
impossible.

Project leaders who wish to retain copyrights need 
to find out how to file or establish copyrights in the 
country in which the book will be published since laws 
and required forms vary by country. In some places, 
forms need to be filed and approvals obtained before 
the publication is copyrighted. In others, a printed work 
is copyrighted simply by transmitting the work via mail 
or electronic communication, but a registered copyright 
may offer more protections for authors. 

Another option is to allow the company that prints, 
binds and distributes the book to hold the copyright. 
On-demand and self-publishing services usually offer 
this option early in the planning stages. The service is 
most often free or very inexpensive, but the revenue

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



McConnell & Giorgio-Booher, Collaborative Self-Publishing  40 

authors earn will be lower. In this option, the print ser-
vice assumes the responsibility for marketing the book, 
but they also retain a larger percentage of the profits 
and can transfer the copyright without the author’s 
permission. 

One way to help establish copyrights is to register 
an International Standard Book Number (ISBN). This is 
a unique number registered with government agencies, 
usually through companies that help you submit the 
formal registration for a fee. The cost of an individual 
ISBN number is about $20 USD. If a project plans to 
produce multiple books, a more cost-effective option 
is to create an “imprint” of your own and purchase a 
“block” of ten ISBN numbers at a reduced cost. An im-
print is the name of a publishing company or service to 
which the copyright is assigned. For Conservation Tales, 
the author had already established his own unincorpo-
rated publishing company under a name selected after 
the same type of search as for the title. This imprint 
name is used as the “publisher” for the Conservation 
Tales series, and has since incorporated.

Self-publishing and on-demand services offer 
authors the option to assign one of their registered 
ISBN numbers to the book they wish to publish. This 
is a cheaper option than registering one’s own ISBN 
number, but it usually means the authors have assigned 
copyright ownership to the publishing service. As 
stated previously, this means a smaller percentage of 
revenue forwarded to your project. The print service 
may also offer options for the creation of a barcode on 
the cover of the book. The print shop may add this, or 
the author/publisher can insert their own barcodes. 
Barcodes can be created when the ISBN is registered 
for a small additional fee. The decisions about how to 
handle copyright, ISBN registration and barcodes needs 
to be made with consideration to cost, convenience, 
and the relative importance of maintaining control of 
copyrights.

Authorship – Planners need to establish a policy for 
listing author and co-authors. This may seem like a sim-
ple issue, but the order of authors is sometimes import-
ant to the parties involved. Putting a policy on paper 
for how authors are listed helps to avoid personal or 
legal disputes after publication. Similarly, illustrators 
should be listed on the cover and on the title page of a 
book, so a clear policy for this should be included in the 
plan. If the project team includes other contributors, we 
strongly recommend each member of the team should 
be acknowledged, both on the title page of the book and 
in a later section. Conservation Tales books include a

“Meet the Team” page to acknowledge all contributors. 
While this policy is not a legal requirement for publish-
ing, it is most ethical, and helps to create a strong sense 
of teamwork and ownership that enhances the quality 
of the product.

Distribution plan – Project leaders should also 
develop a plan for how they will distribute the books. 
Most on-demand and self-publication services offer 
online sales. However, for projects that retain copy-
rights, marketing of the books may fall on the author or 
publisher. The print service markets the books if they 
hold the copyrights, but the amount royalties paid to 
authors is reduced. Authors should anticipate the need 
to advertise, promote and distribute the books on their 
own.

The developer of a book can usually purchase 
copies of the title at an “author price,” usually the cost 
of printing and binding plus a small fee for the printer. 
Shipping and taxes are not included. This offers a way 
for project planners to purchase copies and sell them 
directly to customers. Purchasing copies requires an 
expenditure and a financial risk if the team cannot sell 
enough books to realize a profit. Conservation Tales 
keeps a minimal number of copies “in stock,” but keeps 
enough to sell books at public outreach events, confer-
ences, and festivals. We also have the ability to provide 
small orders directly to schools and teachers. All other 
sales take place online either through the on-demand 
print service, or via a project website with an electron-
ic store. This reduces the effort by our team to handle 
sales and shipping.

When determining the price of a book, planners 
may want to sell copies at a wholesale price for book 
stores. Booksellers usually double the wholesale price 
when they sell to retail customers. The retail price 
should be set high enough to still earn a small profit 
when selling to retailers at half price. On-demand print 
services will set the price according to the authors’ in-
structions, and forward the royalties to the author from 
online sales. Planners need to consider taxes that will 
be charged for books. In some African countries, tax 
rates for books may be as high as 14%. Tax rates may 
influence the willingness of customers to buy the books. 
If the books will be sold in more than one country, this 
decision might be more complicated. For some projects, 
this may not be an issue if they plan to use funds from 
grants or government agencies to purchase copies and 
distribute to schools for free.

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McConnell & Giorgio-Booher, Collaborative Self-Publishing  41 

Selecting a Printing Service
All of the decisions described in the Business Plan 

section should be made early in any project, in part 
because the answers will shape the choice of a print-
er/publisher for the book. There are several different 
services available. Companies that offer these services 
in Africa include Printivo, 48hrbooks.com and New 
Voices Publishing Services. Some services are only 
available in specific regions, like Digitalprintondemand 
in South Africa. Kindle Direct Publishing, the printer for 
Conservation Tales, may be best suited for digital books 
produced in Africa because they currently do not have a 
print facility in Africa and do not offer affordable ship-
ping to the continent. 

Planners should explore these companies and oth-
ers to find a vendor that provides the right combination 
of cost, profitability, convenience, technical support and 
access to customers for the needs of the project. Since 
one goal of self-publishing is to put more control in the 
hands of local individuals, planners may wish to look 
for other local companies that can offer services to suit 
those needs better than the large corporate printing 
services.

Project Management
Project management should be flexible, holistic and 

team-based. An agile approach to project management, 
like the “scrum” framework (Sliger, 2011), allows for 
shorts bursts of activity as team members continually 
shape the direction of the project. Team leaders begin 
by articulating goals and outcomes, setting expecta-
tions, and providing a means for project evaluation. 
They introduce teams to important dates and when 
interactions with scientists will occur. The processes 
that team leaders need to direct are described in the 
following sections. 

Artistic style – One of the early discussions with 
team members should address the artistic vision of the 
project. Team leaders will likely have an idea what type 
of appearance and artwork they want to include in the 
book. Choices about artistic style depend on the target 
audience and the goals of the project, but the aesthetic 
vision of the team members will also impact the final 
results. Questions to address should include the follow-
ing:

• Will illustrations be realistic or stylized? 
•	Will	illustrations	reflect	a	specific	art	genre?	
•	Will	text	be	in	blocks	or	arranged	to	flow	with	the	

artwork? 

• What color palettes will be used and what kind of 
medium will be used to create the illustrations? 

All these choices are important, and ensuring that the 
team is aware of the themes to guide their work helps 
to avoid conflicts of style later in the process.

Target audience – Planners should determine who 
the readers will be. Is the book intended for young chil-
dren just learning to read? Does the project target older 
children in intermediate grades, secondary students, 
or even adult learners in the community? This is an 
extremely important decision because the writing style 
will vary dramatically for different readers. For authors 
who are accustomed to writing scholarly research pa-
pers, this adjustment is difficult. The sentence struc-
ture, vocabulary, and length of text on each page need 
to be appropriate for the target audience. Small issues, 
such as changing passive sentences to active, affect the 
readability of the text. Conservation Tales uses tools in 
Microsoft Word that provide readability statistics when 
it checks spelling and grammar. There are many other 
ways to assess reading level. If the development team 
does not include age-specific educators, we recommend 
consulting with a reading specialist for help in assess-
ing and adjusting the reading level of the text to suit the 
target audience.

Book developers also have opportunities to publish 
books in different languages. This issue echoes ques-
tions we posed in the opening sections of the books 
about making books culturally relevant. If the goal of a 
publishing project is to create educational materials for 
a specific country or region, the world of self-publica-
tion gives authors expanded opportunities to write in 
the language of their choice. Books that teach reading 
or history in Akan, Kiswahili, Yoruba, Iszulu or any of 
the many tribal languages are much easier to produce 
through self-publishing than through large internation-
al publishing houses. Accelere!1 (Chemionics, 2020) is 
an example of a project that produces books for school 
children in three indigenous languages in the Demo-
cratic Republic of Congo. If publishing in an indigenous 
language is one of the goals of the project, it is import-
ant to make sure at least one team member is fluent in 
both the written and spoken language. The graphic de-
signer should also consult with readers of that language 
when selecting the best font for the book (Nottingham, 
1969).

External reviewers and editors – The need for ex-
ternal review process may seem like a decision that can 
wait until late in the project. However, we encourage 
planners to think about this step early in the process

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



McConnell & Giorgio-Booher, Collaborative Self-Publishing  42 

Team leaders should not wait until the story text is 
finished to begin your search for external reviewers. 
They should allow plenty of time to communicate with 
reviewers and editors because these external partners 
may not be bound to project deadlines. Conservation 
Tales sends drafts to external reviews to assess content 
accuracy, authentic depiction of diversity issues, and 
the fit for our target audience. We also ask for help from 
others in reviewing the cultural context of the book’s 
story and illustrations. It is not uncommon for reviewer 
feedback to be the last bit of information we receive 
for the final revisions, so we try to start the process as 
early as possible to avoid delays in meeting deadlines. 
Requests to reviewers should include target dates that 
leave the time for the team to finish the book before the 
final deadline.

Technical Considerations
Once the team begins work on a book, all members 

of the team need to be mindful of technical require-
ments for producing high quality printed material. 
Some of the requirements are dictated by the printing 
service selected to produce the books. These specifi-
cations are based on either the process of printing and 
binding a book or on the business plan choices de-
scribed earlier. 

Printing specifications – When a printing service 
is selected, the company provides a set of specifications 
for file formats, color standards, and image quality. 
Most companies will offer templates to help plan page 
layouts and margins. One of the reasons to include a 
graphic designer on the team is to ensure that files 
meet these specifications.

From the beginning of the project, team mem-
bers need to have a clear understanding of the images 
needed for printing. Printers require a minimum of 300 
dots per inch (dpi) for all images and finished pages. 
Some printers will require even higher resolutions for 
black-line graphs and diagrams. Illustrators on the team 
need to begin their sketches with this standard in mind. 
They should plan to create drawings and paintings that 
are larger than the finished images that will appear 
in the book. All images will need to be transformed 
into a digital format, even if created using traditional 
art media like paints, pastels or colored pencils. If an 
original illustration is too small, and the designer needs 
to enlarge it, the result is a grainy image that does not 
reproduce well in print. 

Color palettes used for illustrations also need to 
meet certain specifications. If the book will be in print

format, all colors needs to be saved in CMYK format. 
This format is based on the cyan, magenta, yellow and 
black inks used in the printing process. If the book will 
be digital, RGB colors will be needed. These work with 
the red, green and blue pixels that create color images 
on a computer monitor. If the correct color palette is 
not used, the colors on the final product may not match 
what the artists and designers created.

Printers also set requirements for file types. Most 
of them require PDF files for the cover and the interior. 
Others may ask for images as TIFF or EPS files. Some 
companies ask for single page layouts, while others ask 
for a side-by-side book page layout. 

Templates provided by the printer will show mar-
gins, gutters, trim, and bleed lines. All text needs to 
fall within the margins. The gutter describes the area 
where pages meet, creating a wider margin on the “in-
ner” edge of the page. Illustrators and designers need to 
keep in mind that content falling in the gutter may not 
be visible in the bound book. Trim and bleed lines are 
features defined by the process of printing, trimming 
and binding the books. The trim lines show where the 
pages are expected to be cut. If illustrations and back-
grounds will go all the way to the edge, a “bleed” line 
will be seen outside the trim lines. Images meant to be 
printed all the way to the edge of the page should ex-
tend beyond the trim lines to the bleed lines. Once the 
book is printed, pages are cut to size, and a small part 
of the image will be trimmed off in the process. Illus-
trators and designers need to be aware of this to avoid 
putting critical information at the edge of the page. This 
process makes it very important to work with a graph-
ic designer who has been trained to work with these 
parameters.

Third-party materials – Another requirement is 
a policy on the use of third-party materials. The most 
likely example of a third-party resource is an image 
such as a photograph, illustration, clipart design, a 
graph or a map. In every case, images from third-par-
ties – any image not created by the team – requires the 
publisher to get express permission and to properly 
attribute the image to the source. Incorporating copy-
righted images usually involves paying the owner for 
permission. In some cases, the fee is nominal. However, 
some sources, especially photographs and images from 
corporations like movie studios, may charge fees that 
can be hundreds of dollars (USD).

Fortunately, there are other options. Websites that 
offer public domain or “Creative Commons” materials 
are excellent resources for authors and designers.

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



McConnell & Giorgio-Booher, Collaborative Self-Publishing  43 

There are several sources of public domain and Cre-
ative Commons images. Links to some of these sites 
have been provided in the “Resources” list at the end 
of this article. Public domain images, often from gov-
ernment agencies, are free for use. Legal guidelines do 
not require attribution of the author (listing the owner 
and year), but ethical practice suggests including a 
small caption showing the source on or near the image. 
Creative Commons status offers a variety of licens-
ing options, usually labeled as “CC.2.0” or some other 
numbered license. Some materials are free for use 
with attribution, including a link to the original source. 
Others prohibit use for commercial products like books. 
Owners may also stipulate a small fee to use an image. 
Project planners need to pay close attention the terms 
and limitations of each type of Creative Commons 
license. As educators, it is important to practice ethical 
use of intellectual process, and it is the “publisher’s” le-
gal responsibility to abide by the terms of the licenses.

Technical process for team – Other technical con-
siderations should address how the development team 
works on the book. This involves identifying the tools 
the team will use to produce the text and images in 
the book. Illustrators may wish to paint or draw using 
traditional media. If the illustrators are paid a stipend, 
they will often be expected to purchase their own ma-
terials. Conservation Tales used project funds to provide 
these materials as one of the benefits of being on the 
team. The team needs to agree on the software for pro-
ducing text, images and layouts, including the format of 
the files they save. The industry standard in publishing 
is the Adobe suite of software, Creative Cloud. This can 
be expensive, but many graphic designers and artists 
already use it. The most essential applications in this 
suite are Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. Photo-
shop is one of the leading tools for digital artists, and 
can help photographers edit images. Illustrator and 
InDesign are layout and publishing programs used in 
the graphic design field.

There are other less expensive programs that can 
be used to carry out the same tasks, so the team should 
pick tools that are accessible to members. It is import-
ant to ensure that the software can export or save files 
in the formats required by printers, so the team should 
refer to the technical specifications provided by the 
print service selected for the final product.

The team also needs to select a method for sharing 
files. Each team member will create files for their re-
spective contribution to the book. The graphic designer 
will eventuall need to access these files to place them in

page layouts. Cloud storage is an easy option, but it is 
important to make sure the project has enough stor-
age space for files. Images and page layouts will use 
large amounts of storage space. If the team runs out 
of storage space, backing up files becomes an issue. 
The choice of a cloud service should be guided by local 
availability and ease of access for all team members.

Conservation Tales required team members to 
save all files in Box, with shared folders for each book. 
Managing the many files created by the team was a 
challenge, so the team created a guide for naming files 
and locations for storing them. The graphic designers 
should be involved in guiding the decisions about file 
names because the designer will be the last person who 
needs to find the files.

In an age of technology, project teams might also 
collaborate from different geographic locations. If the 
specialists you need live far away, videoconferencing 
tools like WhatsApp, Skype, Zoom, and other videocon-
ference applications permit collaborations that can be 
productive. The Conservation Tales team was required 
to complete two books in the spring of 2020 in a virtual 
environment when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the 
university to close campus. The Conservation Tales team 
demonstrated that completing a publishing project 
from a distance is possible, even when team members 
use laptops, desktop computers, tablets and even smart 
phones to connect. For similar needs, a project team 
should select a common videoconferencing tool that 
allows team members to “share screens” so they can 
view samples of artwork and layouts as they review 
and critique the work.

Implications for Potential Authors
The process of creating a book as we have de-

scribed appears to be very complicated, but with the 
right membership on the team to help with the differ-
ent tasks, self-publishing is within reach. As Notting-
ham (1969) wrote, “There is no technological reason 
why” educational books for African learners cannot be 
written, edited, designed and published in Africa.

Odendaal (2008) described the importance of the 
publisher: “The academic publisher is a gatekeeper of 
knowledge and thus controls what appears in print” (p. 
52). Self-publishing opportunities afforded by current 
technology and business models have made it easier 
for indigenous authors to become the “gatekeepers” as 
they shape the knowledge that appears in print to meet 
local and regional educational needs. Educators who 
hope to help decolonialize schools and social

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



McConnell & Giorgio-Booher, Collaborative Self-Publishing  44 

institutions in Africa – or any other part of the world – 
have the tools and support systems at their fingertips 
needed to create materials that can help achieve their 
goals. Authors no longer need to rely on the vision of 
large publishing companies who are driven by large 
profit goals and may not share the author’s objectives. 
The availability of these tools makes it easier than ever 
for local experts to develop books in indigenous lan-
guages, with illustrations and photos that are relevant 
to indigenous learners, and reflect authentic historical 
and cultural contexts. A leading publishing professional 
in South Africa, Brian Wafawarowa, describes the need 
to facilitate such participation in the publishing indus-
try:

“… an ideal publishing sector is one in which peo-
ple of all races and cultural persuasion have the 
space to participate in the various aspects of the 
book sector, a sector where the knowledge pool 
is enriched by the diversity of the literature that 
is available and where the population indulges in 
reading beyond reading for instruction purposes 
in institutions of learning” 
(Wafawarowa, 2004)

The primary barrier to producing locally relevant 
materials, then, may be a perception by interested in-
dividuals that publishing is too difficult or too complex. 
The leadership team of the Conservation Tales project 
faced these same concerns. We discovered that we 
needed specialists with specialized skills and the will-
ingness to collaborate. We also found that support and 
interested partners were not hard to find, especially if 
we were willing to work with university students. Their 
technical skills and openness to try new ideas led to a 
level of quality that would have been impossible with-
out these key team members. More importantly, their 
creativity drove the rapid growth of our project and 
the addition of valuable ideas for developing marketing 
materials, educational activities, and key features of our 
books that appeal to our target audience.

Conclusion
As educators consider the need to improve curricu-

lum and educational materials for children in Africa, or 
any other country for that matter, the barriers present-
ed by the control of publishing companies on the avail-
able resources is growing less important. We present 
the example of the Conservation Tales series as a model 
for the development of locally-produced, culturally 
relevant educational materials. 

The time is right for independent authors, educa-
tors, illustrators and others to use their expertise to 
make the materials they know are needed for schools 
and communities. We present this goal not only as 
an educational strategy, but also as a tool for deco-
lonialization. Self-publishing authors can take a lead 
role in transforming schools and society by  becoming 
creators, not just consumers, of the information that 
presents images intended to shape young and mallea-
ble minds.

It is clear that building a collaborative team of 
individual who bring specific skills are helpful to a suc-
cessful publishing project: authors, illustrators, graphic 
designers, editors, and educators. Such a team can then 
use the current on-demand, digital and self-publishing 
resources to produce quality and relevant educational 
materials available with very little overhead expense. 

Our hope is that the framework for a collaborative 
team described above can serve as a model that others 
can adopt, adapt and remold to suit their needs. Per-
haps more importantly, we hope to inspire the innova-
tion and entrepreneurial spirit that can help our fellow 
educators become “knowledge creators” (Zegeye & 
Vambe, 2006) who produce high-quality, cultural rele-
vant educational resources for schools. As we explained 
earlier, the doors truly are open if a handful of individ-
uals with a vision for indigenous books are willing to 
step out of the traditional box to take advantage of the 
opportunities at hand.

Resources for Self-Publishing

ISBN Registration Services
Bowker ISBN-US

ISBN Services

Companies Offering On-Demand Printing in Africa
Printivo

48hrbooks.com
Digitalprintondemand

New Voices Publishing Services
Kindle Direct Publishing

Creative Commons & Public Domain Image Sources
Flickr

Unsplash
Pexels

Pixabay
Creative Commons Search

Wikimedia Commons

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

http://www.bowker.com/products/ISBN-US.html
https://www.isbnservices.com
https://printivo.com/
https://www.48hrbooks.com/
https://www.printondemand.co.za/
 https://www.newvoices.co.za/
https://KDP.amazon.com
https://flickr.com
https://unsplash.com/
https://www.pexels.com/
https://pixabay.tumblr.com/
https://search.creativecommons.org/
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Photographs


McConnell & Giorgio-Booher, Collaborative Self-Publishing  45 

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1 Tom J. McConnell (tjmcconnell@bsu.edu) is a Professor 
in the Department of Biology at Ball State University, 
Muncie, IN, USA.

2 Barbara Giorgio-Booher (bgiorgio@bsu.edu) is a 
Teaching Professor in the School of Art at Ball State 
University, Muncie, IN, USA.

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https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/agile-project-management-scrum-6269


Abstract
Inspired by the UN Charter on the Rights of the Child, educational policy makers in Africa are requesting 

schools to implement democratic practices in the classroom. This study attempts to shed light on the effects 
of classroom democratic practices on cognitive and non-cognitive learning outcomes using cross-sectional 
data about student performance and indicators of classroom democracy from Francophone African countries. 
To simultaneously account for the cause and effect of democratic practices on learning achievements and 
the nested nature of the data, use is made of the error components-two stage least squares estimator. The 
results confirm the endogenous nature of learning outcomes and indicate that teachers and parents are 
the most important stakeholders in the process of having children internalize democracy in the classroom. 
It is recommended that teachers develop skills to assign and supervise pupils’ work in small groups in the 
classroom. Education stakeholders should take measures to preserve and promote indigenous cultural values 
because they facilitate learning achievements.

Keywords: Classroom democracy, Educational outcomes   

Njong, A. M.  
Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2 
DOI  10.14434/gjte.v2i1.31205

Open Access

Published by the Global Insitutute of Transformative Education (http://www.gite.education)
© Njong, A. M.,. 2020. Open Access This journal is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 
NonCommercial NonDerivative 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits 
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction without revision in any non-commercial medium, provided you give appropriate 
credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license,

Classroom Democracy and Learning Outcomes in 
Primary Schools in Francophone Africa

Aloysius Mom Njong

Full listing of authors and contacts can be 
found at the end of this article.

Introduction
Francophone Africans are familiar with classrooms 

where the teacher is the principal actor with all atten-
tion focused on them. Francophone Africa includes 
countries where French is the official language even if 
not all residents speak French, a result of the influence 
of historical French colonization. Like in many other 
countries, teachers transmit textbook knowledge to 
pupils who are encouraged to memorise the course 
material, perhaps only to reproduce it on demand, 
usually to pass an examination. In such traditional and 
authoritarian schools, textbooks and teachers are the 
main sources of knowledge, and children are hardly en-
couraged to participate. There is a growing awareness 
that such teacher-centred and text-book centred in-
structional approaches produce future passive citizens 
who fall short of critical thinking, decision-making and 
socialisation skills (Barron & Darling-Hammond, 2008; 
Nagaraju, Madhavaiah, & Peter, 2013). Given this aware-
ness and inspired by the UN Charter on the Rights of 
the Child, educational policy makers in Africa

are requesting the enhancement of democracy in the 
classroom which is more likely to promote children’s 
social, moral and academic development (UN General 
Assembly, 1989). Despite this policy directive, very lit-
tle attention has been paid to the practice of democratic 
principles in the classroom and the delivery of edu-
cation in a transformative manner. Perhaps research 
in this area has been hampered by the lack of readily 
available data, and difficulties in quantifying social 
education variables (Borghans, Duckworth, Heckman, 
& Ter Weel, 2008). The traditional education produc-
tion function has centred on conventional schooling 
input-output variables perhaps because these are more 
easily measurable. Non-conventional inputs such as 
democratic practices have been neglected. 

As part of classroom democratic practices, I agree 
with Serpell & Marfo (2014),  Bodrova & Leong (2007), 
and Mucherah & Mbogori (2019) who argue that learn-
ing outcomes are influenced by the cultural values and 
norms of the local setting where children go to school. 
African countries have cultural values which are specif-
ic and diverse and often different from those in devel-
oped countries. Yet few attempts are made to explicitly



 47 Njong, Classroom Democracy and Learning Outcomes

factor in African cultural values in the education pro-
duction processes. Thus, in this study an attempt 
is made to consider some aspect of African cultural 
identity as a special dimension of classroom democra-
cy in the modelling, and to show how it contributes to 
the motivation of children’s educational achievements 
in Francophone Africa. In addition to issues of data 
availability, the focus of the study on Francophone 
African countries is to capture the hangovers of French 
colonialism on the school curriculum of these coun-
tries. There may be some aspects of French colonialism 
and post-colonialism that interact with other factors to 
shape schooling realities in postcolonial Francophone 
African countries.  

As concerns learning outcomes, focus in the liter-
ature has been on literacy and numeracy test scores 
(Glewwe & Jacoby, 1994; Glewwe, 2002; Glewwe & 
Kremer, 2006; Wamalwa & Burns, 2018). Non-cogni-
tive outcomes have not been given the attention they 
deserve, perhaps because they are difficult to measure. 
The classroom should not only aim to produce individu-
als who can read and write, but must go beyond to pre-
pare active, sociable, culturally viable and well-behaved 
citizens of the country.

Another motivation for this study is at the meth-
odological level. From the foregoing, it is apparent that 
schooling produces several learning outcomes, such 
as formal cognitive skills and behavioural skills. These 
educational outcomes are jointly determined in the 
learning process and any single equation modelling 
may not capture the entire picture of interrelationships 
in the educational process. Therefore, I attempt to take 
into account the  simultaneity and interdependence be-
tween learning outcomes and inputs, leading to a more 
realistic formulation of the schooling production func-
tion. Another important methodological issue is related 
to the nested nature of the data. Ignoring clustering in 
analysing hierarchically structured data will underesti-
mate standard errors due to the decrease in the effec-
tive sample size for explanatory variables defined at the 
cluster level (Baltagi, 2011). 

It is against this backdrop that this study seeks to 
establish the causal relationships between democracy 
in the classroom and learning outcomes in primary 
schools in Francophone African countries. Specifically, 
the study attempts to:

i. analyse democratic practices in schools as an ap-
proach to classroom management in Francophone
African countries.

ii. determine the effects of classroom democracy on
learning outcomes in primary schools across Fran-
cophone African countries.

The study is organised as follows: Section 1 ex-
plains the context and motivation of the study. Section 
2 presents the conceptual framework wherein the 
concepts of classroom democracy and learning achieve-
ments are defined and operationalized. Section 3 dwells 
on the methodology which describes the data used, 
model specification and estimation strategies. Section 
4 is reserved for results and discussions. Section 5 con-
cludes the study with a summary of the key findings, 
together with educational policy implications.

Conceptual Framework
In this section, I define the concepts of classroom 

democracy and learning outputs in the context of this 
study so as to establish the causal relations between 
them. 
Classroom Democracy

A modern pedagogical approach to classroom 
democracy focuses on the promotion of self-learning 
(Fearnley-Sander, Moss, & Harbon, 2001). This means 
that pupils are actively engaged with their own learn-
ing. To be more explicit, I consider classroom democra-
cy as a set of classroom practices that put the children 
at the centre of the instructional process. This requires 
that each pupil is accepted as a unique personality and 
shown respect. It also requires that pupils’ opinions be 
considered in education decision-making. As members 
of the society make decisions in a democracy, so the 
pupils who are actual elements in the democratic class-
room should actively participate in decision making. 
For example, the curriculum to be taught and rules to 
be obeyed at school and in the classroom should be de-
termined together with pupils. Democracy comes along 
with freedom of thinking and expression. Consequently, 
pupils should be given the opportunity to express what 
they feel and think. 

The democratic classroom as a way of life is rein-
forced by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 
(UN General Assembly, 1989) which proposes rela-
tionship changes between adults and young children. 
Both parents and teachers are expected to be agents of 
change in the learning process of the child. In building 
a democratic classroom culture, the role of the teacher 
has to change from an authoritative personality to a fa-
cilitator. The teacher is no longer that person dictating 
a lesson as pupils copy and assimilate, but is expected

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



 48 Njong, Classroom Democracy and Learning Outcomes

to help pupils to cultivate the habit of accessing infor-
mation by themselves and learning it (Maftoon & Shak-
ouri, 2012). The teacher is expected to guide the pupils 
in their learning process, and not force them to learn. 
The parent is expected to promote processes designed 
to enable and empower children to learn conveniently. 
Such processes would involve providing children with 
basic needs such as adequate nutrition, health, and 
protection against abuse and violence. 

Another dimension of classroom democracy is 
enshrined in the concept of discipline in schools. It 
is well recognized that if discipline is not taken into 
consideration, the classroom/school environment will 
be unsafe and may disrupt the learning process as well 
as the academic achievement of the children (Mothata 
& Squelch, 1997; Levin & Nalon, 1991). Teachers and 
school administrators have a major role to play through 
guidance and counseling of children in order to instill 
in them a sense of responsibility and curb incidences 
of disruptive behaviour in schools. Every school has 
a code of conduct which every child is supposed to 
respect. When the rules are broken, it is expected that 
disciplinary measures be applied according to the edu-
cational regulations in force. Therefore, it is important 
to factor in child discipline as a transformative educa-
tional input that will lead to a healthy classroom envi-
ronment in a democratic manner. 

Another dimension of classroom democracy may 
be borrowed from social cultural theory which holds 
that culture and social interactions are essential fac-
tors in children’s acquisition of knowledge (Okonji, 
1971;  Bodrova & Leong, 2007; Marfo & Biersteker, 
2011; Marfo, Pence, Levine, & Levine, 2011; Mucherah 
& Mbogori, 2019). The African child grows up in a local 
context where the mother tongue is spoken, traditional 
music is listened and danced to with formidable dexter-
ity, domestic chores are often distributed among family 
members, and telling of folk stories are common prac-
tices. Furthermore, the extended family system which 
includes, in addition to nuclear family; uncles, aunties, 
cousins and grandparents is order of the day (Degbey, 
2012). Democracy as a way of living and everyday 
experiences should not be indifferent to these local 
contextual factors in which African children are grow-
ing. Therefore, African socio-cultural values need to be 
extended to the classroom setting in order to properly 
motivate children in the learning process in the context.

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

Learning Outcomes
Learning outcomes are multidimensional and 

complex. However, to facilitate understanding I divide 
learning outputs into cognitive and non-cognitive com-
ponents. 

According to Anderson et al (2001) the cognitive 
domain involves the acquisition of knowledge and the 
development of intellectual skills from the educational 
process. This way of learning encourages pupils to use 
their brains more effectively, and enables them to think 
and remember easily. This does not mean that memo-
risation or repetition is encouraged, it simply ensures 
that the concepts learnt in class are understood. Out-
comes from the cognitive learning process usually in-
volve academic achievement tests in reading, language 
and mathematics.

The non-cognitive component is made up of self-es-
teem and sociability outcomes. According to Emler 
(2001), Olsen, Breckler, & Wiggens (2008) and Harter 
(2012), self-esteem is considered a child’s evaluation of 
self-worth and acceptance in the classroom. It is a judg-
ment of the self. Research results indicate that there is a 
correlation between self-esteem and children’s devel-
opment (Papadopoulos, Metsiou, & Agaliotis, 2011). For 
example, children with high self-esteem show greater 
motivation and take initiative. They are more prone 
to express sociable behavior and show more feelings 
of happiness (Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, & Vohs, 
2003). On the other hand, children who have low self-
worth tend to treat themselves badly and are more 
likely to invite bad treatment from their peers (Saigal, 
Lambert, Russ, & Hoult, 2002). The consequences of 
low self-worth amongst pupils would include unhap-
piness, symptoms of depression, and difficulties in 
forming and sustaining friendly relationships with 
their peers (Emler, 2001). The social outcome of the 
education process revolves around the social learning 
theory (Bandura, 1977). The theory posits that people 
can acquire new behaviours by observing and imitating 
the behavioural patterns of other people. The theory 
further posits that learning would also occur through 
practices of rewards and punishments. In this way, a 
behaviour that is often rewarded would persist, while 
the one that is constantly punished would most likely 
not be imitated. The classroom is a social setting, and 
pupils through their interactions with peers and teach-
ers would pick up new patterns of behaviour that are 
likely to uphold the spirit of team work, cooperation 
and love for one another.



 49 

only the items that pass the reliability or internal 
consistency test in analysis improves measurment of 
the latent constructs and facilitate the convergence of 
estimations (Wooldridge, 2009). Based on the retained 
items in each construct I built composite indicators 
using multiple correspondence analyses (Njong & Nin-
gaye, 2008). In this sub-section I analyse the measured 
latent variables/constructs of interest in this study. 
Indicators of classroom democracy

The main explanatory variable in this study is class-
room democracy. Drawing from the conceptualisation 
of classroom democracy in section 2, I build and anal-
yse four composite indicators of classroom democracy. 
The first is the indicator of group work. This composite 
indicator is captured based on primary items shown on 
Table S1 (see Appendix). Table S1 indicates that about 
38% of the teachers organised the children to work 
in small groups. About 67% of the teachers reported 
they lack the techniques to make pupils work as teams, 
while 56.3% of them complained that the classroom is 
inappropriate to organise children in smaller groups. 
The second construct of classroom democracy is an 
indicator of children’s rights. The primary items of 
children’s basic rights retained are displayed on Table 
S2. It shows that about 26.4% of the children attended 
nursery school, while 64% of them slept under mos-
quito nets. As concerns health challenges, 17.7% of the 
children reported having hearing difficulties, and 23% 
had sight problems. Children nutrition seems to be a 
serious problem because about 57.5% of the children 
reported always feeling hungry in class. The third con-
struct of classroom democracy is an indicator of child 
discipline. Child discipline was surveyed by getting 
responses to the statements captured on Table S3. It is 
observed on Table S3 that about 38% of the teachers 
punished or shouted at children in class. The method 
of punishment ranged from asking the pupils to copy 
exercises (32%), and /or do manual labour (49%). Note 
that about 5.5% of the teachers did administer corporal 
punishment although it is prohibited by law in these 
countries. The fourth construct of classroom democracy 
is an indicator of cultural identity. The statements that 
captured cultural identity, and based on which the cul-
tural identity indicator is built, are displayed on Table 
S4. Table S4 shows that 22.4% of the children did not 
speak their mother tongue at home, while 69% of them 
did so occasionally. Only about 18.5% of the teachers 
used the native language spoken by the children of that

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

Njong, Classroom Democracy and Learning Outcomes

Methodology
In order to understand the causal relationship 

between democratic classroom practices and learning 
achievement, secondary cross-sectional data collected 
by reviewing PASEC surveys were used. The PASEC 
survey methodology was a stratified samplying design 
where schools were first randomly selected, and grade 
6 kids were subsequently randomly interviewed from 
each school. Given the stratified nature of the data 
collection process, multilevel analytical framework is 
adopted to better unravel the inter-relationships, but 
before addressing this, a discussion of the data genera-
tion procedure is necessary.
Data

Since 1960 The Conference of Ministers of Educa-
tion of Francophone countries, better known in French 
acronym as CONFEMEN1, has been making enormous 
attempts to promote the delivery of educational ser-
vices and professional training (PASEC, 1998). To facil-
itate this, it pilots a survey called ‘Programme d’Analyse 
des Systèmes Éducatifs de la CONFEMEN’ (PASEC) to 
collect data that are used to assess the efficiency of 
the educational systems of its member countries. The 
data I use in this study come from the PASEC survey 
conducted across 10 Francophone African countries in 
2014 (PASEC 2017). As part of the PASEC survey design 
information was collected from pupils in grade 6 who 
are at the end of the primary school curriculum. The in-
formation collected from these pupils included reading 
and numeracy test scores and the pupils’ characteris-
tics. Information was also collected from the children’s 
parents, teachers and head teachers of the various 
schools relating to knowledge, welfare, pedagogic re-
sources and governance issues. The 2014 PASEC design 
surveyed 31213 pupils in grade 6 nested in 671 schools 
across 10 countries2. The unit of analysis is the pupil. 
Measurement of Constructs

Apart from the cognitive skills’ construct, the rest 
of the constructs in the survey data are captured using 
several items.  I subjected the items in each construct 
to an internal consistency test and retained for analysis 
only those items with positive inter-items correlations 
and/or that loaded high on the construct in question. 
The Cronbach’s alpha test was used for 3-4 points 
Likert scales items, while the Guttman’s split lambda 
coefficient was used for yes/no responses. Retaining
1CONFEMEN is Conférence des Ministres de l’Éducation des États et 

Gouvernements de la Francophonie.
2The ten countries are: Benin; Burkina Faso; Burundi; Cameroon; 

Congo; Cote D’Ivoire; Niger; Senegal; Tchad; and Togo
3In the case of items with mixed scales, I used the          

Cronbach’s alpha test.



Njong, Classroom Democracy and Learning Outcomes  50 

locality. Above 70% of the teachers did not allow chil-
dren talk or sing songs in their mother tongue in class. 
Table S4 also indicates that 77- 84% of the schools did 
not have textbooks in the language of the majority of 
the children. 
Dependent variables

The dependent variables are learning outcomes 
which are cognitive and non-cognitive and are consid-
ered endogenous, because they are determined with-
in the system4. The cognitive outcomes are standard 
scores in reading skills and mathematics skills. This is 
a simple scale of test scores that are continuous from 
grade 2 through grade 6. The standard scores reported 
for each of the grade levels ranges from 100 to 400. I 
compute the mean value of the test scores across the 
grades for reading and math.  These scores indicate that 
the higher the score, the higher the academic achieve-
ment of the child.

The non-cognitive outcomes are self-esteem and so-
ciability. The items used to measure non-cognitive skills 
include measures of friendliness, happiness, self-worth, 
cooperation with one another, and feeling of security. 
Each child was asked to respond to the descriptive 
statements measuring self-esteem and sociability cap-
tured on a 4-point Likert scale as follows: 1) strongly 
agree, 2) agree, 3) disagree, and 4) strongly disagree. 
The number of items in the survey that are related to 
self-esteem and sociability are ten and six respectively. 
Based on Cronbach’s alpha analysis, I selected seven 
and four items that loaded high on self-esteem and 
sociability respectively (see Tables S5 and S6). Table 
S5 shows children’s responses to self-esteem items. It 
shows that over 83% of the children reported perform-
ing well in class. Approximately 81% of the children 
reported hard work to account for their good achieve-
ment, while 74% of them attributed the good scores to 
the fact that class lessons are easy. Children reported 
having low scores for various reasons, for example 
about 47% of them don’t study enough, and 36% of 
them consider they are not intelligent enough, while 
25% said the teacher insults them. Table S6 shows 
children’s responses to sociability items, where over 
80% of them agreed having many friends in school. 
About 87% of the children were happy being in school 
because their peers like them. 

It is important to note that the learning outcome/
endogenous variables are measured in different units. 
The non-cognitive skills are measured using Likert 
scales in the survey dataset while the cognitive skills

are mean test scores. Thus, in order to facilitate in-
terpretation of changes on learning outcomes I trans-
formed them into a common unit of measurement using 
standard z-scores. 

Model Specification
To determine the effects of classroom democracy 

on learning outcomes an econometric model is spec-
ified.  Since the schooling inputs jointly produce the 
educational outcomes, a simultaneous equation mod-
elling approach is deemed appropriate for this study. 
Simultaneous-equation models specify relationships in 
a system of two or more equations where the depen-
dent variables display an interdependent relationship 
(Wooldridge, 2009; Greene, 2011; Baltagi, 2011). In a 
non-recursive model of this nature, the focus is on the 
relationship among the jointly determined dependent 
variables in the systems, which are considered endog-
enous. I argue that these endogenous variables are 
considered cause and effect in the schooling production 
process. There is simultaneity or reciprocal causation 
among the dependent variables. The modelling sug-
gests that certain outcomes could be affected directly 
by other outcomes of the educational process. What 
this means is that all the dependent variables are ex-
plicitly taken to be endogenous to the system (Baltagi, 
2011).  That is, the endogenous explanatory variables 
are dependent variables from other equations in the 
system. Given the above, I can specify the following 
non-recursive system of simultaneous equations:

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

4This is explained in greater detail in Methodology section.

MTSijc=α0+α1ICDijc+α2RTSijc+α3ISOijc+α4ISEijc γXijc+ε1,ijc        (1)
RTSijc=β0+β1ICDijc+β2MTSijc+β3ISOijc+β4ISEijc+θWijc+ε2,ijc (2)
ISOijc=δ0+δ1ICDijc+δ2MTSijc+δ3RTSijc+δ4ISEijc+ Gijc+ε3,ijc (3)
ISEijc=ω0+ω1ICDijc+ω2MTSijc+ω3RTSijc+ω4ISOijc+πZijc+ε4,ijc   (4)
where: 

MTS = Math test scores
RTS = Reading test scores
ISO = Indicator of Sociability
ISE = Indicator of Self-esteem
ICD = Indicators of classroom democracy 
X, W, G, Z = vector of control (exogenous) variables
α,β,γ,δ,θ,π, ,ω are structural parameters to be estimated
ε1,…,ε4 are disturbance or error terms
i, j, c represent the ith pupil, the jth school,  
and cth country respectively

The explanatory endogenous variables are correlated 
with the error terms in the system of equations. All oth-
er explanatory variables are considered exogenous to 
the system and uncorrelated with the error terms. The 
exogenous variables are considered as instruments for 
the endogenous variables.



Njong, Classroom Democracy and Learning Outcomes  51 

Model Estimation
To estimate a system of simultaneous equations, 

instrumental variable methods for joint estimation are 
often proposed. To account for the nested structure of 
the data due to intra-school correlations that may arise 
because responses from children in the same school are 
likely to be similar while those from children in other 
schools are different, the solution in single equation 
model is to cluster the errors at the level of the school 
(Fielding, 2010; Wamalwa & Burns, 2018). To achieve 
this within a simultaneous equation framework, Baltagi 
& Chang (2000) and Hsiao (2003) proposed an error 
components-two stage least squares (ec2sls) estimator 
to account for the random error component of the sys-
tem of equations. The ec2sls estimator is implemented 
on an equation by equation estimation basis (Baltagi, 
2008)5 to avoid having inconsistent equation estimates 
for all the equations in the event where any of the equa-
tions is mis-specified.

Pair-wise Correlation Results
Table 1 shows the weighted6 pair-wise correlations 

between the classroom democratic indicators and 
learning outcomes as defined in this study. 

Table 1 shows some preliminary partial inter-re-
lationships among learning outcomes and classroom 
democratic indicators.  First observation on Table 1 is 
that there is a high positive correlation between the 
cognitive educational outputs. The correlation coef-
ficient between math skills and reading test scores is 
0.845 indicating that pupils who read well report high 
performance in mathematics as well. Second interesting 
observation is that correlation between non-cognitive 
outcomes is moderate and positive. For instance, the

correlation coefficient between self-esteem and socia-
bility is 0.59, indicating that that children who have 
high self-esteem are much likely to be sociable. Third 
observation of interest is that the correlation between 
the cognitive and the non-cognitive indicators are pos-
itive but much lower. For example, correlation coeffi-
cient between self-esteem and reading is 0.201, while it 
is 0.155 with math. The correlations among the indica-
tors of classroom democracy are very low.

Estimation Results
In this section the regression results of classroom 

democratic practices on learning outcomes are pre-
sented. For convenience, the results for cognitive skills 
are presented first. Table 2 (see next page) displays the 
estimation results for cognitive skills. 

The results on Table 2 show high positive and sig-
nificant correlations between both test scores at the 1% 
level. This result suggests that a child who does well in 
reading generally will also achieve well in math, and 
vice versa. The other two endogenous variables; self-es-
teem and sociability also show significant positive, but 
much lower correlations with math and reading skills. 

As concerns the indicators of classroom democracy, 
the correlations are positive and insignificant, except 
for child discipline. The results are interpreted in terms 
of standard deviations (SDs). The indicator of group 
work correlates positively with cognitive skills. This 
means that a one unit increase in the indicator of group 
work improves math and reading scores by .073 SDs 
and .065 SDs respectively, but the effects are insignif-
icant. The results indicate that when children’s rights 
increase by one unit, math and reading test scores rise 
insignificantly by .068 and .052 SDs respectively. The 
indicator of child discipline associates positively and 
significantly with cognitive skills (.052 SDs for math 
and .083 SDs for reading). The indicator of cultural 
identity indicates that when it increases by one unit, 
math scores improve by .061 SDs; while reading scores 
increase by .071 SDs. 

Of the control variables, the following are positive 
and significant at least at the 5% level: household size, 
teacher experience, teacher’s training, community in-
volvement in school management, classroom pedagogic 
resources, and school infrastructure. The models pre-
dict that higher test scores are associated with students 
who are male, though this finding is insignificant.

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

5Baltagi's (2008) ec2sls can be obtained by specifying the ec2sls 
option, after xtivreg in Stata.

6The PASEC survey provides several types of sampling weights, 
notably child, teacher, or school weights depending on the level of 
analysis. Since unit of analysis in this study is the child, I use child 
sampling weights.



Njong, Classroom Democracy and Learning Outcomes  52 

Teacher absenteeism has negative significant effects on 
academic achievements. 

The diagnostics statistics on Table 2 show that the vari-
ables specified in the models accounted for approximately 
27.4% of the total variance of the math scores, and 37.1% of 
reading test scores, respectively. The between variations

(R-sq=56.8% for math; 59.3% for reading) accounted 
more than the within variations (R-sq=22.1% for math; 
32.7% for reading) in explaining the overall variances 
of the models, respectively. The F-values are statis-
tically significant at the 1% level. This indicates that 
the regression models fit the data structure. In other 
words, the estimates of each model taken together are 
significant. Table 3 displays the estimation results for 
non-cognitive skills. 

The results on Table 3 show a moderately positive 
and significant association between self-esteem and 
sociability. Specifically, a unit increase in self-esteem 
improves sociability by .051 SDs. This suggests that a 
child’s feeling of self-esteem is affected by their inter-
est in other children and the reactions they receive in 
return. The other two endogenous variables; math and 
reading show much lower positive and significant cor-
relations with self-esteem and sociability skills. 

As regards the indicators of classroom democracy, 
the associations are positive and insignificant, except 
for child discipline. The indicator of group work is 
shown to associate positively and insignificantly with 
self-esteem (0.011 SDs) and sociability (.057 SDs). 
As concerns the indicator of children’s rights, Table 
3 shows that a one unit increase in children’s rights 
improves self-esteem and sociability insignificantly by 
.013 and .035 SDs respectively. The indicator of child 
discipline associates positively and significantly with 
non-cognitive skills (.022 SDs for self-esteem and .024 
SDs for sociability). Table 3 also indicates that when 
indicator of cultural identity increases by one unit, 
self-esteem improves by .026 SDs; while sociability 
ameliorates by .006 SDs, though these improvements 
are insignificant.

As concerns the other exogenous correlates, the 
following relate positively and significantly with the 
non-cognitive outcomes: household size, socio-eco-
nomic status, teacher experience-squared, community 
involvement in school management, and classroom 
pedagogic resources. The models predict school infra-
structure, teacher’s professional training, and experi-
ence associate positively though insignificantly with 
non-cognitive skill. As expected, teacher absenteeism 
has negative, though insignificant effect on non-cogni-
tive achievements. Precisely, a unit increase in teacher 
absenteeism causes self-esteem to change by -.004 SDs, 
while sociability changes by -.022 SDs.

The diagnostics tests on Table 3 show that the 
variables specified in the models accounted for approx-
imately 29.1% of the total variance for self-esteem, and

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



Njong, Classroom Democracy and Learning Outcomes  53

Discussion
The estimation results of this study show positive 

and significant inter-relationships between the learning 
outcomes of math, reading, self-esteem and sociability. 
In an attempt to explain these positive correlations, 
I draw from the theory of self-determination (Deci, 
Vallerand, Pelletier & Ryan, 1991). According to this 
theory intrinsically motivated individuals will engage in 
actions or behaviours because they enjoy doing them. 
In this case the individual has an internal motivation 
and feels fully engaged to undertake the action. This 
contrasts with externally motivated behaviours that 
individuals may initiate because they expect a reward 
or want to avoid a punishment. Thus, it is expected 
that pupils who are intrinsically motivated (have high 
self-esteem and sociability) exhibit higher conceptual 
understanding (Deci, Vallerand, Pelletier & Ryan, 1991). 
Such children are more confident in their capacities 
and therefore have greater interest for learning. These 
results corroborate the study by Noftle & Robins (2007) 
who found positive association between the person-
ality dimensions of students and their math GPA and 
verbal test scores. Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham 
(2003) have also reported positive significant correla-
tion between personality traits and student academic 
performance.

The estimation results of this study portray positive 
correlations between all the indicators of classroom 
democracy and learning outcomes in the context of 
Francophone African countries. However, only the 
association between child discipline and the learning 
outcomes is significant, the correlations of the other 
indicators of classroom democracy with educational 
achievements are insignificant. The positive associa-
tion between indicator of group work and educational 
outcomes means that when pupils are given the oppor-
tunity to work in small groups, they are more likely to 
have higher test scores. The positive association be-
tween indicator of group work and learning outcomes 
corroborates findings from some earlier studies such as 
Feinberg & Toress (2001) and Lipton & Oakes (2003) 
who found that when pupils participate actively in class 
and work as teams, their educational achievements are 
much higher. Unfortunately, our positive correlation is 
insignificant. In the survey about 63.2% of the teachers 
reported not organising pupils to work in groups. Fur-
thermore, about 67.3% of the teachers lacked the tech-
niques to do so (see Table S1 in the Appendix). Children 
in the African family setting share responsibilities in 
carrying out household chores such as cooking, taking

29.9% of sociability, respectively. The between 
variations (R-sq=47.3% for self-esteem; 47.5% for 
sociability) accounted more than the within variations 
(R-sq=26.7% for self-esteem; 27.0% for sociability) in 
explaining the overall variances of the models, respec-
tively. The F-statistics indicate that the regression mod-
els fit the data structure. 

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



Njong, Classroom Democracy and Learning Outcomes  54

care of babies, fetching firewood and water, and run-
ning errands for the elderly. Thus at an early age Afri-
can children are exposed to a ‘team-spirit way’ of living 
which unfortunately is disrupted in the classroom when 
the teacher fails to organise them to work in groups. 
Children will learn better in a classroom atmosphere, 
where children work in smaller groups, feel safe to 
express their feelings and open discussions are encour-
aged. Therefore, there is need in African countries to 
move away from the traditional mode of teaching and 
learning where children listen and teachers speak and 
dictate notes. 

The estimation results indicate positive but insignif-
icant correlations between indicator of children’s rights 
and learning outcomes.  As a follow up of the 1989 UN 
Convention on children’s right, a special session was 
held on 22 May 2002 on children during which coun-
tries committed to invest in children and adopt policies 
in the best interest of the child. Francophone African 
countries have several developmental challenges such 
as low incomes, inadequate access to portable water 
and sanitation, food insecurity and hunger, and wide-
spread disease that threaten children’s livelihoods 
(Watkins, 2016). Given these challenges it is no surprise 
that 57.5% of the pupils in the survey reported feeling 
hungry in class, more than 77- 83% reported having 
one health impairment or another and 73.6% did not 
attain nursery school. A further 36% of the children 
have never slept under a mosquito net (see Table S2). 
These are basic rights of the child. The inability of the 
children’s families to respect these rights may account 
for the insignificant nature of the results. It would be a 
miracle to expect children to achieve significantly when 
such basic rights are not respected. In tandem with 
African culture children in poorer families may be re-
quired to carry out petty commercial activities, or join 
their parents in farming so as to help the family survive. 
In western culture this may be considered child labour 
or child abuse, but in the African context this is not only 
a livelihood survival strategy but is often considered a 
normal activity in line with the household chores distri-
bution plan of the family. Thus, I may further argue that 
differences of this nature in the conceptualisation of 
children’s rights may also account for the insignificance 
of the estimation result.

The indicator of child discipline associates positive-
ly and significantly with learning outcomes. This result 
is in line with expectations and agrees with Bodovski, 
Nahum-Shani, & Walsh (2013), which showed that 
higher math scores were registered among US students

in a disciplinary school environment. Further, Ning, 
Van-Damme, Yang, & Gielen, (2013) also obtain a posi-
tive and significant correlation between child discipline 
and reading achievements. Furthermore, Pasternak 
(2013) and Zhao & Kuo (2015) have reported posi-
tive and significant relationships between children’s 
self-discipline and non-cognitive achievements. Some 
unique features of the African traditional society may 
account for the significance of the child discipline 
indicator in this study. The extended family system is 
a powerful tool in parenting and helps to develop a 
sense of social responsibility, cooperation, and respect 
for elders in the child’s early years (Nsamenang, 2008). 
Another feature in the African traditional society aspect 
is the telling of folktales.  This is another form of par-
enting which inculcates good morals and discipline 
in children (Degbey, 2012). Given these indigenous 
cultural values, the African child at an early age is more 
likely to be disciplined and by extension more likely to 
respect classroom rules and regulations.

The indicator of cultural identity indicates a pos-
itive but insignificant association with learning out-
comes. This finding slightly differs from results of 
earlier studies, like Okonji (1971); Bodrova & Leong 
(2007); Marfo & Biersteker (2011) which find that 
cultural values have positive and significant effects on 
children’s academic performance. A close look at the 
items in the 2014 PASEC survey from which the indi-
cator of cultural identity is constructed may provide 
some explanation for the insignificance of estimation 
result. Only about 18.9% of the teachers expressed 
themselves in the native language of the pupils where 
the school is located; 70.7% of the teachers did not 
allow pupils to speak, and sing in class in their native 
language and worst still only 8.6% of the pupils speak 
exclusively the mother tongue at home (see Table S4). 
These attitudes are not of a nature to facilitate learning 
and ameliorate academic achievements in the African 
context. Mucherah & Mbogori (2019) argue that Afri-
can children will learn better if the native language and 
French/English are used simultaneously as languages 
of instructions in school. This will facilitate the use of 
local examples to introduce the alphabet and counting 
of objects. Unfortunately, Francophone African scholars 
are still caught in the empty pride of using examples 
from Paris, France, during lessons in class. African 
children may not quickly figure out such examples in 
their local context. Some parents are also still entangled 
in the web of colonisation, and feel more westernised if 
their children speak only French/English. African

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



Njong, Classroom Democracy and Learning Outcomes  55

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

educationists have to encourage a shift away from these 
colonial mental enslavement and practices.

Conclusion and Policy Implications
Conclusion

This study attempts to shed light on the effects of 
classroom democratic practices on cognitive (math and 
reading) and non-cognitive (self-esteem and sociabili-
ty) learning outcomes using cross-sectional data from 
Francophone African countries. To capture the in-
ter-relationships inherent in the education production 
process, a simultaneous equation modeling approach is 
proposed. In order to estimate the model parameters, 
an error component- two stage least squares-instru-
mental variable method is used to properly account for 
the multilevel nature of the data structure. The results 
confirm the endogenous nature of the learning out-
come variables; specifically, they indicate positive and 
significant correlations among the learning outcomes. 
As regards classroom democratic practices, the results 
indicate positive and insignificant associations with 
the dimensions of group work, children’s rights, and 
cultural identity. Only the indicator of child discipline 
has positive and significant effect on learning outcome 
skills in this study. The exogenous or control variables 
included in the model have significant expected signs, 
notably family size, socio-economic status, teacher 
experience, community involvement, and classroom 
pedagogic resources.

Policy Implications
From the findings of this study, it stands out that 

teachers and parents are some of the most important 
stakeholders in the process of having children inter-
nalize democracy in the classroom. In this regard, the 
following policy recommendations are made:
Teachers should initiate and encourage children to 
work in small groups in the classroom. Teachers should 
develop the habit to invite pupils to always see them-
selves as capable and valuable. This action will bring 
out the positive traits and potentials that the children 
have and help to build their self-esteem which is a 
strong internal motivation to educational achievement. 
Education stakeholders should take measures to pre-
serve and promote indigenous cultural values because 
they tend to facilitate learning achievements. Education 
policy makers should devote more resources to revise 
the curriculum of professional colleges in order to train 
teachers to: i) develop skills of assigning and supervi-
sion of pupils in team work; ii) be culturally responsive 
in their teaching practices and accommodate pupils 
who speak their native language, or display their cul-
tural identity in class. Therefore, the teacher would be 
acting like a classroom democratic model. Education-
ists should develop parenting programmes to sensitise 
parents to speak their native languages with children at 
home, and how to better prepare children for schooling 
as regards nutrition, health, and other nurturing issues. 
The findings also showed that there are variations in 
achievements within schools and between schools. The 
implication of this result is that educationists must 
design multiple teaching strategies. A blind spot in the 
education system is an attempt to treat all children the 
same. This certainly is for reasons of equity and fair-
ness, but in reality, children are all different given that 
they come from diverse backgrounds.



Njong, Classroom Democracy and Learning Outcomes  56

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Njong, Classroom Democracy and Learning Outcomes  58

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

Table S1n

Table S2n

Table S3n



Njong, Classroom Democracy and Learning Outcomes 59

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

Table S4n

Table S5n

Table S6n



Nwagu, E. N. 
Global Journal of  Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2 
DOI  10.14434/gjte.v1i2.27424

Open Access

Published by the Global Insitutute of Transformative Education (http://www.gite.education)
© Nwagu, 2020. Open Access This journal is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 
NonCommercial NonDerivative 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which 
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give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license,

Transformative Learning Potentials of Trainee Health 
Workers in Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria

Evelyn N. Nwagu

Abstract
This study investigated transformative learning and the influence of learning experiences and demographic 

characteristics of the learners on transformative learning of trainee health workers in Nsukka, Enugu state, 
Nigeria. Descriptive survey design was used for the study. The instrument for data collection was a fixed-
choice and open-ended questionnaire. Frequencies and ANOVA were computed. Thematic content analyses for 
open-ended questions were done. Participants indicated a high degree of transformative learning. Programme 
type, gender, age and level of study had no significant influence on the transformative learning potentials of 
the students. The most frequently selected learning components were field trips and presentations. Students’ 
responses to the open-ended questions covered themes such as better understanding of health, illness and 
health care.  The study demonstrated the importance of discussion and debate in developing critical reflection 
among learners.

Keywords: Transformative learning, Critical reflection, Change, Health workers, Health, Illness, Health care.

Full listing of authors and contacts can be 
found at the end of this article.

Introduction
Worldwide, the transformation and scaling up of 

health workers’ education and training are important 
issues of concern. A large proportion of health workers 
in Nigeria and other Sub-Saharan African countries are 
trained in post-secondary health institutions and they 
form the major health workforce in health facilities in 
many communities in Nigeria. While training institu-
tions for health workers in developed nations of the 
world are undergoing reforms to increase the compe-
tencies of health workers trained in such institutions 
(Stubbs, 2015; World Bank, 2018), there is a scarcity of 
information and research about health workers training 
in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly Nigeria. Albeit, there 
is a need for all health professionals and health workers 
in all countries to be educated to mobilise knowledge, 
engage in critical reasoning, and practice ethical con-
duct so that they are competent to participate in patient 
and population-centred health systems as members of 

locally responsive and globally connected teams (Frenk, 
Chen, Bhutta, Cohen, Crisp, Evans, …Zurayk, 2010). The 
training of health workers should, therefore, give rise 
to personal and social transformation which is one of 
the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural 
Organization’s (UNESCO) five pillars of learning for sus-
tainable development: Learning to transform oneself 
and society (UNESCO, 2010). 

Literature Review
Transformation is an internal fundamental change 

in one’s beliefs for action (Palinkas, 2013). It is quite 
different from mere change in behavior. While change 
uses external influences to modify actions, transfor-
mation modifies beliefs so actions become natural and 
thereby achieve the desired result. Change amends the 
past while transformation creates the future. Change 
and transformation could result from the learners’ 
experiences.

Experiential learning has been described as the 
type of education whereby knowledge and meaning are 
contextualized in actual experiences (Perry, 2011).



61

health workers. Communicative learning is born out 
of a need to understand others and make it easier for 
interlocutors to understand each other by navigating 
language, values, beliefs, and feelings (Cranton& Roy, 
2003; Mezirow, 1997). The learners, their teachers 
and the clients within such institutions have diverse 
values, beliefs, feelings and even languages. Interacting 
with each other in these institutions could bring about 
reflective reasoning that can trigger transformative 
learning.

Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) provides direc-
tion as to how we can develop the type of action-orient-
ed experience that is likely to induce transformation. 
Experiential Learning involves concrete experience, re-
flective observation, abstract conceptualization, and ac-
tive experimentation. Concrete experience refers to an 
actual interaction a learner will have with the environ-
ment or a particular learning event. Reflective obser-
vation provides learners the opportunity to reflect on 
their experiences from different perspectives. It propels 
the learners into the abstract conceptualization stage, 
where the learners integrate their reflections from their 
experiences into new concepts about their learning 
experience and make deductions about their experienc-
es. The final stage is active experimentation where the 
learner takes their newly learned concepts and deduc-
tions from the abstract conceptualization phase and ap-
plies them in new learning settings. Through touching 
all of these bases, knowledge is constructed and learn-
ing achieved (Kolb & Kolb, 2005). Experiential learning 
associated with health worker training programmes 
can make a considerable impact on a student’s ability 
to understand globally complex problems (Kiely, 2004). 
Montrose (2002) explains that there is little under-
standing among providers and administrators of what 
exactly constitutes experiential learning and how it can 
be applied to improve programme structure.

Transformative learning for health workers in com-
munities in Low- and Middle- Income Countries (LMIC) 
has the potential of bridging the gap in the formal 
health services and communities (Black et al.; WHO, 
2016). The disparity in the health of individuals living 
in LMIC particularly rural communities raises questions 
as to beliefs and practices relating to health, illness and 
the quality of health care in such communities. Health 
workers training programmes have been accused of 
not producing competent professionals who are able to 
adequately positively impact the health of the people 
for whom they care. This lack of competence is largely a 
result of fragmented, outdated, and static curricula 

Nwagu, Learning Potentials of Trainee Health Workers

Meeting new and challenging experiences could lead 
to the uncomfortable situation described by Mezirow 
(1991) and could lead to a learning outcome. Mezirow 
stated that only through reflection, active learning, and 
placing ones selves in uncomfortable situations are 
individuals able to develop their understanding of the 
world and of themselves, allowing a potential change to 
their perspectives and frames of reference. Strange & 
Gibson (2017) noted that by applying the basis of 
experiential learning to the potential outcomes of 
transformative learning, it may be possible to further 
direct educational programming for the better. 
Experiential and transformative learning are associated 
with the desired goals of health workers training 
programmes. It is apt to use them both as frameworks 
to assess the transformative learning potentials of 
trainee health workers. Experiential learning can, thus, 
provide guidance in designing health worker training 
programmes such that they will include activities that 
are “more hands on.” 

Transformative learning theory (TLT) focuses 
on the processes involved in changing an individu-al’s 
frames of reference (Stange & Gibson, 2017). The 
transformative learning theory was propounded by 
Jack Mezirow in 1978. Mezirow asserted that adults 
make meaning of their experiences and that the specif-
ic social structures within which the experience takes 
place enable adult learners to read meaning into their 
experiences. Where such meanings are found to be 
dys-functional they change their meaning of them 
(Cranton, 2006; Mezirow, 1991; Taylor, 2007). The 
process of evaluating meaning structures starts with 
instrumental learning, passes through communicative 
learning and then transformative learning (Mezirow, 
1998, 2003). These three domains though distinct are 
interrelat-ed (Mezirow, 1981) and they occur through 
critical reflection and rational discourse (Moyer & 
Sinclair, 2016). Instrumental learning occurs when the 
learner manipulates and controls the environment, 
predicts observable physical and social events, and 
takes appro-priate actions (Cranton & Roy, 2003). The 
environment in training institution for health workers 
is a source of instrumental learning. Students admitted 
into such institutions are capable of manipulating the 
environment to an extent that can bring about 
transformative learning. Students can search out 
information from the Internet, interact with other 
students, get themselves involve in discussions and 
debates and also interact with clients during the 
training programme. Hence this study explored 
whether or not transformative learning occur in health 
workers in institutions of training for 

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



Nwagu, Learning Potentials of Trainee Health Workers 62

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

(Frenk et al, 2010). There is a need for a serious shift 
in the mindsets of health workers for meaningful and 
sustainable change to occur (Agyepong et al., 2017). 

This calls for a re-examination of the health care 
workers’ educational programme, to ensure that the 
curricula of health workers are able to provide the 
needed transformation that will help health workers 
assume and develop their personal, professional, and 
social roles. Results from such studies are essential in 
planning effective training methodologies and materials 
to improve the efficacy of knowledge-sharing of health 
personnel (Mbuya, Menon, Habicht, Pelto, & Ruel, 2013; 
McCalman, Jongen, & Bainbridge, 2017). 

Health workers in training are adults and upon 
graduation, their health care job is often with adults. 
Adult learning involves critical thinking and reflection 
on what is already known in order to change and adopt 
a new way of doing things (Gibby, 2013). Sharing of 
knowledge that will produce positive result requires 
that health workers should believe and be convinced of 
the right values and practices. There is a need for health 
workers to drop unhealthy values and socio-cultural 
norms that do not allow them to actively participate in 
effective and health-promoting practices. Hence there 
is also a need for the training programme of health 
workers to give them adequate opportunity to reflect 
on their previous knowledge, values and practices with 
a view of transforming them positively. Such trans-
formative learning according to Renigere (2014) will 
stimulate trainee health workers to learn to think in-
dependently in order to dispose of the knowledge that 
has at times been acquired as a result of life experience 
without ever thinking or asking questions.

This study, therefore, examined how the students’ 
learning experiences have influenced their transfor-
mative learning. Transformative learning is a possible 
outcome of instrumental and communicative learning 
when modification of premises, assumptions, and deep 
meaning structures result in a transformation of action 
and behaviour (Cranton, 2006).

Therefore, presenting appropriate learning experi-
ences to trainee health workers that will enable them 
to reflect on any value and meaning they may have had 
prior to the training may bring about transformative 
learning in health workers. Transformative learning 
encompasses a life-enhancing change (Mezirow, 2003). 
When learners experience transformative learning, 
they often become more inclusive, distinguishing, open, 
reflective and emotionally able to change, ultimately 
showing higher connectedness to the global environ-

ment (Mezirow, 2003). 
Educators engaged in teaching health workers 

should be able to identify ways of promoting students’ 
ability to find purpose and meaning from their ex-
periences through a variety of learning components 
(Bidabadi, Isfahani, Rouhollahi, & Khalili, 2016). If 
health workers should develop their personal, profes-
sional and social roles, they need to develop their rea-
soning ability. Such reasoning hopefully will give them 
the opportunity to better understand the lives of other 
people. For instance, being able to identify the emotion-
al states of their clients and putting themselves in oth-
er’s shoes. These will help them to understand others’ 
beliefs, feelings, experiences and intentions. Thus, they 
become able to think about things from others points of 
view (Lieberman, 2007). 

Nigeria, like many other countries in Sub-Saharan 
Africa, faces infectious diseases, malnutrition, child 
and maternal mortality, emerging challenges from an 
increasing prevalence of chronic conditions, mental 
health disorders, injuries, and health problems relat-
ed to climate change and environmental degradation 
(Agyepong, et al., 2017). Life expectancy and public 
health indicators remain low in Nigeria compared to 
that of other middle-income countries in other parts 
of the world. There is need to find a viable and lasting 
solution to bridge this gap in health status between 
individuals of diverse socio-economic statuses in many 
communities in Nigeria. 

Many studies on health care services have looked 
at the type of services provided by health workers in 
low-resource communities and only a few have looked 
at the preparation of health workers for such service 
(O’Rourke, Howard-Grabman, & Seoane, 1998; Laugh-
lin, 2004; Matare, et al., 2015; Lamstein, et al, 2014). 
If efforts are made in the right directions, Nigeria has 
the potential to improve the health status of its popula-
tion if the nation will make effective use of its available 
human resources (Adeloye et al., 2017). There is a need 
for health workers to have a change of approach in the 
way they view certain things and the way they act.

Health workers in most rural health facilities and 
in urban slums in Nigeria comprise: Community Health 
Extension Workers (CHEW), Junior Community Health 
Extension Workers (JCHEW), Nurses, Midwives and Lab 
Technologists. The World Health Organization (WHO) 
(2016) advocated that training of health workers 
should adopt an approach that is people-centred and 
inspired by progress and adapted to the country’s spe-
cific needs. The basic training of these cadres of health



Nwagu, Learning Potentials of Trainee Health Workers 63

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

workers is largely done at post-secondary training 
institutions, many of which are hospital based. The 
contributions of Community Health Workers (CHWs) 
are globally recognized as capable of closing the gap 
between formal health services and communities 
(Black et al., 2017; WHO, 2016). Community Health 
Workers are among the WHO Global Strategy for Hu-
man Resources (Maher & Cometto, 2016) and they are 
considered an integral component to reach impact and 
equity goals (Lewin et al., 2010). Nurses and midwives 
have been identified to be actively involved in both 
hospital and community health practices (Adib-Hajba-
ghery, 2013). The basic laboratory services provided 
by laboratory technicians are very crucial for improv-
ing the potential of the Primary Health Centres (PHC) 
as centres providing primary health care. Inadequate 
training of lab technicians has been blamed for the poor 
laboratory service in PHC (George, 2011). The question 
then arises; are the training programmes in the various 
institutions of training of these cadres of health care 
workers capable of producing transformative learning 
among students trained in these training institutions?

Purpose of the Study
The purpose of the study was to investigate the 

transformative learning potentials of different cadres 
of trainee health personnel in Nsukka, Enugu State, 
Nigeria. Specifically, this study examined the influence 
of experiential learning and the influence demographic 
characteristics of participants on transformative learn-
ing outcomes.

Research Questions
1. Does transformative learning occur in trainee health 

workers in institutions of training of health workers?
2. How have learning experiences influenced transfor-

mative learning among students?
3. How do the demographic characteristics of age, gen-

der, programme type and level of study influence the 
transformative learning of trainee health workers?

Methods
Design 

The descriptive survey design was used to measure 
the degree of transformative learning by trainee health 
workers. The questionnaire was used to elicit demo-
graphic information from the students, their transfor-
mative learning as well as the experiential components 
of their programmes. The primary analysis tools were 
frequencies, means, standard deviation, percentages, 

ANOVA, and thematic content analyses of open-ended 
questions. 

Data Collection 
Ethical approval for the study was granted by Bish-

op Shanahan Hospital ethical review board. Data were 
collected from students in four training institutions 
for health workers in the area of study. The researcher 
made contact with the principal of each school to ob-
tain permission for the study. Informed consents were 
obtained from the participants. The questionnaire was 
distributed and collected on the spot to avoid omission. 

Participants 
The study population consisted of all trainee health 

workers in health training institutions in Nsukka. The 
total size of the population was 647 students (Students’ 
class registers for 2017 academic session). A sample of 
245 students was drawn from the five health workers’ 
training institutions in Nsukka using the stratified ran-
dom sampling technique. The stratification was done 
based on gender, age, level of education and course of 
study. A random sample proportionate to a stratum’s 
size was taken from each stratum. The demographic 
characteristics of the respondents are shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Demographic characteristics of respondents
Variables Frequency Valid %

Gender
Male 18 7.3
Female 227 92.7
Total 245 100

Level of education
Year 1 102 41.6
Year 2 78 31.8
Year 3 65 26.5
Total 245 100

Age in years
Less than 20 64 26.3
21-30 164 67.5
31-40 15 6.2
Total 243 100

Course of study
Nursing 19 7.8
Midwifery 30 12.2
JCHEW 52 21.2
CHEW 72 29.4
Lab Technology 72 29.4
Total 245 100



64Nwagu, Learning Potentials of Trainee Health Workers

Instrument 
The instrument used in this study consisted of a 

fixed-choice and open-ended response format ques-
tionnaire. The questionnaire contained three sections. 
Section one was used to collect the respondents’ de-
mographic information. Section two consist of twelve 
items on transformative learning adapted from Strange 
and Gibson (2017) test of transformative learning as 
shown in Table 2. In order to assess whether trans-
formative learning has occurred, Brock (2010) noted 
that it is important to question the learners about 
any change which they may have experienced in their 
beliefs or values. The response options for items in this 
section were dichotomous (yes = 1 or no = 0). Section 
three measured program information and experien-tial 
learning (see Table 3). The open-ended questions 
addressed the students’ transformative learning experi-
ences and their experiential learning. The open-ended 
questions consist of the following questions: 1) During 
your study in this school did you experience a situation 
that changed your beliefs or values about patient care? 
Please explain. 2) Do you think your study in this insti-
tution changed your expectations of health care in life? 
Please explain. 3) What was the most important thing 
you learned about health, illness and health care? 4) 
What did you learn about yourself? Please explain. 5) In 
what ways do you feel the program impacted your life? 
Please explain. 6) How long is your programme? 6) Do 
you feel that the length of your program is adequate to 
meet your goals? Please explain. 7) Did the components 
in your program impact your learning? How? 8) Are 
there any program components that were excluded that 
you feel would have been beneficial? 

The reliability of the instrument was established by 
pre-testing the instrument on 20 trainee health work-
ers in Enugu east senatorial zone who share the same 
characteristics with the population but are not part of 
the study. Section two of the instrument yielded a rela-
tively high Cronbach’s alpha of α = .80. Two instructors 
from each school served as research assistants. Copies 
of the questionnaire were distributed to trainee health 
workers in the selected health training schools and the 
completed copies of the questionnaire were collected 
on the spot. 

Data Analysis
Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS (Statistical 

Package for the Social Sciences Version 21.0). Frequen-
cies and percentages were generated for all the vari-
ables. Homogeneity of variance was verified using the

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

Levene’s test of homogeneity of variance. The signifi-
cance of the Levene’s test suggested equal variance for 
the four variables; gender, level of education, age, and 
course of study (See Table 4). ANOVA was therefore 
used to analyze differences in transformative learning 
experiences on all the four variables. Items not re-
sponded to by some respondents were treated as miss-
ing data and were excluded from the analysis. Thus, 
some analyses were conducted with smaller sample 
sizes

Open-ended questions. 
The open-ended responses were analyzed to pro-

vide an in-depth evaluation of the students’ experienc-
es and transformative learning while in their training 
programme. Thematic analyses of the responses were 
done. The responses were transferred into a word file 
and printed out. The printout responses were reviewed 
and coded to identify initial categories. The open-ended 
questions were used as a framework for categorizing 
codes related to each research question. The initial set 
of codes were expanded and refined to better reflect 
the common elements that existed across the full data 
set. Patton (2002) asserted that this iterative style of 
analysis is a recognized characteristic of the qualitative 
research method. Patterns were identified inductively 
by analyzing codes associated with research questions. 
Further coding refinement occurred when all the codes 
associated with a particular open-ended question were 
examined for convergence. The qualitative content 
analysis was then used to identify themes across the 
codes. Examination of the response patterns across the 
data sets ultimately led to the emergence and 
identi-fication of themes. The data for transformative 
learning (research question one) and experiential 
learning (research question two) were organized as 
separate data sets. Response patterns were used to 
complement qualitative data on each research 
question.

Results
The responses of the students to the transformative 

learning questions are contained in Table 2. “I had an 
experience that caused me to question my ideas about 
health and illness behavior and health care received 
the highest positive responses,” 94.7% participants 
responded yes. Students’ responses to the open-ended 
questions covered the following themes; better under-
standing of health, illness and health care; values and 
beliefs about patients’ health care and patient’s right; 
and expectations of healthcare roles. Changes occur 



Nwagu, Learning Potentials of Trainee Health Workers 65

with respect to understanding health, illness and health 
care. Some students (18 %) expressed that they now 
realize that health and illness is a continuum and as 
such health status is not static. A better understanding 
of disease causation and treatment were also expressed 
by 47 % of the students. Thirty nine students (16 %) 
simply answered ‘yes’ to the question, “During your 
study in this school did you experience a situation that 
changed your beliefs or values about patient care?” 
but did not provide any explanation while seven stu-
dents (3 %) of the students simply answered ‘no’ to the 
question without any explanation. Myths about disease 
causation and treatment were dropped in 18 % of the 
students, for instance a second-year JCHEW student 
stated “before I came into the school, I use to think that 
stroke can only be caused by evil people not knowing 
that sickness like high blood pressure can cause it.” 
Thirty-six percent of the students reported that 
changes occurred in their values and beliefs about 
patients’ health care and patient’s rights. For instance, 

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

one student midwife said “I realized that drugs weren’t 
all that the patients needed most times but tender loving 
care.” With respect to patients’ rights, a third-year 
nursing student has this to say “Initially I felt patients 
have no choice than to abide by the nurses’ opinion 
always but I have come to know that patients also have 
rights too.” Again, a CHEW student stated “…I was 
thinking that a patient that is under your care should 
follow all your commands but it is not so.” Changes in 
expectation of healthcare roles were reported by 
twelve percent of the students. One student midwife 
said “I think I expected so much from providers (health 
providers) but now I realize that they are just humans 
capable of doing what they can at a time.” 

The second research question asks how learning 
experiences influenced transformative learning among 
students. Table 3 provides the data on the learning 
components that the students experienced in their 
programmes.

Table 2. Students’ Responses to Transformative Learning Questions 
Yes No 

f % f %
While in this training, I have had an experience that 209 86.7 32 13.3 
caused me to question the way I normally act. 
I had an experience that caused me to question my  232 94.7 13 5.3 
ideas about health and illness behavior and health care.
As I questioned my ideas, I realized I still agreed with 108 44.4 135 55.6 
my previous beliefs or role expectations.
As I questioned my ideas, I realized I no longer 130 53.7 112 46.3 
agreed with my beliefs or role expectations.
I realized that other students also questioned 204 84.0 39 16.0 
their beliefs.
I thought about acting in a different way from my 185 75.4 54 22.6 
usual beliefs and roles.
I felt uncomfortable with traditional social 175 72.0 68 28.0 
expectations.
I tried out new roles so that I would become more 217 88.9 27 11.1 
comfortable or confident in them.
I tried to figure out a way to adopt these new 217 88.6 28 11.4 
ways of acting.
I gathered the information I needed to adopt these 216 88.5 28 11.5 
new ways of acting.
I began to think about reactions and feedback 205 84.4 38 15.6 
from my new behavior.
I took action and adopted these new ways of acting. 200 82.4 43 17.6



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Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

Table 3. Learning components experienced by students
S/N Learning component f % 
a. Essays 164 66.9
b. Formal quizzes 112 45.7
c. Field quizzes 65 26.5
d. Mutiple choice 126 51.4
e. Short answer exams 72 29.4
f. Essay exams 163 66.5
g. Open-book exams 29 11.8
h. Debates 69 28.2
i. Group projects 157 64.1
j. Student led discussions 202 82.4
k. Field lectures 105 42.9
l. Field trips 58 23.7
m. Presentations 200 81.6
n. Others (specify) 14 5

The students were asked to tick from a list of learn-
ing components the ones they experienced during their 
training programme. The component that received the 
highest identification was the student-led class discus-
sion (82.4%), followed by the presentation (81.6%) 
and experiments (71%). Only fewer than half of the 
students identified the open book exams (11.8%), field 
trips (23.7%), short answer tests (29.4%), debates 
(28.2%), field lectures (42.9%) and formal quizzes 
(45.7%) as learning components in their programme. 
Fourteen students specified other components such 
as demonstrations, and ward/clinical postings. The 
students were also asked to comment on how the com-
ponents available to their programmes impacted their 
learning. Their responses to this question fall under the 
following themes: boldness in communication, increase 
in understanding, acquisition of practical skills. About 
half of the students (48%) commented that student-led 
discussions, presentations and practical experiences in 
the health centres impacted them the most. One final 
year nursing student stated “presentations have made 
me bold and confident to speak out.” A first-year Com-
munity Health Extension Worker has this to say “group 
discussion improve student ability … and make you re-
member all that the lecturer has taught.” A second-year 
Junior Community Health Extension Worker believed 
field trip impacted her the most. She said “I learnt how 
to conduct delivery and give injections in my field trip.” 
A second-year male student lab technician said “they 
(presentations and student-led discussions) enabled me 
to conquer stage fright.” One midwifery student had a 
contrary view, she said “I don’t really like group things, - 
discussions and presentations, but I discover that

group discussions help to cover more (referring to class 
work).”

In order to expand on the experiential aspects, 
students were also asked, “Are there any program com-
ponents that were excluded that you feel would have 
been beneficial?” Ten students made suggestions that 
include: use of social media for students’ interaction 
on the topics taught, inclusion of debates to sharpen 
understanding, and on-the-job supervisions to enhance 
skill acquisition. 

There were no significant influence of gender, level 
of study, age and course of study on transformative 
learning at .05 level of significance (Table 4). 

Discussion
The result of this study showed that transforma-

tive learning does occur in health professionals’ study 
programme (research question one). Items one (While 
in this training, I have had an experience that caused 
me to question the way I normally act. 86.7%) and 
two (I had an experience that caused me to question 
my ideas about health and illness behavior and health 
care. 94.7%) were experienced by majority of trainee 
health workers. Hence their training programmes were 
able to engender critical reflections in the students 
that made them aware of their wrong assumptions 
and beliefs about health and illness thereby producing 
what Mezirow (1991) defined as perspective trans-
formation. Mezirow (1991) identified 10 phases of 
perspective transformation beginning with a “disori-
enting dilemma” and culminating in “a reintegration 
into one’s life on the basis of conditions directed by 
one’s new perspective”. Eighty-two point four percent 
of the students in this study actually took actions and 
adopted new ways of acting. Students’ responses to 
open-ended questions showed that much of the chang-
es occurred in their understanding of the causation and 
treatment of diseases. Students acquired new knowl-
edge which made them drop myths and fallacies about 
disease causation and treatment. Belief systems were 
also transformed. Many of the students also expressed 
a change in their expectation of healthcare roles. This 
finding is consistent with results of similar studies 
among health workers that have shown different de-
grees of transformation among health workers with ap-
propriate learning/teaching methods (Altobelli, 2017; 
Renigere, 2014). It is however important to note that 
true transformation takes place only when learners are 
able to actively take steps that acknowledge their new 
belief (Mezirow, 1997). The study period of three years



Nwagu, Learning Potentials of Trainee Health Workers 67

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

may therefore not be enough for transformation to take 
place. 

Worthy of note is the fact that some students have 
no evidence of having actually experienced a transfor-
mation of their worldview and habits. Although the 
idea of transformation as a major, fundamental change, 
as opposed to minor, marginal, or incremental change, 
is widely agreed upon in both research and policy 
(Kapoor 2007; O’Brien, 2012), there is little consensus 
regarding the features that make change in human–en-
vironment systems “transformational,” and different 
from “non-transformational” shifts. In fact, as some 
have noted (Berkhout 2013; ISSC and UNESCO, 2013; 
Mustelin & Handmer 2013), the wider conceptual bases 
of transformation, notions of its forms, and processes 
have been the subject of debate. A logical question for 
trainee health workers educators therefore should 
be, “What can I do to bring a student into the realm of 
transformation?” Redefining the experience can make 
the educators to start thinking of starting the process of 
change and ramping it up to transformation.

The greater the difference between what came before 
and what took its place, the closer the individual move 
toward transformation (Burrus, 2017).

Moving from change to transformation may come 
from a simple question such as: “How can I offer my 
students the ability to do what they would want to do if 
only they knew it was possible?” In other words, rather 
than merely changing or even improving something, 
what utterly new service would health workers provide 
if they were aware of it and what it could do for their 
clients and the health system? Rather than looking to 
change something Burrus (2017), advocated that indi-
viduals should aim for transformation from the onset. 

It is, however, worrisome that health care workers’ 
training programmes are capable of producing trans-
formation yet the quality of care rendered by practicing 
health care workers in Nigeria has been described by 
many as very deplorable (Ephraim-Emmanuel, Adigwe, 
Oyeghe, &Ogaji 2018). The reason for this may be found 
in the assertion made by Mosadeghrad (2014) that fac-
tors such as the patient cooperation; leadership and

Table 4. The influence of the demographic characteristics of gender, level of study, age and course of study on 
transformative learning (ANOVA)
 Group statistics Levene’s Test ANOVA
Variables N Mean SD P F P
Gender    .309  
Male  18 9.67 1.46   
Female  227 9.40 1.90   
Variance between groups    .337 .562   

Level of study    .341  
First year 103 9.45 1.90   
Second year 78 9.38 2.05   
Third year 65 9.42 1.60   
Variance between groups    .028 .972

Age in years    .907  
Less than 20  64 9.60 2.13   
21 - 30  164 9.38 1.75   
31 and above 15 9.33 1.88   
40 and above 2 8.50 .71   
Variance between groups    .330 .719

Course of study    .301  
Nursing 19 9.21 1.69   
Midwifery 30 9.73 1.39   
JCHEW 52 9.57 2.42   
CHEW 72 9.15 1.79   
Lab Technology 72 9.50 1.70   
Variance Between groups    .762 .551



Nwagu, Learning Potentials of Trainee Health Workers 68

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

management styles in health facilities; collaboration; 
available referral system; job satisfaction of the health 
care providers are also necessary for improved quality 
of health care. Addressing the training programmes 
of health workers alone may not produce the needed 
result, but rather engaging in a comprehensive re-
structuring of health system as a whole to improve the 
health care delivery. Practices such as, discriminatory 
behaviour and attitudes toward patients with certain 
forms of diseases by health workers (Reis et al., 2005) 
should stop.

The findings of this study have shown that trainee 
health workers learning experiences had influenced 
transformative learning in different ways (research 
question two). Learning experiences such as stu-
dent-led discussions, presentations and practical 
experiences influenced students the most leading to 
boldness in presenting their owns view and increases 
in understanding and acquisition of skills. White and 
Nitkin (2014) observed that for transformative learn-
ing to occur, learners need to be actively engaged with 
experiential learning. Therefore, using appropriate 
learning components such as student-led discussions 
and presentations in teaching such contents as food 
habits, cultural beliefs and practices, stigmatization and 
discrimination and other local conditions that have neg-
atively influenced the health of individuals and commu-
nities in Nigeria (Ojua, Ishor, &Ndom, 2013; Olalekan, 
Akintunde, & Olatunji, 2014) in teaching trainee health 
workers is capable of resulting in transformative learn-
ing. The trainee health workers will themselves become 
positively transform and will also be able to guide oth-
ers to become equally transformed. 

There were no significant influences of gender, level 
of study, age and course of study on transformative 
learning. While some previous studies found significant 
association between some demographic characteristics 
and transformative learning, some did not find such 
associations. For instance, Kumi-Yeboah (2014) in a 
similar study found that there were no significant asso-
ciation between gender, age group and programme of 
study and transformative learning experiences. Strange 
and Gibson (2017) also found that there was no statis-
tical difference among program type and the summated 
transformative learning score. Brock, Florescu, and Ter-
an (2012) however found only age and ethnicity to be 
the demographic variables to have significant relation-
ship with transformative learning among class stand-
ing, semesters completed, age, prior education, gender, 
and ethnicity. Future studies re-examining the 

influence of age, gender, programme type and level 
of study on transformative learning of trainee health 
workers is therefore necessary. The present study 
however shows that all health workers irrespective of 
profession, gender, age or level of study are capable of 
transformative learning. 

In order to expand on the experiential aspects the 
researcher also asked “Are there any program compo-
nents that were excluded that you feel would have been 
beneficial?” Ten students made suggestions including: 
use of social media for students’ interaction on the 
topics taught, inclusion of debates to sharpen under-
standing, and on-the-job supervision to enhance skill 
acquisition. 

The students’ request for the use of social media 
as an instructional component to enable interaction 
on the topics to which they were exposed in the pro-
gramme is not surprising. Extending the instructional 
component to information technology is an innovation 
that has great promise of success even in the training 
programme of health workers. Agyepong, et al. (2017) 
noted that information and communications technolo-
gies and social media have been and will continue to be 
important enablers of Africa’s transformation. Frenk et 
al. (2010) also noted that good professional education 
programmes mobilise all learning channels to their 
full potential noting that in many professional schools, 
students with handheld information technology devices 
are able to double-check in real time the accuracy of a 
lecturer’s presentation. 

Conclusion
This study has shown that transformative learning 

does occur in trainee health workers in institutions 
of training. The trainee health workers learning ex-
periences have also been shown to influence their 
transformative learning in diverse ways. Age, gender, 
programme type and level of study of trainee health 
workers had no significant influence on their transfor-
mative learning. Therefore, needed reforms in health 
workers services can be achieved through appropriate 
learning experiences tailored to enhance critical re-
flection and necessary adjustment in the needed areas 
of their services. Discussions and debates on issues per-
taining to health should be encouraged in the training 
programme of health workers. Professional educators 
are key players since they are the ones that will initiate 
and guide the students through the desired change. The 
training and education of health workers should focus 
less on memorising and transmitting facts and more on



Nwagu, Learning Potentials of Trainee Health Workers 69

the promotion of the reasoning and communication 
skills that will enable the health worker to be an 
effective partner, facilitator, adviser, and advocate 
(Frenk et al., 2010). However, future studies re-
examining the influence of age, gender, programme 
type and level of study on transformative learning 
of trainee health workers is suggested. Also, other 
factors such as patient cooperation; leadership and 
management styles in health facilities; collaboration; 
available referral system; job satisfaction of the health 
care providers should be investigated since these have 
be identified as capable of impacting the quality of 
health care (Mosadeghrad, 2014).

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Abstract
This study examined the impact of rural and urban schools on pupils’ competencies in the English language 

and Mathematics tests. The sample comprised 16,481 Primary 3 and 14,495 Primary 6 pupils from 448 and 
426 schools respectively. The schools were selected using the stratified random sampling technique and the 
data analysed using a multilevel modelling technique. The study found statistically significant differences in 
achievement between rural and urban school pupils at both the national and regional levels. Compared with 
urban school children, rural school children on average scored 2 and 4 marks less in primary 3 and 6 English 
language tests respectively. Similarly, rural school children on average earned 1 mark less in primary 3 and 6 
mathematics tests. Rural school children in the Eastern Region were the most disadvantaged by scoring 6 and 
8 marks less in the primary 3 and 6 English language tests respectively when compared with their urban peers. 
The only exception was the Northern Region where the average achievements of rural school children were 
higher than their urban peers. The findings suggest that it significantly mattered which part of the country a 
child attends school. This runs counter to the nation’s educational policies and the realisation of the United 
Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 4. Hence, to provide quality and inclusive education for all pupils, 
resources for schools and communities should be equitably distributed and effectively utilised.
Keywords: School locality, Socioeconomic, Competency, Regions    

Nyatsikor, M. W,, Abroampa, W. K. & Esia-Donkoh, K.  
Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2  
DOI 10.14434/gjte.v2i1.31174

Open Access

Published by the Global Insitutute of Transformative Education (http://www.gite.education)
© Nyatsikor, M. K.. Abroampa, W. K., & Esia-Donkoh, K. 2020. Open Access This journal is distributed under the terms of the 
Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial NonDerivative 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction without revision in any non-commercial medium, 
provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license,

The Impact of School Locale on Pupils’ Competencies in Selected Subjects: 
Does It Matter More for Specific Regions in Ghana?

Maxwell Kwesi Nyatsikor,1 Winston Kwame Abroampa,2 & Kweku Esia-Donkoh3

Full listing of authors and contacts can be 
found at the end of this article.

Introduction
Numerous studies on school and pupils’ achieve-

ment across different contexts have found significant 
differences between schools serving the more-advan-
taged urban and the less-advantaged rural localities 
(Çiftçi & Cin, 2018; Bashir, Lockheed, Ninan & Tan, 
2018; Ministry of Education [MOE], 2018; United 
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisa-
tion [UNESCO], 2018). Between countries, evidence 
from international examinations such as Trends in 
International Mathematics and Science Study [TIMSS] 
and Programme for International Student Assessment 
[PISA] show significant differences in the achievement 
of children from low- to middle-income countries and 
high-income countries (Mullis, Martin & Loveless, 2016; 
Martin, Mullis, Foy & Hooper, 2016; Meyer & Benavot, 
2013). These achievement gaps are linked to the exist-
ing disparities in the social, economic, and educational 
resources in the nations and schools (Bashir, et al.,

2018; Martin et al., 2016; Meyer & Benavot, 2013; MOE, 
2016b).  Many studies suggest that the effects of the 
rural-urban dichotomy on academic achievement are 
evident from the onset of formal schooling (MOE, 2018; 
UNESCO, 2018; World Development Report, 2018; 
Hanson et al., 2011). The sustained interest in the 
achievement outcomes at the primary level of educa-
tion is reinforced by the fact that the quality of learning 
at this stage is crucial to later learning proficiencies and 
life’s opportunities (Fredriksen & Kagia, 2013; UNESCO, 
2018; Bashir et al., 2018; United Nations [UN], 2015). 
In the Ghanaian context, evidence from the assess-
ment of early and primary grade-levels in national 
assessments shows statistically significant differences 
in children from rural and urban schools (MOE, 2014; 
MOE, 2016a). Consistently, preschool and primary-level 
children from rural schools underachieve in nation-
al examinations when compared with children from 
urban schools (MOE, 2016b; MOE, 2018). This study 
examines the unique impact of the location of schools 
in rural and urban areas on the achievement levels of 
Ghanaian primary school children in the national



Nyatsikor, Abroampa & Esia-Donkoh, Impact of School Locale on Competencies  73 

education assessment tests in Mathematics and English 
language.      

School location and pupils’ academic achievement
Studies and reports across different contexts have, 

for the most part, concluded that pupils from urban 
schools achieved higher grades than those from ru-
ral schools (Destin, Hanselman, Buontempo, Tipton, 
Yeager, 2019; MOE, 2016a; Bashir, et al., 2018; Bofah 
& Hannula, 2015). Some studies have suggested the 
differences in the social-economic characteristics of 
children from rural and urban schools as the main 
driver of the existing achievement gaps (Ryan, Koczber-
ski, Curry & Germis, 2017; Broer, Bai & Fonseca, 2019). 
Parents of rural school children are generally unable to 
provide the educational needs for their children be-
cause of poverty. This constraint negatively affects the 
academic potentials of the child as evidenced by prior 
studies (Bofah & Hannula, 2017; Bofah & Hannula, 
2015). Thus, children from economically disadvantaged 
households are typically educationally disadvantaged 
right from the onset of their formal education (Bashir et 
al., 2018; Kim, Cho & Kim, 2019; Organization for Eco-
nomic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2016). 
Moreover, available data from Ghana suggest that many 
of the rural dwelling parents are semi-literate, hence, 
unable to assist their children in school or academ-
ic-related tasks (Ghana Statistical Service [GSS], 2014). 
For instance, 33.1% of the population who had never 
attended school live in rural areas in contrast to 14.2% 
in the urban areas (GSS, 2012). 

Other studies have suggested that urban schools 
outperform their rural counterparts because they tend 
to have higher expectations and are more likely to have 
parents who participate in school activities (Adeyemi, 
Adediran & Adewole, 2018; Prasertcharoensuk & Tap-
khwa, 2016). The achievement gaps between rural and 
urban schools have also been linked to the differences 
in the professional characteristics of teachers serving 
in rural and urban schools (Nyatsikor, Sosu, Mtika & 
Robson, 2020; Hill, Charalambous & Chin, 2019; Bhai 
& Horoi, 2019). Urban schools are often staffed with 
teachers who are more experienced and possess higher 
academic and professional qualifications than teach-
ers in rural schools (MOE, 2018; Bashir et al., 2018). 
Even though there is a plethora of research showing 
significant differences in achievement between urban 
and rural schools, in some cases no significant differ-
ences were found. For instance, Considine and Zappala 
(2002) found that geographical location does not

significantly predict outcomes in school performance 
in Australia. This is because school children in rural 
Australia have access to an adequate number of edu-
cational facilities. Nonetheless, similar studies from 
equally developed nations, particularly the USA, reveal 
stark achievement differences between rural and urban 
communities (Cochran-Smith & Zeichner, 2005; Owens, 
2018; Reardon, 2011; Reardon et al., 2019). Though 
the focus on rural and urban school achievement has 
caught the attention of researchers and policymakers 
for decades, this current study extends prior studies by 
investigating the impact of school location on academic 
achievement in a methodologically different way. First, 
an estimation of the unique influence of school location 
on achievement was done, and secondly, the actual 
numbers of pupils who achieved or failed to achieve 
certain levels of competencies using the derived esti-
mates attributed to school location were determined. 
To achieve this purpose, the following research ques-
tions were formulated to guide the study.

Research Questions
1. To what extent do the inequalities in rural and

urban schools account for pupils’ achievement in
English language and mathematics?

2. How much of the variance in pupils’ achievement
can be attributed to schools in different localities of
a geographical region?

Context of the Study 
This study relied on the 2013 wave of the Ghana 

National Education Assessment [GNEA] data. The GNEA 
started in 2005 and it is held biennially by the RTI 
International and the USAID in collaboration with the 
Ghana Education Service. The purpose of the assess-
ment is to assess primary 3 (in 2016 primary 4 pupils 
examined) and primary 6 pupils’ competence in math-
ematics and the English language subjects (MOE, 2014; 
MOE, 2016a). The primary 3 (P3) and 6 (P6) pupils 
were assessed and scored over a 30-item and 40-item 
test respectively. Pupils’ achievement was assessed 
at three levels but different cut-off points for the two 
grade-levels. For the P3 mathematics and English 
language tests, pupils who answered a maximum of 
10 items correctly (i.e. below 35%) performed “below 
minimum competency”. Pupils who correctly answered 
a minimum of 11 and a maximum of 16 items (i.e. 35% 
- 54%) attained “minimum competency” while those
who correctly answered at least 17 items or better (i.e.
≥ 55%) were “competent”. In the case of the P6 sample,

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



Nyatsikor, Abroampa & Esia-Donkoh, Impact of School Locale on Competencies  74 

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

pupils who correctly answered up to 13 items (i.e. 
below 35%) performed “below minimum competency”. 
Pupils who had 14 up to 21 marks (i.e. 35% - 54%) 
attained “minimum competency” while those who cor-
rectly answered at least 22 items or better (i.e. ≥ 55%) 
were “competent” in a subject (see Table 1 for perfor-
mance distribution by subject and grade-levels). 

The data in Table 2 show considerable differences 
in the achievement of rural and urban pupils in both 
subjects at the two grade-levels. The percentage of 
children from urban schools who were competent 
in both subjects for the two grade-levels was higher 
than those from rural schools. On the other hand, the 
percentage distributions of the performances below 
minimum competency were higher for pupils from the 
rural schools for both subjects and grade-levels. The 
percentage distributions of performance levels show 
significant connections between school locality and 
achievement. However, it is impossible to determine the 
unique effect of school location on the performance of 
pupils. This is because the influence of the location of 
schools on achievement is confounded by other factors 
including the characteristics of the pupils (e.g. age and 
gender), schools (e.g. type and class size), and districts 
(e.g. resource levels). 

Methodology
Design, Sample, and Sampling   

The study employed descriptive cross-sectional sur-
vey design. The study population comprised of primary 
school pupils from all the 10 regions in Ghana (current-
ly there are 16 regions following the re-demarcation of 
4 regions). The target population was the P3 and P6 pu-
pils. The P3 sample size was 16,481 pupils [equivalent 
weighted sample = 93,008] from 448 schools [equiva-
lent weighted sample = 12,734]. The P6 sample

comprised 14,495 pupils [equivalent weighted sam-
ple = 81,319] from 426 [equivalent weighted sample 
= 12,393]. The weighted school values are derived by 
dividing the total number of primary schools (which 
had a class size of at least ten pupils) in a region by the 
number of sampled schools from that region. For exam-
ple, there were 1,821 primary 3 schools in the Eastern 
region out of which 55 participated in the assessment. 
The sample weight for schools in the Eastern region 
is therefore 33.11 (i.e. 1,821÷55 = 33.11). Thus, each 
school that participated in the assessment from the

Table 2: Performance levels of P3 and P6 pupils by 
school location



Nyatsikor, Abroampa & Esia-Donkoh, Impact of School Locale on Competencies  75 

Eastern region represented 33.11 schools. The weight-
ed pupils’ sample is derived by multiplying the weight-
ed school value for each region by the number of pupils 
sampled from that region. For instance, the weighted 
sample (57,312) for the P3 pupils from the Eastern 
region is derived by multiplying 33.11 by the total 
number of pupils (1,731) sampled from the 55 schools 
in the region. 

Schools were selected using stratified random sam-
pling. Schools were stratified by regions and sorted by 
district, locality (urban or rural), school type (public or 
private) and enrolment size within the regions (MOE, 
2014). Schools with less than 10 pupils in the class 
were excluded. Randomly, 55 schools were sampled 
with equal probability from each region except Ashan-
ti and Northern regions where 54 schools each were 
selected because a school from each of these 2 regions 
was not in session at the time the test was adminis-
tered. According to the MOE (2014), the reliability of 
the test was determined using SPSS Kuder-Richard-
son-20 (KR20) tests. Alpha values of 0.89 and 0.84 were 
achieved for the P6 mathematics and English language 
tests respectively. Alpha values of 0.82 and 0.84 were 
achieved for the P3 mathematics and English language 
tests respectively. The test questions were developed 
based on the specified topics in the national curricula. 
The English language test questions covered listen-
ing; reading comprehension; and usage (grammatical 
structure) domains. The mathematics test covered four 
domains namely: basic operations; numbers and nu-
merals; measurement, shape and space; and collection 
and handling of data. The return rate for the answered 
scripts was 100% (MOE, 2014).

Variables 
Independent variable - The independent variable 

for the study is ‘school location’ and was designated 
rural (0) or urban (1). In Ghana, urban localities are 
those with more than 60% of its residents engaged 
in non-agricultural activities in addition to having a 
minimum population size of 5,000. Otherwise, it is not 
urban (GSS, 2012). Urban schools have relatively better 
educationally-relevant resources than rural schools in 
terms of quantity and quality. There are more qualified 
teachers and better teaching and learning resources in 
urban than rural schools (MoE, 2014; MoE, 2018). The 
availability and quality of social amenities like potable 
water, functional electricity, , accessible roads, medical 
care, and internet connectivity are relatively better in 
urban communities when compared with rural commu-

nities (Blampied, et al, 2018; United Nations Interna-
tional Cultural Educational Fund [UNICEF] and Centre 
for Democratic Development [CDD]-Ghana, 2019). Par-
ents of rural school children are predominantly peasant 
farmers who live in poverty (GSS, 2012; Blampied et al., 
2018). Levels of education, incomes and employment 
opportunities in the rural areas are significantly low 
and limited compared with those living in urban areas. 
As a result, rurality in Ghana connotes low socioeco-
nomic status whereas urbanicity is associated with 
higher socioeconomic status (GSS, 2012; MoE, 2018; 
Blampied et al., 2018). Hence, in this study context, ru-
ral schools are used as a proxy for low SES while urban 
schools are used as a proxy for high SES.  According to 
the GSS (2012) approximately 37.0% of children from 
primary grade 1 to 6 live in rural areas compared with 
22.2% in urban areas. In this study, 77.9% of the P3 
schools were located in rural communities compared 
with 22.1% in urban communities while 77.7% and 
22.3% of the P6 schools were in rural and urban com-
munities respectively. 

Covariates - Five variables were controlled to ac-
count for their influence on pupils’ achievement. These 
were pupils’ gender (coded; male = 0; female = 1) and 
age, class size, school type (coded; public = 0; private = 
1) and district type (coded; deprived = 1; non-deprived
= 0).

Dependent variables - The two dependent vari-
ables are mathematics and English language achieve-
ment scores for the primary 3 and 6 pupils who 
participated in the 2013 wave of the Ghana National 
Education Assessment test.  

Data Screening and Management
Data were analysed using a multilevel modelling 

technique. Two exclusion criteria were applied to 
arrive at the final sample size. The first criterion was 
the exclusion of all schools not labelled as either ru-
ral or urban. The second criterion, which is based on 
statistical and methodological considerations was the 
exclusion of all schools which had less than 10 pupils in 
a class (see Hox, Moerbeek, van de Schoot, 2017; Heck 
& Thomas, 2015). Applying these two criteria, data on 
100 P3 schools (equivalent weighted sample = 2,843) 
comprising 2,977 pupils (equivalent weighted sample 
= 80,004) and 122 P6 schools (equivalent weighted 
sample = 3,468) comprising 2,952 pupils (equivalent 
weighted sample = 79,990) from the ten regions were 
excluded from the analysis. All the variable codes for 
the dichotomous variables were grand mean centred. 

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



Nyatsikor, Abroampa & Esia-Donkoh, Impact of School Locale on Competencies  76 

Likewise, the continuous and dependent variables were 
grand mean centred. The grand mean centred achieve-
ment score for each pupil is the difference between 
a pupil’s raw score and the grand mean achievement 
score derived from all pupils involved in the study. 
Grand mean centering ensured that the variances of the 
intercept and the slopes in the regression have a clear 
interpretation when all explanatory variables are equal 
to zero (Hox et al., 2017).  

Data Analysis Procedure 
The first stage of the analysis was to partition 

pupils’ achievement as a null or intercept-only model 
to estimate the Intra-class Correlation Coefficient (ICC). 
The outcome of this partitioning helped to determine 
whether multilevel modelling was required to analyse 
the data (Hox et al., 2017; Heck & Thomas, 2015). At 
stage two, the five covariates (pupils’ gender, age, class 
size, school, and district types) were introduced into 
the model to quantify their influence on pupils’ achieve-
ment. The third and final stage of the analysis was the 
introduction of the independent variable (school loca-
tion) into the model to estimate its unique influence 
on pupils’ achievement. From the estimates derived, 
the numbers of pupils who attained specific levels of 
proficiencies in both subjects on merit or as a result of 
the inequalities between rural and urban schools are 
determined. The second part of the analysis examined 
the unique influence of the location of schools on the 
achievement of pupils in each of the ten regions. 

achievement for the P3 pupils from rural schools was 
11.2 and 11.6 while that for urban schools was 14.0 and 
15.9 for Mathematics and English Language. The mean 
mathematics and English language achievement for the 
P6 pupils from rural schools was 14.3 and 16.8 while 
that for urban schools was 17.1 and 24.0 for Mathe-
matics and English language. Preliminary analysis of 
the data using the t-test showed statistically significant 
(p-value = 0.000) mean differences in achievement be-
tween rural and urban schools for both subjects. 

In Supplemental Table 1 [use link to view table], 
the fixed effects estimates show that the P3 pupils who 
attended rural schools on average, earned 2 marks (b 
= -2.085, χ2 = 16.8, -2LL = 21, df = 6, p = 0.000) and 1 
mark less (b = -1.498, χ2 =16.8, -2LL =16, df = 6, p = 
0.000) in the English language and mathematics respec-
tively when compared with those who attended urban 
schools. The unconditional models for the P3 sample 
revealed that a greater proportion of the achievement 
variances in the English language (54.8%) and mathe-
matics (63.5%) remained unexplained by the number 
of variables investigated. School-level inequalities 
accounted for 29.7% and 28.4% of achievement differ-
ences in English language and mathematics respective-
ly. District level differences also influenced achievement 
variances in the English language (15.5%) and mathe-
matics (8.9%). 

In Supplemental Table 2, the fixed effects estimates 
show that the P6 pupils who attended rural schools 
were predicted to have attained approximately 4 marks 
(b = -3.654, χ2 = 16.8, -2LL = 35, df = 6, p = 0.000)

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

Results
Descriptive Analysis 

The descriptive information about the 
school and pupil characteristics is presented 
in Table 3. The samples from public schools for 
both grade-levels were at least 5 times more 
than those from private schools. Similarly, the 
number of rural schools was more than thrice 
of urban schools. The mean class size for the 
P3 sample was bigger for urban schools (62.7) 
than the rural schools (47.2). The respective 
class sizes for the P6 urban and rural schools 
were 64.8 and 43.9. The average ages for the P3 
pupils from the rural and urban schools were 
10.9 and 10.4 respectively. As well, the average 
ages for the P6 pupils from the rural and urban 
schools were 13.8 and 13.3 respectively. The 
mean mathematics and English language



Nyatsikor, Abroampa & Esia-Donkoh, Impact of School Locale on Competencies  77 

and 1 mark less (b = -1.401, χ2 = 16.8, 2LL = 17, df = 6, p 
= 0.000) in the English language and mathematics tests 
respectively. The unconditional models for the P6 
sample indicated that respectively 54.2% and 70.1% of 
the variances in achievement for English language and 
mathematics remained unexplained given the number 
of variables investigated. School-level differences ac-
counted for 29.1% and 20.5% of the achievement vari-
ances in English language and mathematics respectively 
while district-level differences accounted for 16.7% and 
9.4% of achievement variances in English language and 
mathematics respectively. 

The next stage of the analysis was to determine the 
number of pupils who attained or failed to attain specif-
ic levels of competency after accounting for the existing 
inequalities between rural and urban schools. As an 
example, the estimate derived for P3 English language 
achievement is used to calculate the number of pupils 
who attained specific levels of proficiency. From the 
results, 2 marks are added to the initial scores obtained 
by each pupil. As a result, pupils who initially scored 0 
to 8 mark(s) would now earn between 2 and 10 marks; 
a performance below minimum competence (see Table 
1). Pupils who initially scored 9 and 10 marks (i.e. be-
low minimum competence) would now earn between 
11 and 12 marks to attain “minimum competency”. 
Next, we add 2 marks to the minimum mark (i.e. 11) for 
attaining minimum competency level to get 13 marks. 
This means all pupils who initially scored 11 to

13 marks were influenced by the existing inequalities 
between rural and urban schools. Those who scored 
14 marks up to 16 marks attained minimum compe-
tency on merit. By the same analogy, all pupils who 
were competent but had between 17 up to 19 marks 
attained this level of achievement due to specific factors 
associated with the location of schools. Consequently, 
pupils who correctly answered a minimum of 20 out of 
the total 30 items in the test were those who achieved 
competency on merit after accounting for the impact of 
school location. The same procedure is used to estimate 
the number of pupils who attained or failed to attain 
specific competencies in the remaining subjects across 
both grade-levels as presented in Table 4.

The existing inequalities in rural and urban schools 
had cascading effects on pupils’ achievement at all 
levels of expected competencies in both subjects. Con-
trolling for the inequalities in school localities, the re-
sults indicated that 2,873 (70.3%) out of the 4,089 and 
2,256 (69.6%) out of the 3,243 pupils were meritori-
ously competent in P3 English language and mathemat-
ics respectively. The remaining 1,216 (29.7%) and 987 
(30.4%) pupils were competent in P3 English language 
and mathematics respectively as gains derived from the 
location of the schools they attended. A total of 3,060 
(63.3%) of the 4,837 and 2,424 (42.7%) of the 5,680 
pupils attained minimum competency in P3 English 
language and mathematics respectively as a unique 
contribution from the location of the schools they

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

attended. Respectively, 1,777 
(36.7%) and 3,256 (57.3%) attained 
minimum competency in English 
language and mathematics on merit. 
A total of 4,869 (64.4%) out of the 
7,555 and 6,219 (82.3%) out of 
the 7,558 pupils performed below 
minimum competency in P3 English 
language and mathematics tests on 
merit. The remaining 2,686 (35.6%) 
and 1,339 (17.7%) pupils performed 
below minimum competency in En-
glish language and mathematics tests 
respectively as a result of the defi-
ciencies associated with the location 
of the schools they attended. 

In respect of the P6 sample, 
3,339 (63.8%) out of the 5,232 and 
878 (58.4%) out of the 1,504 pupils 
were competent in English language 
and mathematics respectively on



Nyatsikor, Abroampa & Esia-Donkoh, Impact of School Locale on Competencies  78 

merit. The remaining 1,893 (36.2%) and 626 (41.6%) 
pupils achieved competency level in English language 
and mathematics respectively as a result of the advan-
tages associated with the location of the schools they 
attended. Similarly, 3,088 (70.5%) of the 4,378 and 
2,417 (34.0%) of the 7,117 pupils attained minimum 
competency in English language and mathematics 
respectively as an influence from the location of the 
schools they attended. Precisely, 1,290 (29.5%) and 
4,700 (66.0%) pupils attained minimum competency in 
English language and mathematics on merit. Likewise, 
1,781 (36.5%) of the 4,885 and 4,671 (79.5%) of the 
5,874 P6 pupils performed below minimum competen-
cy in English language and mathematics respectively on 
merit. The remaining 3,104(63.5%) and 1,203(20.5%) 
of the P6 pupils performed below minimum competen-
cy in English language and mathematics respectively 
as a result of the deficits associated with the location of 
the schools they attended.  

The second objective of the study was to determine 
the extent of the influence of school location on pupil’s 
achievement in each of the regions. The results for both 
subjects and grade-levels are presented in Supplemen-
tal Tables 3-6. In Supplemental Table 3, the fixed effects 
estimates show that the impact of the rural schools on 
the P3 English language achievement for the Ashante 
(b = -1.004), Upper West (b = -1.484), Upper East (b = 
-1.968) and Western (b = -.254) regions were less than
the national average of 2 marks (b = -2.085). The im-
pact for Brong Ahafo (b = -2.893), Eastern (b = -6.477),
Greater Accra (b = -3.846), Northern (b = 3.038), Cen-
tral (b = -2.093), and Volta (b = -2.355) regions were
greater than the national average.

With respect to the P3 mathematics achievement, 
the fixed effects estimates in Supplemental Table 4 
show that the Ashante (b = -.348), Volta (b = -.968), Up-
per East (b = - 1.191) and Western (b = -.481) regions 
had average values less than the national average of 1 
mark (b = - 1.498). The remaining regions including 
Brong Ahafo (b = -2.259), Central (b = -1.838), Eastern 
(b = -5.486), Greater Accra (b = -2.908), Northern (b = 
2.219), and Upper East (b = -2.279) had greater average 
values than that of the nation.

In respect of the P6 English language achievement 
the fixed effects estimates in Supplemental Table 5 
show that the Ashante (b = -1.376), Greater Accra (b = 
-2.769), Northern (b = .963), Upper East (b = -2.970)
and Western (b = -.989) regions recorded less average
impact than the national average of 4 marks (b = -
3.654). The Central (b = -4.544), Eastern (b = -8.038)

and Upper West (b = -5.952), Brong Ahafo (b = -4.474), 
and Volta (b = -4.112) regions had greater mean values 
than the national average. 

In Supplemental Table 6, the fixed effects estimates 
show that the estimates for Brong Ahafo (b = -1.962), 
Central (b = -2.321), Eastern (b = -3.534), Upper West 
(b = -2.335), Volta (b = -2.623) were greater than the 
national average for P6 mathematics (b = - 1.401). The 
Ashante (b = -.243), Greater Accra (b = -.220), North-
ern (b =.270) and Western (b =.130) and Upper East 
(b = -1.036) regions recorded lesser impact than the 
national average. Consistently across grade-levels and 
subjects, rural schools contributed negatively to pupils’ 
achievement except for the Northern and Western (P6 
mathematics achievement only) regions where the av-
erage achievement of rural schools was higher than ur-
ban schools. The Eastern and Western regions respec-
tively came up as the regions with the most and least 
variances in achievement attributed to inequalities in 
rural and urban schools in Ghana. The implications of 
the results are discussed in the next section.

Discussion of Results 
The unconditional models for both grade-levels 

and subjects indicated significant differences between 
school and district-level achievements. For the P3 sam-
ple, three of the covariates (i.e. pupils’ age, district type, 
and school type) contributed significantly to achieve-
ment in both subjects (see Supplemental Table 1).  The 
average achievement for relatively younger pupils was 
higher than older pupils while schools in deprived 
districts performed poorer compared with those in 
non-deprived districts. The types of schools pupils at-
tend had the greatest impact on achievement. Children 
from private schools significantly outperformed those 
from public schools. Gender was significant only for 
mathematics achievement where boys did better than 
girls. There was no significant difference in achieve-
ment between genders with respect to the English lan-
guage. The impact of class size on achievement in both 
subjects was not statistically significant. 

For the P6 sample, all the five variables that were 
controlled made statistically significant impacts on 
pupils’ achievement in both subjects. Children from 
private schools outperformed their counterparts from 
public schools, boys performed better than girls while 
relatively younger children outperformed the relatively 
older peers. Moreover, children from deprived schools 
performed poorer than those from non-deprived 
schools. Relatively smaller class sizes were not

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



Nyatsikor, Abroampa & Esia-Donkoh, Impact of School Locale on Competencies  79

associated with improvement in achievement. The 
specific degrees of impact for each of the covariates are 
presented in Supplemental Table 2.

The advantages and disadvantages associated 
with the location of schools in specific communities 
produced corresponding gains and deficits in pupils’ 
achievement. The results suggested that if conditions 
and educational resources in rural schools were im-
proved by 1 unit, 2,686, and 1,339 more pupils would 
have at least attained minimum competency in the P3 
English language and mathematics tests respectively. 
In same vein, 3,104(63.5%) and 1,203(20.5%) more 
of the P6 pupils would have at least attained minimum 
competency in English language and mathematics 
respectively had they attended schools in urban lo-
calities. The advantage of attending schools in certain 
parts of the country is evidenced by the 1,216(29.7%) 
and 1,893(36.2%) pupils who were predicted to be 
competent in the P3 and P6 English language tests 
respectively solely by attending urban schools. Like-
wise, 987(30.4%) and 626(41.6%) pupils were com-
petent in P3 and P6 mathematics solely by attending 
urban schools.  The results suggest that pupils from 
rural schools achieved less than their peers from urban 
schools as a result of certain unfavourable conditions 
associated with attending schools in rural localities.

The advantages and disadvantages inherent with 
urban and rural schools have been explored in many 
contexts (MOE, 2016a; Bashir, et al. 2018; Çiftçi & Cin, 
2018; Cochran-Smith et al., 2012). Unanimously, these 
studies found that pupils from urban schools achieved 
higher grades than those from rural schools. Rural and 
urban communities serve as different psychological 
environments for children who share different resourc-
es, hazards, and opportunity structures. They may also 
have different life course options, and patterns of social 
interactions unique to the school catchment area (Bron-
fenbrenner, 2005; Tudge, Mokrova, Hatfield & Karnik, 
2009). As aptly observed by Rogošić and Baranović 
(2016), the differences in educational success can be 
attributed to different levels of existing social capital, 
which is produced in networks and connections of 
families that the school serves. A significant number of 
the rural schools in Ghana are disproportionately locat-
ed in districts deprived of basic social amenities (e.g. 
electricity, internet), educational resources (e.g. less 
qualified teachers, teaching and learning materials), 
and economic opportunities to provide regular incomes 
for parents. Parents of rural school pupils are primarily 
peasant farmers and are characterised by high levels

of poverty and illiteracy (GSS, 2015). These constraints 
significantly affect schools, parents and communi-
ty-wide abilities to support the pro-academic activities 
of rural school children. 

The current Covid-19 pandemic with its concomi-
tant negative effects on education has further exacer-
bated the woes of the largely rural communities and 
schools in Ghana. Children in rural schools are unable 
to participate in the various remote digital learning 
initiatives rolled out by the Ghana Education Service. 
For the most part, internet connectivity is poor in rural 
communities and, where connectivity is possible par-
ents are unable to afford data for internet use. Unlike 
urban communities, some rural communities do not 
have electricity to benefit from the government’s strat-
egy of teaching children via national television stations. 
The differing opportunities for children living in dif-
ferent parts of the country contribute to the widening 
of the achievement gaps (Nyatsikor et al., 2020; MOE, 
2016b). 

The second research question explored the impact 
of school location on the achievement of pupils within 
specific regions and the results reveal two important 
educational concerns. First, rural schools in the North-
ern and Western (for P6 mathematics achievement 
only) regions positively contributed to achievement in 
contrast with extant literature which suggests other-
wise (Bashir et al., 2018; MOE, 2018). Like the rural 
localities, many of the urban localities in the Northern 
Region are equally deprived of basic social, econom-
ic and educational amenities that support effective 
teaching and learning (Blampied et al., 2018; MOE, 
2018; UNICEF and CDD-Ghana, 2016). As a result, 
school locale becomes inconsequential since school 
children experience similar challenges and opportuni-
ties. Though this deprivation is prevalent in many parts 
of the country, available data suggest it is acute in the 
Northern region (MOE, 2016a; MOE, 2018, UNICEF and 
CDD-Ghana, 2016). Thus, the communities in which
children attend schools serve as achievement oppor-
tunities and in the case of the Northern region, these
opportunities are significantly similar for all schools
regardless of their status as rural or urban.

In sharp contrast to the Northern region, there was 
a strikingly wide gap in achievement by pupils from ru-
ral and urban schools in the Eastern region, particularly 
for English language achievement. Consistently, rural 
children from the Eastern region were significantly dis-
advantaged. The persistent underachievement of rural 
schools (except for the Northern region) suggests

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



Nyatsikor, Abroampa & Esia-Donkoh, Impact of School Locale on Competencies  80

inherent handicapping conditions associated with rural 
schools which create a “deficit model” for children’s in-
ability to receive superior education (Fan & Chen, 2001; 
Hornby & Lafaele, 2011). The significant gaps in pupils’ 
achievement linked to school location may confirm the 
existence of extreme differences in the characteristics 
of the factors (e.g. socio-economic and educational 
resources) affecting school attainment in this part of 
the country. From the study results, it can be concluded 
that a major part of the generally low academic achieve-
ment among primary school children in Ghana is the 
uneven resources available to rural and urban schools 
as well as their socioeconomic backgrounds. 

Conclusion
The study investigated the impact of school location 

on primary grades 3 and 6 pupils’ academic achieve-
ment and found significant differences in achievement 
attributable to existing inequalities in rural and urban 
schools. Rural schools are deficient in many resourc-
es needed to facilitate effective teaching and learning 
leading to improved outcomes. Rural schoolchildren are 
characterised by high levels of poverty (low SES) rela-
tive to their urban counterparts (high SES). The cumu-
lative impact of the disparities in social, economic and 
educational resources and opportunities for schools 
and communities is the achievement gaps between 
rural and urban school children. 

The results for the Northern region call for a more 
comprehensive and robust investigation including the 
assessment of the threshold of indicators (e.g. econom-
ic, social, educational, and infrastructural resources) 
used to classify localities into rural and urban. The 
gaps in the achievement due to the location of schools 
in different parts of the country appear to suggest that 
children’s present and possibly future educational 
fortunes depend on which part of the country they live 
in. This may be a testament to suggest that Ghana may 
not be achieving the goal of providing an equitable and 
inclusive education for all children as required by the 
country’s educational policy and international goals 
(United Nations, 2015; MOE, 2015). With approximate-
ly 37.0% of primary school level children living in rural 
areas compared with 22.2% in urban areas (GSS, 2012), 
it presupposes that more children in rural communities 
may continue to record low achievements in selected 
school subjects if the disadvantages associated with 
attending rural schools are not addressed.

Ghana may therefore need to invest more resourc-
es per pupil to bridge the achievement gap between the

rural and urban primary school children. It is impera-
tive to suggest that any attempt aimed at closing the ru-
ral and urban achievement gaps must not gloss over the 
more fundamental preschool level. Many studies have 
found statistically significant connections between the 
quality of preschools and primary school achievement 
(Bakken, Brown & Downing, 2017; OECD, 2017).  

Implications of the Study
The findings from the study have enduring im-

plications for all stakeholders in education.  Some 
rural school children failed to be competent, attained 
minimum competency or performed below minimum 
competency in both subjects because of the inequal-
ities between rural and urban schools. Data from the 
Ghana Statistical Service provides evidence of the 
significant differences between the socioeconomic and 
educational resources and opportunities for urban and 
rural dwellers. As developing country, majority of the 
population in the country are characterised by high 
levels of poverty. However, rural schools and children 
experience more disadvantages (e.g. educational and 
economic) and live in higher levels of poverty than their 
urban counterparts. It is incumbent on stakeholders, 
therefore, to ensure that the existing disparities be-
tween rural and urban parts of the country are bridged 
to close the achievement gaps between rural and urban 
school children. 

Limitations of the Study 
This study examined the influence of school lo-

cation on primary level achievement in Mathematics 
and English language subjects and found significant 
achievement gaps between rural and urban schools. 
However, the unavailability of certain data to account 
for (e.g. pupils’ prior achievement, teacher effect, school 
attendance history, household wealth, and parental 
support and community resources) may have over- or 
under-estimated the effects attributed to school loca-
tion.   

Acknowledgment
The lead author is grateful to the USAID and RTI 

International (the primary owners of the dataset) for 
the permission to use the Ghana National Education As-
sessment data for this research publication.   All results 
from this research are the responsibility of the authors 
and do not implicate the custodians of the primary data 
in any way.

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Nyatsikor, Abroampa & Esia-Donkoh, Impact of School Locale on Competencies  81

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

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1 Maxwell Kwesi Nyatsikor (mnyatsikor@uds.edu.gh) is a 
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2 Winston Kwame Abroampa (wkabroampa@knust.edu.
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3 Kweku Esia-Donkoh (ke_donkoh@yahoo.com) is a 
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Abstract
Education for sustainable development (ESD) is increasingly being recognized as a critical element of 

education systems and facilitator of sustainable development. This is because its ultimate goal is to foster 
ideal teaching, learning, policies and practices needed to enhance social, economic, ecological viability and 
well-being for the present and future generations. Embracing ESD could therefore, facilitate realization of 
objectives of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) that Kenya has rolled out. Particularly, the CBC is 
expected to foster acquisition of core competencies like creativity, problem-solving, and self-efficacy. But, 
limited understanding, inappropriate pedagogical approaches, and weak collaboration among key stakeholders 
are some of the challenges that face application of ESD. This research review focuses on the pertinent ESD 
aspects to successful implementation of the CBC in basic education in Kenya. Specifically illuminated are the 
underpinning pedagogical theories and their implications, relevant legal and policy frameworks, some success 
stories, challenges and proposed solutions.

Keywords: Basic education, Competency-Based Curriculum, Constructivism, Education for sustainable 
development, Pedagogy

Nyatuka, B. O. 
Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2 
DOI  10.14434/gjte.v2i1.31212

Open Access

Published by the Global Insitutute of Transformative Education (http://www.gite.education)
© Nyatuka, B. O. 2020. Open Access This journal is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 
NonCommercial NonDerivative 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which 
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction without revision in any non-commercial medium, provided you 
give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license,

Education for Sustainable Development in Kenya:  
Rhetoric and Reality in Basic Education

Benard O. Nyatuka

Full listing of authors and contacts can be 
found at the end of this article.

Introduction
 Given that the world today is experiencing a great 

level of uncertainty, complexity and rapid change, 
embracing more sustainable intervention measures, 
including appropriate education about sustainable 
development is imperative. According to Sterling 
(2014) and UNESCO (2011), such global issues as 
economic instability, climate change, social inequity, 
loss of biodiversity and migration as well as non-re-
newable energy sources need to be addressed urgently. 
It is important to note, however, that sustainability is a 
highly demanding concept as it calls for changes at the 
political, social, economic, environmental, educational 
and decision-making levels, among others. Kondur, Ri-
dei, Mykhailyshyn and Katsero (2020) argue that since 
education for sustainability is evolving on a geospheric, 
geopolitical and transboundary scale, it can be defined 
economically, socially, environmentally and education-
ally. On their part, Lampa, Greculescu and Todorescu

(2013) consider sustainable development to be a 
continuous search for improving our daily lives, while 
minimizing the negative impact brought about by hu-
mans on the environment. This requires active, creative 
and cooperative citizens who are able to successfully 
prevent and solve problems, and be ready to combine 
theoretical knowledge with innovations and practical 
ideas. 

As a prerequisite for realizing sustainable develop-
ment, education systems should be restructured to fo-
cus on enhancing the development of creative thinking 
among the population, promoting tolerance and dem-
ocratic ideals, making informed decisions and partici-
pating in the implementation of relevant cross-cutting 
plans and issues (Kondur, et al, 2020; UNESCO, 2005a). 
In the European Union, for example, sustainable de-
velopment is regarded to be the basic principle upon 
which all policies are anchored. Particularly, education 
service providers should develop programmes for sus-
tainable education that balance future knowledge with 
traditional lifestyles. However, it should be borne in 
mind that such education is not aimed at changing



Nyatuka, Education for Sustainable Development in Kenya  87

people’s lifestyles, but empowering and encouraging 
them to participate in sustainable development, includ-
ing reflecting on their actions in this field. 

UNESCO (2019) stipulates that by 2030, all learners 
should acquire the knowledge and skills needed to pro-
mote sustainable development. And, this is supposed 
to be achieved through, among others, education for 
sustainable development, sustainable lifestyles, human 
rights and gender equality. Other means are promotion 
of a culture of peace and nonviolence, global citizenship 
and appreciation of cultural diversity. Indeed, Lampa, 
Greculescu and Todorescu (2013) note that education 
for sustainable development is a broad movement 
concerned with identifying and advancing the kinds of 
education, teaching and learning policy and practice 
to ensure social, economic and ecological viability and 
welfare, now and into the long-term future. The authors 
hold that education for sustainable development aims 
at enhancing consciousness, ensure a coherent way of 
life with the principles of sustainable development, that 
is, being more informed, moral and responsible about 
the ability of future generations to meet their needs. 

According to Ganira and Odundo (2018), the over-
riding theme of education for sustainable development 
is integration of values inherent in sustainable develop-
ment into all aspects of curricula to encourage change 
in behaviour that alloys a just society for all. In addition 
to moral and ethical values, education for sustainable 
development has various dimensions, such as peace 
education, medical education, consumer education, 
among others (Fosnot, 2013; Armstrong, 2011). The 
main task of education for sustainable development 
therefore, is formation of a value-oriented personality 
directed towards socially, economically and environ-
mentally significant values. Ganira and Odundo (2018)
observe that integrating sustainable development 
strategies such as problem-based, inquiry-based, and 
reflective learning in teaching and learning should 
motivate learners to become responsible individuals 
who will solve challenges, respect cultural diversity and 
contribute to creating a sustainable society.

Armstrong (2011) contends that skills associated 
with education for sustainable development are expan-
sive and include collaboration and cooperation, conflict 
resolution, creativity, imagination, future mindedness, 
knowledge transfer, meaningful communication and 
civic engagement. Others include interdisciplinary 
research skills, adaptive learning, contextualization of 
issues, personal introspection visioning, systems think-
ing as well as values focused teaching. To achieve these,

all those involved in the delivery of education for sus-
tainable development must practice what they preach 
(Fosnot, 2013). Thus, education for sustainable devel-
opment requires approaches that reflect a paradigm 
shift from manual training of discipline-specific content 
to a focus on enhancing quality of life that is rich with 
intellectual and social capital. Indeed, the education for 
sustainable development pedagogy initiated by UNE-
SCO (2004) highlights a shift towards active participa-
tion and experiential learning that engages the learner 
in thinking and accords them the ability to act respon-
sibly.

 Lampa, Greculescu and Todorescu (2013) note 
that education for sustainable development is central 
to preparing learners for lifelong learning, an adaptive 
quality that makes the learner more malleable in a time 
when most societies are experiencing dramatic social, 
environmental and economic transformation. In Arm-
strong (2011), concepts like deep learning, transfor-
mational learning, active learning, service learning and 
critical emancipatory pedagogy have all been included 
in pedagogical discussions about education for sustain-
able development.

 With respect to Kenya, Opanda (2013) observes 
that four main ideas related to education for sustain-
able development have so far received heightened 
attention. These are improving access to basic quality 
education; restructuring of the present educational sys-
tem; development of public understanding and aware-
ness; and enhancing the quality of the teacher training 
programmes. In particular, teachers are extremely im-
portant drivers of change in the education for sustain-
able development. Ganira and Odundo (2018) assert 
that adoption of education for sustainable development 
pedagogies into the basic education curriculum re-
quires appropriate teaching and learning methods that 
motivate and empower learners to modify behaviour 
and take actions for sustainable development. Given 
that education for sustainable development pedagogies 
facilitate learning of knowledge, skills, perspectives and 
values that sustainable societies entail, the researchers 
emphasize that appropriate pedagogies for sustainable 
development be used.

Through Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 
4), education for sustainable development provides a 
cross-cutting mechanism for the achievement of all the 
SDGs in Kenya (Ministry of Education, 2017). This is in 
line with Agenda 2063 of the African Union which calls 
for action on catalyzing education and skills revolution 
to build knowledge, human capital, capabilities and 

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol. 2



Nyatuka, Education for Sustainable Development in Kenya  88 

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol. 2

skills to drive innovations on the African continent. Ad-
dressing sustainable development challenges requires 
provision of quality education that offers competencies, 
values, knowledge and skills for sustainable living and 
prosperity. As an integral part of life-long learning, 
education for sustainable development is central to the 
delivery of quality education and necessary for capacity 
building of the Kenyan society for a green economy. 

According to Wandabi (2019a), the Competen-
cy-Based Curriculum (CBC) provides an opportunity 
to nurture every learner’s potential through quality 
education. This happens to be the ultimate goal of 
education for sustainable development. Just like ed-
ucation for sustainable development, the CBC seeks 
to empower learners to take informed decisions and 
responsible actions for environmental integrity, eco-
nomic viability and just society for present and future 
generations, while respecting cultural diversity. Repub-
lic of Kenya (2017) holds that the teaching of values, 
especially at the basic education level, is expected to 
facilitate achievement of the curriculum reforms’ vision, 
particularly with respect to developing ethical citizens. 
Specifically, basic education seeks to build capacities 
in learners that will enable them to be stewards of the 
earth, and minimize negative environmental impacts, 
while learning outcomes are linked to meaningful 
human, safety, educational, and environmental needs. 
The CBC endeavours to make learners work on real 
problems that make academic learning relevant while 
simultaneously enhancing their social skills, analytical 
ability, civic and ethical responsibility, self-efficacy, and 
career development (Wandabi, 2019a)

The CBC incorporates the pertinent and contem-
porary issues in society, including the related support 
materials. Education for sustainable development 
is one of such issues and focuses on environmental 
education, disaster risk reduction, safety and security 
education, financial literacy, poverty education, coun-
tering terrorism, extreme violence and radicalization, 
gender issues and animal welfare (Republic of Kenya, 
2017). Accordingly, education should include values 
that support sustainable development such as care, re-
spect, charity, social and economic justice, commitment, 
cooperation, compassion, self-determination and self- 
reliance. In the College Student Educators International 
(2008), change agents should possess such attributes 
as resilience, optimism, tenacity, commitment, passion, 
patience and emotional intelligence. Others are asser-
tiveness, persuasiveness, empathy, authenticity, ethical 
self-awareness, competence and curiosity. The CBC

emphasizes these attributes as well, as they are known 
to boost students’ self-esteem (Republic of Kenya, 
2017; Lampa, Greculescu & Todorescu, 2013). 

In the spirit of finding solutions to the challenges of 
sustainability of the biosphere and society in the coun-
try, the Ministry of Education has prioritized to focus 
on emerging gaps in the education sector (Ministry of 
Education, 2017). These include developing a relevant 
policy; transforming teaching, learning and training 
environments; building capacities of educators and 
trainers; and accelerating youth empowerment. This is 
in tandem with aspirations of Kenya’s Vision 2030 de-
velopment plan, the Global Action Programme on edu-
cation for sustainable development and SDGs. Through 
the implementation of the education for sustainable 
development policy, the Ministry seeks to integrate 
such education into sustainable development policies 
and strategies of learning environments in training and 
learning institutions. This includes infusion of educa-
tion for sustainable development into basic education, 
teacher training programmes and establishment of 
relevant youth-led initiatives.

Despite the efforts being made by the government, 
there appears to be a vague understanding of the con-
cept of education for sustainable development among 
many citizens , use of inappropriate pedagogical meth-
ods and materials, and low level of collaboration among 
key stakeholders. On this basis, this research review ex-
amines the major aspects of education for sustainable 
development with intent to enhance their application. 
These aspects include the relevant pedagogical theories 
and their implications, legal and policy provisions and 
some success cases. Also, discussed are critical chal-
lenges and possible remedies. 

Theoretical Framework
According to Fosnot (2013) and Armstrong (2011), 

education for sustainable development may be better 
understood by exploring constructivism theories which 
are characterized by high levels of learner engagement, 
including active, applied, service and experiential learn-
ing. Such theories also lay emphasis on social inter-
action that involves problem-based, inquiry-based, as 
well as participatory learning. . Constructivism theories 
hold that human beings construct all knowledge while 
participating in different mental and physical experi-
ences (Kalsoom, 2019; Republic of Kenya, 2017;). Thus, 
constructivism is a supposition about the nature of 
knowledge and how individuals acquire it.

In constructivism, the learner builds a personal



Nyatuka, Education for Sustainable Development in Kenya  89 

interpretation of the world on the basis of experiences 
and interactions. Among the proponents of construc-
tivism are Dewey’s Social Constructivism, Vygotsky’s 
Social-Cultural Development Theory and Gardner’s 
Multiple Intelligence Theory. Others are Piaget’s Cog-
nitive Development Theory, Bruner’s Cognitive Devel-
opment Theory and Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial 
Development (Republic of Kenya, 2017). Tobias (2009) 
observes that other than extending both behavioural 
and cognitive theories about learning, constructivism 
includes contextual issues, like previous knowledge and 
experience, in the construction of knowledge. In this 
light, knowledge does not reside only in the mind but 
is situated in the context of an individual’s past expe-
rience, beliefs and values, their cognitive process, and 
their environment (Schunk, 2008). 

The core assumptions of constructivism are that 
learner activities lead to the creation of their own 
knowledge rather than mere acquisition of the same, 
and that truth is an evolving premise (Schunk, 2008; 
Simpson, 2002). Schwartz, Lindgren and Lewis (2009) 
and Tobias (2009) hold that active engagement leads 
to a higher understanding that may be applied to new 
and different situations. Armstrong (2011) asserts that 
three primary perspectives underpin constructivism, 
that is, endogenous, exogenous, and dialectical. Endog-
enous constructivism emphasizes internal cognitive 
processes, new knowledge being dependent on previ-
ously developed mental structures. This perspective 
connotes a highly active learning environment in which 
learners are able to explore and experiment through 
a variety of activities that motivate them to assimilate 
and accommodate what is learnt. The classroom is 
active with problem-solving engagements, rather than 
direct instruction. Teachers are discouraged from inter-
jecting outcomes for the learners before they are able 
to invent on their own, taking a peripheral role until 
fundamental discoveries are concretized (Fosnot, 2013; 
Armstrong, 2011). Thus, the teacher’s role is to create 
an environment suitable for such discovery. Likewise, 
peer interaction is an important means of discouraging 
egocentrism among the learners (Piaget, 1970; Tuck-
man, 1992; Wadsworth, 1978).

On its part, exogenous constructivism emphasizes 
the influence of the external world on the construction 
of knowledge, such as instruction, experience and use 
of models in the learning environment (Kalsoom, 2019; 
Armstrong, 2011; Shunk, 2008). It seeks to explain 
behaviour and the learning environment, including em-
phasizing the use of impressionistic models. The

learner continuously adapts to, as opposed to copying, 
the structure in the environment and is responsive to 
contextual issues. The assumptions of the exogenous 
perspective are that interactions between the learn-
er’s cognition and other personal factors like biology, 
self-efficacy, and self-regulation, their environment as 
well as behaviour are reciprocal. Also, learning may 
occur by observing models, live or static, rather than as 
a result of feedback or behaviour. Bandura (1989) advo-
cated for highly knowledgeable and effectual teachers 
who are able to motivate while also developing import-
ant cognitive abilities among learners.

Dialectical constructivism is positioned centrally 
between the endogenous and exogenous perspectives, 
emphasizing the contextual nature of the construction 
of knowledge. Armstrong (2011) and Simpson (2002) 
assert that dialectical constructivism is particularly 
useful in informing the pedagogical implementation of 
education for sustainable development. This perspec-
tive is especially responsive to the complex, uncertain 
and values-laden nature of sustainability. Both a dialec-
tical perspective of constructivism and education for 
sustainable development champion for iterative reflec-
tion, supporting Vygotskys’s (1978) contention that so-
cial interaction precedes internal reflective processes, 
thereby reinforcing cognitive development and learning 
that happens post-interaction (Bonnett, 2003).

Armstrong (2011) advises that implementing edu-
cation for sustainable development will remain impos-
sible without the commitment by educators to the new 
paradigm. Wals (2010) notes that learning strategies 
that emphasize dialogue and cooperative experiences 
are quite useful in the delivery of education for sustain-
able development as they promote pluralism and incor-
poration of prior perceptions with new meaning. In the 
provision of education for sustainable development, a 
teacher or educator is a facilitator, collaborator and fel-
low learner on the journey towards sustainability. Such 
a teacher allows the learner to direct their own learning 
and guide course content, although this does not neces-
sarily indicate relinquished control or authority.

Implications of the constructivism theories on ESD 
pedagogy.

Apparently, the pedagogical approaches used in 
education for sustainable development are consider-
ably oriented to a constructivist epistemology. Among 
others, it is important to design experiences that match 
the developmental level of the learner, especially those 
that encourage learning activities that go just beyond

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



Nyatuka, Education for Sustainable Development in Kenya  90 

their capacities (Fosnot, 2013; Armstrong, 2011). The 
lived experiences, community, active engagement and 
collaboration in education for sustainable development 
strategies assert the belief that there is magic in social 
interaction with peers, teachers and industry partners. 
Accordingly, some of the common strategies for the de-
velopment of relevant skills are collaborative activities, 
systems instruction, multigenerational analysis, prob-
lem-based assignments, inquiry and action research 
(Fosnot, 2013). Others are stakeholder analysis, role 
play, offering multiple perspectives in topics, back-cast-
ing and scenario building. 

The approach to education for sustainable develop-
ment, especially with respect to teaching and learning 
should focus on students, encouraging them to form 
and develop their own ideas and values. Teachers 
should consider pupils as being an important and active 
factor in learning. Lampa, Greculescu and Todorescu 
(2013) assert that active listening, assuming of respon-
sibilities and solidarity are considered prerequisites to 
successful relationships based on social cooperation 
and interaction among pupils and people in general. 
Hence, it is necessary for teachers to develop these 
competencies during their didactic activity. 

Likewise, educational experiences need to be made 
interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary with a view to ex-
posing the learner to different social configurations. It 
should be appreciated that pedagogies like service, par-
ticipatory and experiential learning are characterized 
by collective inquiry and problem-solving that require 
learners to dialogue with others around them, thereby 
facilitating the discovery of new meanings collectively 
(Fosnot, 2013; Armstrong, 2011). Capacity building, 
values development and cooperative relationships are 
fostered in such an educational environment. Learners 
should be encouraged to be interdependent upon one 
another to continuously amend the truth with higher 
degree of precision, inviting emergent outcomes.

Pedagogical competence should be understood as 
a synthesis of cognitive, visual, practical and personal 
experience (Kondur, et al, 2020). It is therefore, import-
ant to involve teachers in the relevant management 
processes in order to constantly improve the organiza-
tion of decentralization of education. Future educators 
need to develop general knowledge of the content of 
sustainable development, ability to combine content of 
different disciplines in terms of social and cultural con-
text and learn to overcome uncertainty. On their part, 
students need to think critically; respond to different 
situations appropriately; resolve conflicts; work as a

team; and, develop responsibility and autonomy. These 
are all considered to be tools of strategic thinking. Since 
education for sustainable development issues are con-
troversial and complex, learners should be able to man-
age them as well as the disagreements among them-
selves and relevant participants. Sustainable education 
encourages both teachers and students to use creative 
thinking, share ideas, cooperate and make decisions. 
Hence such a school is dynamic, no longer dictated by 
traditional hierarchical structures. The educational 
process should be such that even the weakest students 
are educated in a manner that their actions, present or 
future, pose no danger to society or even themselves 
(Lampa, Greculescu & Todorescu, 2013).

 There is need to rethink educational policies for 
sustainable development that aim at developing social, 
economic and environmental knowledge that will ulti-
mately assist students in tackling challenges of modern 
life. Also, there is need for partnerships among institu-
tions to provide teachers with efficient training pro-
grammes; ensure multicultural contexts to help them 
understand diversity and practice tolerance towards 
others, work closely with parents, colleagues and the 
community; reflect and improve upon their didactic 
activity as far as education for sustainable development 
is concerned (Lampa, Greculescu & Todorescu, 2013; 
Armstrong, 2011). 

And, to ensure the quality of didactic activity in 
sustainable development, teachers should acquire and 
develop competences and abilities based on not only 
formal, but also informal and non-formal dimensions, 
and have them officially recognized. This includes iden-
tifying each pupil’s specific needs and working towards 
meeting them by use of a wide range of teaching strat-
egies. It also involves helping pupils to develop profes-
sional and cross competences (Lampa, Greculescu & 
Todorescu, 2013).

Venkataraman (2009) as well as Rode and Mi-
chelsen (2008) note that the development of assess-
ment methods in education for sustainable develop-
ment is a substantial area of opportunity. UNESCO 
(2005b) makes audible the need for assessments that 
not only pay attention to knowledge competency, but 
skills, perceptions, behaviours and values as well. 
Specifically, standardized testing is dissuaded, while 
methods that speak to a holistic view of the overall 
quality of education are encouraged. This is in line with 
the CBC which among others, advocates for assessment 
that determines the capability to apply a set of related 
knowledge, skills, values and abilities required to

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



Nyatuka, Education for Sustainable Development in Kenya  91 

successfully perform critical work functions or tasks in 
a defined setting (Republic of Kenya, 2017).

In addition to the above theoretical implications on 
ESD pedagogy, the way forward is highlighted later in 
this piece of work.

Legal and Policy Provisions on ESD in Kenya
Key UN conferences, Acts of Parliament and relat-

ed policy documents have played an important part in 
mobilizing both the international and local communi-
ties towards sustainable development (Sterling, 2014; 
Opanda, 2013; UNESCO, 2011; UNESCO, 2010; UNESCO, 
2009a). In particular, the United Nations Conference on 
Environment and Development (UNCED, 1992) called 
for all countries to develop education for sustainable 
development strategies and frameworks to reorient 
education systems and programmes. The major thrusts 
to foster such education included improving basic ed-
ucation; and to develop public understanding, aware-
ness and training (Opanda, 2013). In 2002, the United 
Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Develop-
ment (DESD) was mooted to facilitate implementation 
of such education (UNESCO, 2002; UNESCO, 2003). 

 In 2014, UNESCO launched a roadmap for imple-
menting the Global Action Plan (GAP) on education 
for sustainable development. Based on this, Kenya’s 
Ministry of Education has made commitment on this 
initiative through developing an education for sustain-
able development implementation strategy across all 
sectors. The strategy is to be guided by three broad 
objectives, that is, enhance the role of education and 
learning for equitable, efficient and sustainable utiliza-
tion of the country’s resources; promote quality educa-
tion through diverse learning and public awareness for 
improved quality of life and productive livelihood; and 
promote teaching and learning that inculcates appro-
priate values, behaviour and lifestyles for good gover-
nance and sustainability.

The 2013-2018 National Education Sector Plan 
presents a strategy for education and training to 
promote education for sustainable development with 
reference to the UN GAP programme. This led to the 
development of education for sustainable develop-
ment policy for the education sector in 2017 (Wandabi, 
2019b). The policy focuses on providing, promoting 
and coordinating quality lifelong education, training, 
research and innovation for Kenya’s sustainable devel-
opment. Albeit various hurdles, partnerships, collab-
orations and networks have been formed to enhance 
education for sustainable development implementation

(UNESCO, 2009b).
   In tandem with the CBC, the education sector 

policy on education for sustainable development pro-
motes competencies such as critical thinking, creativ-
ity and making decisions in a collaborative way. It is 
indicated that this is to be realized through integrating 
sustainable development into education and vice versa 
(Ministry of Education, 2017). Its implementation is 
particularly to be done in the different education levels 
that include basic education; higher education; teacher 
and technical and vocational training institutions and 
workplace; lifelong learning and non-formal education.

Kenya’s Vision 2030 development blueprint propos-
es policy formulation and curricula reviews to address 
education for sustainable development (Republic of 
Kenya, 2007). The national agencies are expected to 
play a key role in leading as well as supporting learn-
ing opportunities for change towards sustainable 
development across sectors. In Kenya, the education 
for sustainable development national implementation 
strategy uses capacity-building, advocacy, vision-build-
ing, partnerships and co-ordination as key approaches 
to achieve this (UNESCO, 2011). The medium-term plan 
(2008-2012) for Vision 2030 requires that all training 
institutions’ curricula are re-oriented to address sus-
tainable development issues. Already, the development 
of a life skills curricula has been done by the Ministry of 
Education while teachers and education officers have 
been trained and involved in delivering the same sylla-
bus across the country (Wandabi, 2019a).

Among other notable initiatives, the education 
sector has increased financial support for capacity 
development activities and strengthened the Kenya Ed-
ucation Management Institute, the agency for building 
capacities for education managers. Similarly, the Centre 
for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education in 
Africa (CEMASTEA) has been offering pedagogical lead-
ership training to support teachers in implementing 
effective and innovative classroom practices concern-
ing education for sustainable development (Wandabi, 
2019b). Particularly, it has been sensitizing education 
and quality assurance officers and other stakeholders 
on effective management of sustainable and institution-
alized in-service education and training of teachers.

The Environmental Management and Coordination 
Act (1999), Cap 387 provides for effective coordination 
and regulation of all actions that have a direct influence 
on the environment in Kenya (Wandabi, 2019b). Simi-
larly, Section 69 (2) of the Constitution of Kenya stipu-
lates that every person has a duty to cooperate with the

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol. 2



Nyatuka, Education for Sustainable Development in Kenya  92 

relevant national organizations and other stakeholders 
to protect and conserve the environment (Republic of 
Kenya, 2010). This involves ensuring that an ecological-
ly sustainable development and use of natural resourc-
es is promoted. In the National Environment Manage-
ment Authority (NEMA, 2008), the Kenyan strategy 
provides status, communication, facilitative and result 
indicators to monitor the implementation of education 
for sustainable development at all levels. As a result, 
awareness on this venture has steadily increased over 
the years.

On its part, Section 42(4) of the Basic Education Act 
focuses on the promotion of environmental protection, 
especially education for sustainable development (Re-
public of Kenya, 2013). Sessional Paper No.4 of 2012 on 
Reforming Education and Training in Kenya envisaged 
a curriculum that is competence-based to foster quality 
education and enhance the integration of education for 
sustainable development at all levels of education in the 
country (Republic of Kenya, 2017). Indeed, Kenya has 
already rolled out a new competency -based curriculum 
for primary and secondary schools. The curriculum has 
sections that deliberately show how education for sus-
tainable development can be integrated into the curric-
ulum as a pertinent and contemporary issue (Wandabi, 
2019b).

Furthermore, the government has developed a 
Green Economy Strategy and Implementation Plan 
(GESIP, 2016) to address sustainable development 
challenges to achieve its long-term development goals 
as defined in Vision 2030 (Ministry of Education, 
2017). This policy is to enhance the implementation of 
education for sustainable development across sectors 
to enhance the attainment of the SDGs by improving 
quality of education, building capacity at all levels and 
enhancing public understanding and awareness of the 
sustainable development agenda. Accordingly, the 17 
SDGs provide the wider context for further up-scaling 
and mainstreaming education for sustainable develop-
ment in the country.

As a guide to the implementation of the CBC, the 
government developed the Basic Education Curriculum 
Framework (Republic of Kenya, 2017). The framework 
is anchored on values and provides a comprehensive 
conceptualization of reforms in basic education, in-
cluding pre-primary education, primary, secondary 
and inclusive education. This is important since values 
influence how we feel, act and make choices in life. This 
thrust is meant to nurture learners who do the right 
thing at any given time. In spite of the various

documents focusing on education for sustainable 
development, its level of implementation is wanting, 
especially at the basic education level in Kenya. Among 
others, this research review has made a deliberate at-
tempt to consolidate such works for easy reference and 
application. 

Some Success Cases of ESD in Kenya
A number of measures have been undertaken by 

various stakeholders to enhance education for sustain-
able development, especially in the basic education 
institutions in Kenya. One such initiative is the Eco-
schools, an international programme founded in 1994 
and run by the Foundation for Environmental Educa-
tion (Kenya Organization for Environmental Education, 
2020). Among others, it sponsors an environmental ac-
tion-based learning in primary and secondary schools 
as a tool for development. Learning is project-based 
and promotes creativity, critical thinking and prob-
lem-solving. The Eco-Schools and the foundation are 
lead partners in UNESCO’s Global Plan for education 
for sustainable development (Andreou, 2016). Imple-
mented in 60 countries worldwide (Kenya Organization 
for Environmental Education, 2020), its mission is to 
empower students to be the change a sustainable world 
needs through fun and action-oriented activities.

According to Andreou (2016), the programme aims 
at achieving educational goals as well as sustainable de-
velopment through schools as entry points to commu-
nities. This has been implemented in Kenya since 2003, 
growing from a pilot of 12 schools, to over 1,000 prima-
ry and secondary schools across the country as at 2020.
The pilot phase was based on five key components of 
environmental action learning, namely environmen-
tal policy; cross-curriculum teaching and learning; 
micro-projects; school-community partnerships; and 
networks. Funded by the Danish International Develop-
ment Agency and implemented in partnership with the 
Danish Outdoor Council, the main focus themes were 
water, sanitation and hygiene, energy, healthy eating, 
sustainable agriculture, climate change, biodiversity 
and waste management. The cross-cutting themes in-
cluded HIV/AIDS, global citizenship, entrepreneurship, 
and disaster preparedness and management (Wandabi, 
2019b).

The Kenya Organization for Environmental Ed-
ucation (KOEE) has produced relevant theme packs 
for teachers and learners, developed teacher guides, 
a teacher training manual and a handbook (Wandabi, 
2019b) ). In UNESCO (2011), the Eco-Schools

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol. 2



Nyatuka, Education for Sustainable Development in Kenya  93 

programme in Kenya seeks to empower the youth, 
women and the poor; raising public understanding and 
awareness of sustainability; and training in education 
for sustainable development. The relevant projects take 
place through participation of multiple stakeholders, 
including government, civil society and private sector. 
In particular, strategies used by schools to boost sus-
tainable development include advocacy, campaigns 
and vision building, capacity building, teacher training, 
monitoring and evaluation, and creation of school-com-
munity partnerships for purposes of ownership of such 
activities.

Andreou (2016) observes that the Eco-Schools pro-
gramme provides a framework and standards to help 
educators integrate sustainability principles through-
out their schools. These principles are to ensure that 
participants are: engaged in the learning- teaching 
process; empowered to take informed decisions and 
actions on real life sustainability issues; encouraged to 
work together actively and involve their communities 
in collaborative solutions; supported to examine their 
assumptions, knowledge and experiences in order to 
develop critical thinking; and to be open to change. Oth-
er principles are to encourage participants to be aware 
of cultural practices as an integral part of sustainabil-
ity issues; encourage sharing inspirational stories of 
their achievements, failures and values to learn from 
them, and to support each other; continuously explore, 
test and share innovative approaches, methodologies 
and techniques; and ensure continuous improvement 
through monitoring and evaluation of the programmes. 
The programmes offer methodological tools for schools 
and communities to evaluate their own challenges; 
assess risks and develop the solutions. Most important-
ly, the schools are guided to re-orient existing curricula 
around sustainable development themes, and work 
collaboratively with their local communities to develop 
practical projects.

The Indian Ocean Programme is a regional frame-
work to integrate themes of sustainable development, 
climate change and risk reduction into national educa-
tion systems, and strengthen cooperation to address 
the unique vulnerabilities of the region (Andreou, 
2016). It involves 72 Eco-Schools, with a population 
of at least 25,000 students. Activities at school include 
food production, rainwater harvesting, soil stabiliza-
tion, sanitation and waste management. It is reported 
that the most successful schools are those that have 
built strong partnerships between governmental insti-
tutions, NGOs, and the private sector. Among others,

this is particularly important in addressing the dam-
aging day-to-day effects of climate change that include 
rise in sea level, soil erosion, flooding, water shortages 
and high frequency of natural disasters. 

The Eco-schools programme in Kenya particular-
ly responds to the Green Economy Agenda through 
promotion of green enterprise development in schools 
and community (Wandabi, 2019b). Initiated by the 
Kenya Organization for Environmental Education and 
other partners, the project seeks to transform schools 
into models of sustainability for communities. Its main 
objective is to inculcate a greening culture to youth in 
schools by mentoring and engaging them in hands-on 
green growth initiatives for sustainability of commu-
nities. The project has been implemented in a dozen 
primary schools from Kwale, Makueni, Embu, Kirinyaga, 
Bomet and Kisumu Counties. A teacher’s guidebook on 
green enterprise development for schools in Kenya was 
developed in consultation with teachers from schools 
participating in the Schools Green Challenge Project, 
the Ministry of Education and the Royal Danish Embas-
sy in Kenya.

Similarly, the Kenya Organization for Environmen-
tal Education has implemented a sustainable Water, 
Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) project under the 
Eco-Schools programme in Vihiga County. The goal is to 
improve access and reliable safe water in schools and 
community (Kenya Organization for Environmental Ed-
ucation, 2020). The project entails sinking simple wells 
to enhance provision of water to ensure accessible safe 
water in schools; installing water harvesting tanks in 
the schools to have a water harvesting system; build-
ing the capacity of school communities by installing a 
hand wash point in each of the participating schools; 
and building capacity of communities to practice sus-
tainable water management, sanitation and hygiene 
through training.

The Eco-Schools Litter Less Campaign Project aims 
at reducing waste and foster long-term positive be-
haviour change among the youth (Kenya Organization 
for Environmental Education, 2020). Over 45 schools, 
3,000 students and 200 teachers have so far been 
involved in the campaign in Kenya. The main objective 
is to raise awareness of the effect of litter on the local 
environment and wider community, increase student 
knowledge and practical skills in preventing and man-
aging litter. It also seeks to enhance collaboration with 
other schools to promote education for sustainable de-
velopment and influence others by communicating with 
them through multimedia platforms and other

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol. 2



Nyatuka, Education for Sustainable Development in Kenya  94 

channels. The relevant campaign activities include 
waste management within and around the schools in-
volved; community action days for schools to showcase 
their work to the surrounding community; and joint 
communication campaigns by schools through social 
media platforms to create awareness on issues of waste 
management. More recently, the Kenya Organization 
for Environmental Education has teamed up with other 
partners to promote plastic recycling through Eco-
Schools (Wandabi, 2019b).

Also, the Eco-Schools programme introduced a 
value-based approach to promoting education for 
sustainable development, and as a measure to enhance 
sustainability as a whole (Kenya Organization for Envi-
ronmental Education, 2020). Among others, it aims at 
delivering quality education that imparts knowledge, 
skills, attitudes and values from religious teachings. 
These are considered as instruments for entrench-
ing faith-based values into education for sustainable 
development in schools, while promoting action for 
the environment with faith as the motivation. To date, 
a total of 50 schools have been involved in the initia-
tive. The project produced a faith-based education for 
sustainable development teachers’ toolkit for schools 
that illustrated an approach of solving a society’s devel-
opment issues using faith. According to the Republic of 
Kenya (2017), the country has been putting emphasis 
on approaches that promote whole institution devel-
opment of education for sustainable development. The 
Eco-School programme is considered to be an effective 
whole institution approach in mainstreaming sustain-
ability into all aspects of the learning environment.

In conjunction with MASHAV, a Hebrew acronym for 
Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooper-
ation, Kenya’s Ministry of Education and the Kenya Sec-
ondary Schools Heads Association established a joint 
project directed towards the promotion and imple-
mentation of education for sustainable development, 
to become an integral element in curricula of learning 
institutions (MASHAV, 2013). The ultimate goal of the 
joint project is to establish a national network of educa-
tion for sustainable development in the country, includ-
ing setting up demonstration centres which will serve 
as a source of training for the remaining school. One of 
the principles is ‘Think Global, Act Local’, meaning that 
awareness of the global crisis is important but action 
should be taken at the local level. The model provides 
schools and the community with the necessary tools 
for assessing their actual needs and existing resources. 
This model was launched in August 2013 at the Joel

Omino secondary school in Kisumu County. It includes 
teaching as well as learning technology, science, history 
and democracy, among others. This has successfully 
been applied in water purification; organic agriculture; 
economics and entrepreneurship, including estab-
lishment of an organic bakery; knowledge of building 
traditional houses; and utilizing recycled materials for 
art work.

 The WWF-Kenya organization has made effort to 
integrate sustainable development into teaching and 
learning in basic education institutions by inculcat-
ing participatory pedagogical methods (WWF-Kenya, 
2020). In particular, the organization’s marine pro-
gramme works with schools in the country’s coastal 
region to promote education for sustainable develop-
ment. Interactions are through discussions, lectures, 
presentations and mentorship. The successful projects 
implemented by schools include establishment of 
school gardens, tree planting and engagement in com-
munity service, for example, beach clean-up exercise 
on both the World Environment Day and International 
Coastal Clean-up celebrations. In addition, the orga-
nization continues to offer scholarships for girls from 
poor backgrounds within the islands surrounding Lamu 
County and its environs.

Furthermore, the Wildlife Clubs of Kenya have 
published an environmental education resource book 
for teachers and learners of primary and secondary 
schools, while Nature Kenya has produced an education 
for sustainable development resource book for both 
students and teachers called ‘Learning for Sustainable 
Living in Kenya’ (Wandabi, 2019b). Apart from these 
organizations, many NGOs are involved in offering 
skills-focused training for community-based innova-
tions involving marketing, product sales and sustain-
ability. The African Fund for Endangered Wildlife in 
Kenya provides training to school children, teachers 
and community groups on environmental conservation.

But, given that only a few primary and secondary 
schools have made laudable efforts with respect to 
embracing education for sustainable development 
means that much more requires to be done by the 
various stakeholders to bring the rest of the institutions 
on board. Indeed, making such a move is quite crucial 
in order to achieve the objectives of this pedagogical 
paradigm shift as well as the Competency-Based Curric-
ulum, especially at the basic cycle of learning in Kenya. 
In the following section, an elaborate discussion on 
challenges facing education for sustainable implemen-
tation in Kenya, as well as possible solutions is made.

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol. 2



Nyatuka, Education for Sustainable Development in Kenya  95 

Challenges Facing ESD and Proposed Solutions.
Although sound education for sustainable develop-

ment serves as a panacea for most of the pedagogical, 
environmental and socio-economic issues we contend 
with today, there are many challenges that require to be 
addressed so as to realize the desired outcomes. Arm-
strong (2011) opines that education for sustainable 
development offers a renewed vision for educational 
policy and practice fully in tune with the needs and 
issues of the 21st Century. Unfortunately, the concept of 
education for sustainable development is yet to be fully 
understood by many stakeholders in Kenya (Wandabi, 
2019a), leave alone the few experts in this area to fa-
cilitate the appropriate processes of teaching, learning, 
creating awareness and understanding education for 
sustainability (UNESCO, 2019). Due to this, the develop-
ment of adequate and relevant materials still remain a 
challenge. This calls for the various networks of experts 
as well as interested groups to enhance and strengthen 
the capacity-building processes. 

According to Sterling (2014), the key role in re-
alizing sustainable development is often ignored, 
downplayed or under-estimated. Often, it is viewed in 
isolation from the other instruments of change. In the 
sustainable development debate therefore, embracing 
appropriate education should always be emphasized. 
Despite the success of the international initiatives in 
this front, there are instances where much sustainable 
development discourse and policy underplay the role 
of education, and vice versa.. Essentially, sustainable 
development should be embedded in basic education 
such that there is both mutual benefit and accelerated 
positive effect, sufficient to win breakthrough towards 
an economically secure, ecologically stable and socially 
just society.

Opanda (2013) asserts that the limited progress 
in the provision of education for sustainable develop-
ment is partly due to lack of vision, awareness, policy 
framework and funding. Notably, there is little effort 
that has been strategically made to mainstream sustain-
able development in teacher education programmes, 
especially at the basic education level. Hence, there is 
a gap in both the body of knowledge and actual prac-
tices of many teacher educators in this area. Yet, the 
contribution of teacher trainers is key in the delivery of 
the same. According to Armstrong (2011), pedagogical 
innovation has been slower to develop. This calls for 
appropriate intervention measures. 

Wandabi (2019b) notes that there is little evidence 
of attention or investment in the capacity-building of 

educators, facilitators or curriculum developers with 
regard to education for sustainable development. Arm-
strong (2011) observes that this scenario is worsened 
by the nature of integration of education for sustainable 
development that is often complex, while the curricula 
is examination-oriented and overloaded with content as 
well as learning outcomes. Thus, the weak integration 
of education for sustainable development, especially in 
basic education needs well designed pre-service and 
in-service teacher training programmes.

 Ganira and Odundo (2018) observe that emphasis 
is often given to the cognitive domain rather than the 
affective and psychomotor ones, thereby undermining 
the purpose of education for sustainable development. 
Additionally, UNESCO (2011) holds that whereas sus-
tainable development has been partially embedded in 
the formal education institutions, there is little atten-
tion being paid to the non-formal and informal curricu-
la. Also, the pedagogical approaches used in the differ-
ent educational settings are often inappropriate. 

The lack of synergy between education for sustain-
able development activities sometimes leads to dupli-
cation of certain initiatives like teacher training and 
inefficient use and development of relevant resources 
(UNESCO, 2011). Again, innovations from the commu-
nity-based organizations and other small groups in 
society do not always get adequate support for their 
projects. Partially, this is a result of government bureau-
cracy and lack of resources in implementing this kind of 
education. Furthermore, UNESCO (2011) reports that 
most community-based organizations have not been 
able to influence policy in the country due to lack of 
education for sustainable development awareness and 
commitment. Other challenges are to do with bridg-
ing the gap between what happens at home and what 
is taught in schools; pressure on teachers within the 
workplace; linking infrastructural change to the mind-
set change and strengthening community engagement 
(Milne, 2019).

In particular, Kenya’s Competency-Based Curricu-
lum, which considers education for sustainable devel-
opment as a critical contemporary issue, has experi-
enced challenges to do with its implementation. These 
range from inadequate teacher training through poor 
infrastructure to huge budgetary implications. Worth 
noting is that some of these challenges revolve around 
poor governance, corporate irresponsibility, lack of 
accountability, inefficient and wasteful production 
systems. Such challenges usually lead to unsustainable 
utilization of the natural resources, resulting into their

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol. 2



Nyatuka, Education for Sustainable Development in Kenya  96 

degradation (Wandabi, 2019b). Milne (2019) argues 
that there is need to have ethos in schools that openly 
and enthusiastically support education for sustainable 
development. Clearly, this partly goes down to the cur-
riculum that schools follow, and the interest and effort 
shown by the senior management in promoting such 
integration.
Milne (2019) concludes that to attain education for 
sustainable development, there should be both the 
physical as well as mindset changes. The physical 
change involves examining how schools, households 
and businesses can reduce, say, their waste, conserve 
water and energy and focus on more sustainable 
responses in general. On the other hand, the mindset 
change involves raising environmental understanding, 
awareness and action programmes through workshops 
and cross-curricular activities meant to give employees 
and learners a voice. Indeed, taking such relevant steps 
will go a long way towards strengthening the provision 
of ESD in basic education. 

The Way Forward
To create a world that is more just, peaceful and 

sustainable, all individuals and societies must be 
equipped and empowered by knowledge, skills and 
values as well as heightened awareness to drive such 
change. This includes learning to respect others and 
appreciating the environment, as well as giving back to 
society. This could be achieved through relevant sem-
inars, workshops, resources and activities, whether at 
home, school or community. To enhance the success 
of such initiatives, preparation of carefully designed 
action plans to facilitate application of ESD, particularly 
in basic education is paramount.

Since teacher education is a critical aspect to be 
considered, there is need to bolster inclusion of sus-
tainable development in the teacher education pro-
grammes. Such training should include appropriate 
content, pedagogy as well as development and acquisi-
tion of the necessary resources. Milne (2019) empha-
sizes that with trained and motivated teachers, it is far 
easier to inspire and motivate learners. 

Critical thinking, imagination, learning to learn, 
communication and collaboration, are among the 
core competencies emphasized in the basic education 
curriculum in Kenya. Although the CBC is designed to 
achieve these, there is need for strong partnerships and 
more participatory evaluation mechanisms to enhance 
the quality of education for sustainable development 
programmes.

Conclusion
Like the rest of the countries in the globe, sustain-

able development issues in Kenya are complex, dynamic 
and interlinked. Embracing sustainable development 
and global citizenship education are considered to 
be the main solutions to these challenges. The latter 
entails peace and human rights education, intercultural 
education and education for international understand-
ing. In particular, these should include the aspects of 
shaping the quality of training of specialists and hu-
mankind, using formal, non-formal, inclusive and demo-
cratically oriented models of education and science 
(Kondur, et al, 2020). Accordingly, countries should 
promote the availability of educational tools, teaching 
aids and textbooks for sustainable development to all 
who need them. But to achieve this, synergy among the 
initiatives taken as well as greater support from the 
various stakeholders is paramount. 

Indeed, Sterling (2014) advises that unless the var-
ious stakeholders, including policy-makers, legislators, 
businesses, the media and civil society are involved in 
learning processes, the SDGs cannot be achieved. Ed-
ucation can enhance the effectiveness of each of these 
instruments through developing informed engagement, 
agency and empowerment among all the affected stake-
holders. It can also build lasting change, because it is 
owned by the learner and touches both the heart and 
mind.

 Although Kenya has made some milestones in 
rolling out a competency-based curriculum in the basic 
education institutions, there are still many challeng-
es that need to be addressed in order to successfully 
implement it. These include producing the relevant 
education for sustainable development pedagogical 
materials, enhancing professional capacities, promotion 
of research, strengthening cooperation, communication 
and partnerships and the establishment of monitoring 
and evaluation processes. Going forward, formulation 
of action plans for implementation and appropriately 
training both present and future professionals in all 
sectors should be based on the basic ideas of education 
for sustainable development.

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol. 2



Nyatuka, Education for Sustainable Development in Kenya  97 

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Abstract
Education is a trillion-dollar industry, with a growing population thirsty for knowledge. There has been 

tremendous influx of graduates in this industry, seeking self-reliance because obtaining a decent job upon 
graduation remains a nightmare in developing countries. Consequently, the surroundings of state and private 
universities in Cameroon are overcrowded with educational subsidiary enterprises created by graduates. Most 
of these enterprises intend to metamorphose into giant self-reliant enterprises while mitigating the problem 
of graduate unemployment. This rarely happens as most of the enterprises end at ground level, while others 
close down in less than 5 years. A question arises: What prevents these small and medium-sized education 
businesses from thriving? This study surveyed 210 small and medium-sized educational firms selected 
through clustering technique. The SWOT analysis technique was used to determine the strengths, weaknesses, 
opportunities, and threats to these firms. Results revealed little or no leadership or wealth creation education 
as a major weakness, that threatens these businesses from thriving. The multiple regression further confirms 
the absence of transformational leadership education as a statistical predictor to setbacks in these firms. Key 
recommendations call for mainstreaming pragmatic transformational and strategic leadership education in 
higher education courses, using the case of the faculty of education of the University of Yaoundé I. Learners 
should be introduced to the world of business through meaningful partnership with the world of work and 
quality entrepreneurship courses.

Keywords: Strategic leadership, Transformational leadership, Wealth creation, Educational enterprises

Teneng, P. P.
Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2 
DOI 10.14434/gjte.v2i1.31229 

Open Access

Published by the Global Insitutute of Transformative Education (http://www.gite.education)
© Teneng, P. P. 2020. Open Access This journal is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 
NonCommercial NonDerivative 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which 
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction without revision in any non-commercial medium, provided you 
give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license,

Transformational Leadership and Wealth Creation in Educational 
Organizations: The Case of Higher Education in Cameroon

Patience P. Teneng

Full listing of authors and contacts can be 
found at the end of this article.

Introduction
Education is more than a trillion-dollar industry 

which is booming, maybe because of a growing glob-
al population with a keen thirst for knowledge. But 
the question of how well today’s universities prepare 
students for an uncertain future of work constitutes 
the prime concern for this industry. The nature of the 
education industry is extremely specific as compared 
to other tangible and non-tangible commodity markets. 
This is so because human beings are at the center of 
every action, constituting the major input, being at the 
center of the processing, and as end products as well. 
Thus, a school cannot be managed like a super market. 
Individuals intending to, or already into the supply of 
education and training are required to possess relevant 
entrepreneurial skills in educational leadership. The 
European Commission (2013) views this type of leader-
ship as educational experts with the ability to concieve,

design, plan and operate an educational project with 
significant impacts on participants. These experts 
should be skilled to significantly link education and 
the economic development of the nation as well. They 
should hold profiles of teachers, planners, inspectors in 
education, school curriculum designers, school admin-
istrators, managers, educational leaders, to name a few. 
The success of every business, including educational 
enterprises, requires the possession of entrepreneur-
ial skills. Among these skills are wealth creation skills 
which are crucial for a well-grounded and sustained 
growth of enterprises. In this connection, the rapid rise 
and fall of small and medium-size enterprises in most 
countries around the world has been blamed on leader-
ship lapses. This was confirmed in a study by the Cana-
dian government in 2001 cited in Rowe (2001), which 
revealed that two important reasons why small and me-
dium size firms become bankrupt and close down are 
poor overall management skills and imperfect capital 
structures. The poor management skills include lack of



Teneng, Transformational Leadership and Weath Creation 100

knowledge, lack of vision, and poor use of outside 
advisers. The imperfect capital structures result from 
either institutional constraints or lack of experience in 
management. The same study concluded that the way 
forward is effective leadership skill courses comprising 
of wealth creation skills, financial training and strategic 
leadership skills. 

A study carried out by the National Institute of Sta-
tistics (2019) between 2009 and 2016 showed that the 
problem is compounded in Cameroon, revealing shock-
ing figures on the premature sinking of small and me-
dium-sized enterprises. According to this report pub-
lished in March 2019, 96% of sinking enterprises are 
small and medium-sized as against 04% of huge firms, 
with a total of 2, 316 enterprises that disappeared in 
this period. However, the report did not extend its reach 
to capture statistics on specific domains which could 
perhaps provide information on the state of education 
enterprises. An important note by this report was that 
only enterprises formally registered were sampled 
amidst an explosion of unregistered firms, particularly 
around the urban cities. Alternatively, this paper inves-
tigates private (non-government) formal and non-for-
mal enterprises alike which are specifically involved 
in education and training activities (general teaching, 
technical and vocational training, writing, consulting 
enterprises, those in charge of preparing individuals 
for competitive entrance exams into public service jobs, 
study abroad issues, and language proficiency tests). 
The study by the National Institute of Statistics (2009) 
also highlighted aspects of human capital (education 
and training, experience, age and sex), which are of 
prime interest in this paper. Field statistics in this paper 
demonstrate high lapses in leadership skills (entrepre-
neurship, management, wealth creation skills) by those 
running these small and medium-sized education busi-
nesses in Yaoundé. Simply put, a considerable number 
of CEOs, administrators, and personnel running these 
small education enterprises confirmed to have acquired 
university education with no relevant entrepreneurship 
programs embedded. Graduates with certificates in 
education revealed that their involvement in education-
al business does not tie with their initial career objec-
tives to occupy positions in public service, because of 
the prevailing unemployment situation in the country. 
According to NGU & Teneng (2020), 4.2% of the active 
labor force is currently unemployed. The underem-
ployment situation is estimated at 7 on 10 individuals 
(71.75%). This is more acute in rural areas with 78.8% 
and 57.4% in urban centers (Cameroon, 2010, 44).

These authors also held that even though the public 
service has been able to absorb over 500,000 Cameroo-
nians in the past years, the problem of graduate unem-
ployment continues to be a call for concern because 
of the overwhelming number of unemployed graduate 
youths. The billion and one-dollar question is: What 
will become of these ready-to-work graduate youths 
in the face of limited job opportunities in the coun-
try? Most of them resort to the creation of educational 
enterprises for subsistence with the hope of growing 
them to bigger firms. Yet their efforts are short lived 
because their enterprises cannot stand the test of time. 
As these enterprises close down, their owners complain 
that their university education did not equip them with 
graduate skills for wealth creation or finding work in 
the private sector. The consequences are glaring as 
these entrepreneurs affirmed that their businesses 
are limited to the provision of daily bread, and nothing 
more. Others only operate seasonally when competitive 
entrance exams into public service jobs are launched. 
This is a peak period for such businesses when many 
candidates come seeking for preparatory classes in or-
der to succeed in these exams. During interviews with 
the owners of these businesses, they revealed that ma-
jority of their businesses die off within a year. Based on 
such a morose situation, non-educational business men 
with very little or no mastery of the dynamics of the ed-
ucation sector have hijacked the educational enterprise 
for their capitalist gains. This demonstrates the failure 
of education faculty in higher education to impart the 
right skills for their learners to become strategic/trans-
formational leaders in the educational enterprise. This 
is happening at a time when the future of education 
seems to be undergoing a paradigm shift into the fourth 
industrial revolution where technology is transforming 
how we live, work, play and think, making the problem 
of lack of skills more serious. According to (World Bank, 
2019), 

a wide range of occupations will require a high 
degree of cognitive abilities, such as creativity, 
logical reasoning and problem sensitivity as part 
of their core skill set. More than half of these do 
not yet do so today or only to a much smaller 
extent. 

Today’s education systems should equip youths 
with quality skills to thrive in tomorrow’s world. Any 
continuous failure by today’s educational systems to 
arrest this disastrous situation wil permanently allow 
education into the hands of these capitalists whose

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



101

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2

Teneng, Transformational Leadership and Weath Creation

main objective is monetary gains, there by returning 
the status of human beings to machines as was the case 
at the heart of the 18th century industrial revolution. 
In Cameroon for example, most schools in the private 
sector are owned by non-educational businessmen, 
who sometimes employ teachers with tertiary certifi-
cates in education to teach in the classrooms, and some-
times serve as administrators for minimal wages. This 
raises the question of why educators are not leading in 
the educational enterprise? Why have they simply re-
mained employees and not employers in the education-
al enterprise? The small and medium sized educational 
businesses created by some educators such as capacity 
building training centers, rural education networks, 
evening schools, multi-education services and consult-
ing firms have remained at ground levels. As a result, 
the economic condition of this category of persons has 
remained wanting. 

This work set out to investigate the extent to which 
education and training at the faculty of education in the 
University of Yaoundé I equips graduates with strate-
gic/transformational leadership skills that can lead to 
wealth creation and sustainably enhance the growth 
of the education industry. To do this, the following 
research questions have been formulated to guide the 
study: 

Research Questions:
1. To what extent does a university teaching(policy)

influence the existence of a well-grounded wealth
creation plan in educational enterprises in Camer-
oon?

2. To what extent does university curriculum content
influence strategic/transformational leadership of
graduates (wealth creation skills) in educational
enterprises?

3. What is the relationship between teaching-learning
models and graduates’ strategic/transformational 
leadership skills (wealth creation) in educational 
firms?

4. What is the impact of mainstreaming modes of
entrepreneurial education model in the faculty of
education on leadership in educational firms?

Conceptual literature

Leadership - The concept of leadership has been a 
crossroad of intellectual and pragmatic flexing among 
CEOs, researchers, writers, politicians, civil society ac-
tivists, and the list is inexhaustable. Some experts

believe leadership means making a difference and 
transforming situations that seemed impossible, (Rowe, 
2001). To others like Fonkeng and Tamanjong (2009), 
it is the ability of a manager to influence subordinates 
to voluntarily make efforts towards achieving organi-
zational goals. These authors insist on the fact that per-
sonal skills and social attributes are crucial for leaders 
to succeed in an organization. 

According to Farant (1980), the use of the concept 
‘leadership’ without tying it to a specific domain or ac-
tivity seems more confusing. This author explains that 
leadership skills are quite specific to context, though 
some common variables can be observed relating to the 
overall success of the organization. In this light, we can 
make mention of a religious leader, political leaders, 
CEO of a car manufacturing industry, the leader of a 
development and cultural association, the school prin-
cipal, and the list is long. In relation to the leadership 
type that concerns this study (strategic/ transforma-
tional leadership in education or educational leader-
ship), Bush and Glover (2012) define it as:

“… a process of influence, leading to the achieve-
ment of desired purposes. It involves inspiring 
and supporting others towards the achievement 
of a vision for the school which is based in clear 
personal and professional values”. 
 However, the concept of leadership has evolved 

based on the functions, actions, risk taking, scope 
of interactions, and the targets they are expected to 
meet with specified time limits. Based on this, various 
conceptualizations like strategic leadership, manage-
rial leadership, visionary leadership, transformational 
leadership, and transactional leadership have taken 
center stage in this debate. A clearer explanation of 
these concepts is presented below. 

Managerial leadership - These are leaders con-
cerned with the day-to-day running of the organization. 
To Fonkeng and Tamanjong (2009), managerial lead-
ership simply means getting things satisfactorily done 
with a tactful use of available resources. This means 
that managers are more concerned with the manipula-
tion of existing resources (human, material, and finan-
cial) so as to meet organizational goals. In the same 
light, Rowe (2001) asserts that managerial leaders 
may influence just the actions and decisions of those 
with whom they work. To him, they possess expertise 
in the operational and functional areas of the 
enterprise. However, they may make decisions that are 
not value-based. This does not mean that they are not 



102

with a tactful use of available resources. This means 
that managers are more concerned with the manip-
ulation of existing resources (human, material, and 
financial) so as to meet organizational goals. In the 
same light, Rowe (2001) asserts that managerial 
leaders may influence just the actions and decisions 
of those with whom they work. To him, they possess 
expertise in the operational and functional areas of the 
enterprise. However, they may make decisions that are 
not value-based. This does not mean that they are not 
ethical and professional, but that they are rather under 
pressure to meet performance standards, thus limiting 
their scope of action. The observation in the past years 
is that managerial leadership has failed woefully in 
their tasks, as poor management decisions have rather 
destroyed organizational resources. This is true for the 
educational industry in Cameroon as small and medi-
um sized educational firms have hardly survived a five 
years’ infancy span, (National Institutes of Statistics, 
2019). This discourse does not imply that this type of 
leadership is not needed in an enterprise. It is to rather 
inform readers that competent managerial leaders can 
only maintain existing wealth in a firm, but can hardly 
create any. 

Visionary Leadership
In recent years, visionary leadership has been 

touted to be a preferred leadership option for most 
firms, including educational institutions. It is concerned 
with future orientations and risk-taking of the firm. In 
this direction, Rowe (2001) contends that this type of 
leadership maintains organizational control via social-
ization and fixed set of norms. It follows that visionary 
leadership deals with the inspirational component of 
transformational leadership. This confirms the fact that 
visionary leadership, though considered by some as 
mare dreaming for the future, is required for the future 
viability of the firm. However, an enterprise under such 
leaderships without strong managerial leadership ac-
companying it is liable to a down to earth failure. In this 
light, some experts posit that education leaders are not 
visionary, for they may be unable to provide even a five-
year plan for their schools. This means they are limited 
to managerial leaders. Thus, they may need to consult 
the expertise of visionary leaders in order to better po-
sition themselves for future trends and threats amidst 
the absence of a grounded strategy to arrive at long-
term or future targets. To say that visionary leaders 
may forecasts the future correctly, but lack a pragmatic 
realization strategy to meet these future challenges.

Teneng, Transformational Leadership and Weath Creation

ethical and professional, but that they are rather under 
pressure to meet performance standards, thus limiting 
their scope of action. The observation in the past years 
is that managerial leadership has failed woefully in 
their tasks, as poor management decisions have rather 
destroyed organizational resources. This is true for the 
educational industry in Cameroon as small and medi-
um sized educational firms have hardly survived a five 
years’ infancy span, (National Institutes of Statistics, 
2019). This discourse does not imply that this type of 
leadership is not needed in an enterprise. It is to rather 
inform readers that competent managerial leaders can 
only maintain existing wealth in a firm, but can hardly 
create any. 

Visionary Leadership
In recent years, visionary leadership has been 

touted to be a preferred leadership option for most 
firms, including educational institutions. It is concerned 
with future orientations and risk-taking of the firm. In 
this direction, Rowe (2001) contends that this type of 
leadership maintains organizational control via social-
ization and fixed set of norms. It follows that visionary 
leadership deals with the inspirational component of 
transformational leadership. This confirms the fact that 
visionary leadership, though considered by some as 
mare dreaming for the future, is required for the future 
viability of the firm. However, an enterprise under such 
leaderships without strong managerial leadership ac-
companying it is liable to a down-to-earth failure. In 
this light, some experts posit that education leaders are 
not visionary, for they may be unable to provide even a 
five-year plan for their schools. This means they are 
limited to managerial leaders. Thus, they may need to 
consult the expertise of visionary leaders in order to 
better po-sition themselves for future trends and 
threats amidst the absence of a grounded strategy to 
arrive at long-term or future targets. To say that 
visionary leaders may forecasts the future correctly, 
but lack a pragmatic realization strategy to meet these 
future challenges. But a major lapse with these leaders 
is that they are more disordered in maintaining present 
financial stability of the firm. 

Strategic and Transformational Leadership

Managerial leadership - These are leaders con-
cerned with the day-to-day running of the organization. 
To Fonkeng and Tamanjong (2009), managerial leader-
ship simply means getting things satisfactorily done

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



Teneng, Transformational Leadership and Weath Creation  103

But a major lapse with these leaders is that they are 
more disordered in maintaining present financial sta-
bility of the firm. 

Strategic leadership comes from the Greek word 
strategos, meaning a general in command in the army, 
which later evolved by 450 BC to include managerial 
skills, leadership, oratory and power. By 350 BC, it 
evolved to mean the ability to employ forces to defeat 
opposing forces, and to develop a unified system for 
global governance, (Rowe,2001). This concept is used 
in this study to have the same meaning as transfor-
mational leadership. This author further explains that 
strategic leadership is the most preferred type by most 
organizations today, as it has repeatedly resolved the 
lapses contained in other forms of leaderships includ-
ing transactional leadership, managerial and visionary 
leaderships alike. Strategic leadership maintains short-
term operations and financial stability, while devising a 
grounded strategy for success in future bargains. This 
means that the strategic leader understands the emer-
gent strategy process considered very important in 
organizational performance as compared to planning. 
It is also referred to as entrepreneurial leadership in 
education in this study and is used to describe individ-
uals who have been equipped with relevant skills in the 
domain of education to be able to initiate, create, and 
run education businesses with commendable success. 

According to Burns (1978), cited in Odumeru & 
Ifanyi (2013), Transformational leadership has been 
recently introduced. These authors further maintained 
that: 

“Transformational leadership enhances the mo-
tivation, morale, and performance of followers 
through a variety of mechanisms. These includes 
connecting the followers’ sense of identity, and 
self to the project, and collective identity to the 
organization; being a role model for followers 
that inspires them, and makes them interested; 
challenging followers to take greater ownership 
for their work, and understanding the strengths 
and weaknesses of followers, so the leader can 
align followers with task that enhance their per-
formance”. (Odumeru & Ifanyi, 2013, p. 356). 

To Robins and Coulter as cited by Odumeru & Ifanyi 
(2013), a transformative leader is someone who creates 
positive change in followers, and in the organization. 
They pay attention to developmental issues of the or-
ganization, stimulate and inspire followers to approach 
old problems in a new way. They have the continuous

appetite to take the organization to another level, and 
giving it a better look as before(transform). Strategic 
leadership and transformational leadership have the 
same goals to meet, to take the organization to another 
level, and prepare it to overcome future challenges. It is 
for this reason that both leadership styles aim to 
perform above expected standards, maintain the 
present state of the firm, while working for heavy 
future achievements. 

 However, transformational leadership slides a bit 
from strategic style in that it is strongly tied to totally 
changing both the inner and outer look of the organi-
zation, whereas strategic leadership may be satisfied 
with an internal sustainable growth of the firm. Trans-
formational leadership works more with followers 
transformed by the leaders themselves to hit defined 
targets, while strategic leaders better manage existing 
human resources to hit defined targets. However, the 
domain of education needs more of transformational 
leadership, since the inputs, machines, and outputs are 
human beings. Therefore, significant transformation is 
required, so to prepare key, and support staff to meet 
organizational goals more than expected. 

Transformational Leadership and Wealth Creation
The concept of wealth creation in enterprises 

simply means securing sustainable financial resources, 
quality human and innovative infrastructural resourc-
es that will keep the enterprise growing in an upward 
trend for the present and for the future. Linking this to 
leadership can better be understood via the paradox 
of leading and managing per se. Rowe (2001) contends 
that wealth creation is at its best in enterprises with 
transformational leadership because these leaders 
make appropriate investments for viable future bar-
gains, while maintaining the present financial state 
appropriately. These leaders have the skills to influence 
a critical mass of managers and personnel to make 
essential decisions that enhance stability in the daily 
operations of the enterprises, and for future viability 
as well. On the side of pure visionary leadership, the 
creation of wealth is faced with much difficulty as there 
is lack of an emergent strategy, or what is known as a 
pragmatic plan towards future viability of the firm. This 
type of leadership is poised with significant disorder in 
maintaining present stability of the firm. It falls square-
ly with the logic that “a vision without transformative 
strategy makes no sense, unlike a strategy without action 
is worse than zero.” Some schools of thought confirm the 
above, maintaining that enterprises can still flourish

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



Teneng, Transformational Leadership and Weath Creation 104

with managerial leadership given they are well trained 
with transactional and transformational skills. Authors 
like Bass & Bass Bernard, (1985) and Yuki, (1994), 
think that transactional leaders manage, while transfor-
mational leaders lead. Thus, transaction and transfor-
mation are two sides of the same coin: to manage and 
to lead. In this light, transactional leadership means en-
suring the day-to-day running of the enterprise through 
the motivation, reward and punishment of workers, 
whereas transformational leadership prepares strong 
grounds for the enterprise to face future challenges.

However, transformational leadership has evolved a 
lot in relation to wealth creation since all other forms of 
leadership or leadership characterizations are inherent. 
Transformational leadership is thus a contingency mod-
el as it encompasses all other forms of leadership as 
seen above. In the educational domain, as in this study, 
most of the graduates who own businesses are the 
ones running their institutions. The sluggish growth, 
stagnation and probable closure of these enterprises 
demonstrates lapses in their higher education training, 
which surely failed to equip them with transformation-
al leadership skills.

Related Literature

Transformational Leadership in Higher Education
Educational institutions have always craved for 

adaptive changes in order to respond to the demands of 
the job market. This phenomenon dates back from the 
industrial revolution, when industries dictated and con-
trolled education and training dynamics to their bene-
fit. It was in this light, Davies & Davies (2004) insisted 
on the urgent need for transformational educational 
leaders as they explained in a 9-point memorandum 
which encompasses organizational abilities and indi-
vidual abilities as seen below:

1. Strategic leaders have the following abilities:
- Be strategically oriented
- Translate strategy into action
- Align people and organizations
- Determine strategic intervention points
- Develop strategic competencies

2. Strategic leaders have the following personal
characteristics:
- Dissatisfaction, restlessness for the present
- Absorptive capacity
- Adaptive capacity
- Wisdom

This author concludes that any other leadership 
components are incorporated in the scope of strategic 
leadership, hence making it the ideal type needed by 
schools to survive and sustain the turbulence of today’s 
environment. Also, Davies & Ellison (1997) explained 
that the dynamic of the 21st Century knowledge econ-
omy poses great fears for an uncertain future, as the 
world is moving into the fourth industrial revolution. 
School leaders must anticipate this uncertainty and 
device strategic action plans to train graduates to face 
the future volatile labor market. In relation to this 
study, starters and administrators of small education 
businesses need such skills so as to think and act big 
for a sustained growth of their enterprises. This will 
significantly step up livelihoods, employment, and the 
economy. 

Theoretical considerations
A multitude of leadership theories have animated 

the discourse about which is the best to be used in what 
type of organization? Also, the debate of how to train 
in higher education for graduates to be equipped with 
specific leadership skills has been central as well. The-
ories like bureaucracy, administrative management, the 
concept of team spirit, systems and structural views, 
behavioral approach, motivational approach and man-
agement by objectives have been center stage in the 
debate. Henry Fayol (1951); Frederick Taylor (1911); 
MacGregor (1960); Elton Mayo (1946); Bernard and 
Simon (1940); Kreitner, (1995); as cited by Fonkeng 
and Tamajong (2009), believe that educational leaders 
are required to be cultured on various theoretical foun-
dations of leadership to be able to influence leaders to 
graduate with the same skills. In addition to the above 
theoretical foundations of leadership, Burn’s theory of 
transformational leadership has been considered as an 
overhaul of traditional approaches to current trends. 
This theory states that the leadership process is based 
on the mutual help of the leader and the subordinates 
for motivation and to increase their morale. His theory 
is believed to be consistent with present democratic 
norms, and most essentially as it emphasizes on the 
moral and educative nature of relationships between 
the leaders and the followers. Burn described trans-
forming leaders as those who work to positively change 
followers to become leaders for the growth of the 
organization. To him, transforming leaders strive for 
cultural change in an organization, which is not the case 
with transactional leaders. Thus, transforming leaders 
are exemplary models who work for the team/group,

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



Teneng, Transformational Leadership and Weath Creation 105

organization and for the community (Burns, 1978). 
Burn’s transformational leadership is based on three 
themes, which are:

- Power and motive: this calls for the control of
power since they are dealing with humans. To
Burns, the purpose of power should be to uplift
subordinates and customers, and not crushing
them.

- Leadership as mutual purpose: transformation-
al leaders are required: power should be used for
a clear human purpose, and not for an individual
purpose or to resolve self-interest.

- Transformational leadership as a moral at-
tempt: these leaders are required to demonstrate
the following qualities: humbleness, morality,
excellent communication skills, positive attitude,
forgiveness, peace-oriented, powerful presence,
clear vision, focus, determination, patience, hope-
ful, inspirational… (Egli, 2019).

Burns also contends that Transformational leaders 
are of various types which are:

- Reformists: transforming a huge number of sub-
ordinates for high moral values.

- Intellectualists: using intellectual values to trans-
form people.

- Revolutionists: leaders who sacrifice, and trans-
form the whole aspect of a society.

- Charismatic or charming: role models.

The work of Burns was extended by Bernard M. 
Bass (1995), who explained the psychological mecha-
nisms that underlie transformational and transactional 
leaderships. To him, transformational leadership could 
be measured based on the influence on and motivation 
of followers to perform in attaining organizational 
goals. He asserts that when followers feel trust, admi-
ration, loyalty and respect for such leaders, they work 
harder than expected. Bass (1995) presents the quali-
ties of a transformational leader as follows:

- Individualized considerations: responding to
followers’ personal needs via coaching, motiva-
tion, mentoring, empathy, support, and push for
self-development and intrinsic motivation for task
realization.

- Intellectual stimulation: considering follower’s
ideas in decision-making. This encourages cre-
ativity, learning and some degree of self-confi-
dence by followers. It is however a high-level risk
for the leader.

- Inspirational motivation: the extent to which
the leaders communicate the vision and mission
of the organization to followers determines their
engagement. Transformational leaders communi-
cate missions, and tasks with absolute optimism,
and offers something more than just conventional
gains to followers.

- Idealized influence: works as a role model,
instills pride, high ethical behavior, respect and
trust.

However, this theory was criticized for being 
more an idea than pragmatic. Some schools of taught 
slammed the theory for not being well suited for com-
plex and emergency situations. (Bass & Avolio, 1994a & 
1994b). 

Implications of the theory
Leaders of small and medium sized educational 

enterprises are required to subscribe to this trend of 
action. This is justified by the fact that wealth creation 
can be a success only if transforming skills are pos-
sessed and demonstrated. Such leaders must have a 
sense of power and purpose, leadership and morals 
values which give high credibility and reputation to an 
enterprise, there by attracting wealth in other forms 
such as finances, more clients, partnership with big 
organizations, and individual donors, and experts. 
Leaders of these businesses are required to use their 
power with human purpose: skilled development, 
education and training of leaders. Using this power 
to intimidate others will yield no fruits. Nelson Man-
dela is a perfect example as he used his power for the 
growth of the South African society. And finally, these 
leaders are required to harnesses humility, patience, 
hopefulness, positive attitudes, so as attract respon-
sible partners, more clients, and subsequently wealth 
creation in terms of reputation, values, finances, human 
relations, and logistics. But if these leadership skills are 
not demonstrated by higher education leaders in terms 
of administrative and teaching staff, graduates will not 
be able to have and use these skills for self-reliance in 
their private start-ups for wealth creation when em-
ployment with the government cannot be found.

Methodology 

Study Design and Instruments
The study used a survey design which permitted 

the perfect management of a heavy population (210 
respondents), and the use of an exhaustive 15-item

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



106Teneng, Transformational Leadership and Weath Creation

carefully designed SWOT work sheet to collect data on 
the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to 
these firms. This data also permitted us to ascertain the 
Link between transformational leadership skills and 
wealth creation, using the case of the Faculty of Edu-
cation (the University of Yaoundé I). Secondary data 
was obtained through documentary reviews, with most 
documents accessed online.

Population: The population under study consti-
tutes cohort graduates of between 2014-2019, of the 
Faculty of Education, The University of Yaoundé I, who 
own and run, or are former owners of small and medi-
um-sized educational firms in and around university 
campuses in the city of Yaoundé.

Sampling methodology: these graduates were 
traced through the snowball technique, then grouped 
into clusters for easy data collection. 

Data analysis technique: the data was analyzed 
with SWOT Analysis and Multiple Regression Analysis 
techniques. 

Results
The SWOT analysis was used to analyze data col-

lected and is written in full as:
SWOT: S = strength, W = weaknesses, O = Opportuni-
ties, T = Threats. 

The objectives for using SWOT analysis in this study 
was firstly to verify the SWOT of the enterprises and 
secondly to find out if leadership is conscious, and has 
the capacity of carrying out a SWOT for their firms, so 
as to prepare a strategic plan of action for the growth 
of their firms. The SWOT Matrix (Table 1)presents a 
report on some 10 small and medium sized educational 
firms. 

The SWOT matrix in Table 1 summarizes the re-
sponses provided by some enterprises in relation to 

leadership and wealth 
creation. Looking at this 
table, we realized that 
these enterprises possess 
very little strengths with 
regards to wealth creation 
and sustainable growth. 
These firms demon-
strate heavy weaknesses, 
which are strongly tied to 
leadership issues, organi-
zation, and management. 
However, the enterpris-
es are surrounded by 
golden opportunities, 
which strong leadership 
can transform to wealth. 
Added to these weakness-
es are threats which can 
cause the firms to short 
down if leadership is not 
improved.

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



Teneng, Transformational Leadership and Weath Creation 107

Descriptive Statistics

Table 2 shows the codes and gradients as to the 
Likert scale used on the questionnaires. The number 
1 represents strong denial to the statement, whereas 
the number 2 represents normal denial. The number 3 
represents normal acceptance, whereas the number 4 
represents strongest acceptance. 

 Item 1 on Table 3 reveals more respondents’ 
strong denial for the fact that higher education policy 
reforms established significant orientations towards 
entrepreneurship education and wealth creation, rated 
at 61.0%. this adds to 22.4% who agreed as well, thus 
amounting total disagreement to 83.4% as against 
16.6% who adhered. Item 2 equally scores strong 
denial for the statement that higher education policy 
has specific targets on the educational industry, rated 
66.2%, and supported by 21.9% simply agree, amount-
ing to 88.1%, as against 11.9% agreeing. The same 
is true for for Item 3, as the denials have 71.9% and 
13.8% strongly, and simply agreeing respectively. All 
three items demonstrate statistical weakness of high-
er education reforms to hone relevant skills towards 
wealth creation.

Item 1 of table 4 indicates that 
a larger percentage of respondents 
making 96.2% strongly disagree 
on the fact that content conception 
guarantees prospects for transfor-
mational leadership skills. The rest 
3.8% disagreed as well, whereas no 
respondent simply agreed or strong-
ly agreed to this item as shown in 
columns A and SA. On its part, item 
2 scored 88.6% and 11.4% strong-
ly and simply disagreeing on the 
statement that content specialty is 
tailored to develop wealth creation 
skills. however, no respondent agreed 
or disagreed on this item as shown 
in columns A and SA. In item 3 of the 
same table, 85.7% of respondents 
and 10.5% strongly disagreed and 
agreed respectively on the statement 
that the content is rooted in leader-
ship theories and practice, whereas 
only 3.8% simply agreed on. The ten-
dency illustrated by these statistics 
explains the predicted pattern that 
content dynamics in higher education 
are weak regarding transformational 
leadership and wealth creation.

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



Teneng, Transformational Leadership and Weath Creation 108

ted via hands-on approaches to familiarizelearners 
with real world circumstances. 

Item 1 on table 6 shows that all respondents 
strongly disagree with the fact that entrepreneurship 
courses are transversal in all departments. Unlike in 
item 1, item 2 indicates a high percentage (91.9) of 
respondents who disagree with the statement that the 
dose of entrepreneurship courses is significant in terms 
of start-ups, organizational leadership, wealth creation, 
and business management. The remaining 8.1% sim-
ply disagreed as well, whereas, no respondent agreed 
or strongly agreed as indicated by the “0” in the two 
columns in the right. For item 3 all respondents 
disagree that volunteerism education is being main-
streamed in the curriculum. However, the observation 
from these statistics explains the inference that entre-
preneurship education is offered the least important 
place in the education and training of higher education 
graduates. This may explain why they lack skills to suc-
cessfully run their businesses.

Item 1 of table 5 indicates that the teaching models 
used in higher education are not apprenticeship-based 
as strongly disagreed by 88.6% of the respondents. 
10% equally disagreed, whereas only 1.4% agreed. 
94.8% of respondents strongly disagreed with the 
statement that industrial stakeholders significant-
ly participate in career orientation workshops, and 
leadership motivational discourses during the degree 
program. The survey revlealed that 5.2% disagreed as 
well, while no respondents agreed or strongly agreed. 
Looking at item 3, we noted that 53.3% and 8.6% of the 
respondents strongly agreed and agreed respectively 
on the university–industry partnership in teaching. 
However, 25.2% agreed, while only 12.9% strongly 
agreed. Judging from the observation, we infer that the 
bulk of the respondents have underscored that teaching 
methods are not geared towards developing skills for 
transformational leadership and wealth creation.This 
has a strong link with the problem under investigation 
as entrepreneurship skills are required to be transmit

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



Teneng, Transformational Leadership and Weath Creation  109

Item 1 on table 7 probes into the availability of stra-
tegic business plan which permits businesses to obtain 
significant funding from donors. Field statistics show 
that 59.9% and 22.4% of respondents strongly dis-
agree and disagree respectively. However, 9.5% agreed, 
whereas 9.0% strongly agreed. Looking at statistics 
from item 2, we noted that 83.3% of the respondents 
strongly disagreed that their firm has entered into 
meaningful partnerships that allows essential interac-
tions involving financial exchange, training exchange, 
scholarships, policy issues, leadership expertise and 
growth tactics. The data also show that 15.2% adhered 
to this statement, while only 1.4% agreed. Data in item 
3 indicates that 82.9% of the sample strongly disagreed 
that their firms were growing sustainably, while 12.4% 
disagreed. On the other hand, an extremely 
small portion 4.8% simple agreed, whereas no 
respondent strongly disagreed. The meaning 
that can be made out of these data may explain 
the struggling circumstance which these firms 
experience. They struggle to thrive, as most 
even closed down before 5 years. 

Inferential Statistics

To test the hypotheses, the data were ana-
lyzed using a multiple regression anlaysis to confirm a 
correlaction between several variables captured in the 
survey data. The data were then analyzed using ANO-
VA methods to identify the relationship between the 
variables.

Multiple regression Analysis. 

Table 8 suggests that there is an 
extremely high correlation R (0,996) 
between transformational leader-
ship and wealth creation in educa-
tional enterprises by graduates. This 
high correlation coefficient signify 
that transformational leadership 
skill is highly significant for any 
good performance in educational 
firms. Otherwise, the mal-perfor-
mances observed in educational en-
terprises around the city of Yaoundé 
is strongly linked to poor leadership 
skills by it owners. This finding is 
reinforced by another key statistics 
on the same table 8, R-square or R2 

(0,992) shows indicating that 99,2% of poor wealth 
creation in educational firms can be explained by 
lapses in transformational leadership skills, whereas, 
the remaining 0.8% is explained by factors out of the 
model. On a more specific level, table 8 equally 
suggests that R-adjusted (.992) indicates a very good 
variable-fit of all sub variables. Hence, higher education 
policy, transformational leadership curriculum, wealth 
cre-ation teaching-learning models, modes of 
mainstream-ing entrepreneurship education in faculty 
teaching significantly fit and strongly predicts wealth 
creation in educational firms by graduates. This mean 
that worry-ing lapses exist at specific variable levels of 
university training (see tables 3, 4, 5, and 6).

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



Teneng, Transformational Leadership and Weath Creation 110

Table 9 shows that the overall regression model is 
a good fit for the data. This table indicates that trans-
formational leadership skills statistically significantly 
predicts wealth creation in educational firms by grad-
uates. (F(4,205)= 6,273.073, p<0.0005). This means that 
the poor wealth creation situation in educational firms 
by graduates is highly explained by the lapses in 
transformational leadership skills embed by faculty 
teachings. 

The scatter-plot graph (Figure 1) demonstrates a 
significant concentration points around the straight 
line. This indicates a significant relationship between 
transformational leadership skills and wealth 
creation. The correlation coefficient is 0.957, 
approaches 1, therefore strongly supports the 
hypothesis. 

Discussion of Results

Graduate unemployment has reached 
preoccupying levels in Cameroon, thus 
appealing for every bit of reflection on 
measures to tackle the problem. It is for this 
reason that the surroundings of educational 
milieus are filled with graduates operating 
small and medium sized enterprises. This 
study initially set out to investigate the 
extent to which graduates of the Faculty of 

education are equipped with transformational lead-
erships skills, for them to thrive in these enterprises. 
In this light, 210 firms were sampled for questioning, 
whereas some went through a SWOT analysis. This 
permitted the researcher to bring out the strengths and 
weaknesses of these enterprises, and to determine the 
degree of prediction on wealth creation by transforma-
tional leadership lapses in the enterprises. 

This was demonstrated by the results obtained 
after running the multiple regression test (F(4,205)= 
6,273.073, p<0.0005, R2 = 0.992). This test permitted us 
to confirm all four predictors: higher education policy 
model towards wealth creation plans, transformational 
leadership curriculum, wealth creation teaching-learn-
ing models, modes of mainstreaming entrepreneurship 
education in faculty teaching as statistically significant 
towards wealth creation. This is justified by descriptive 
statistics, where respondents strongly disagreed with 

the fact that higher education 
policy reforms in Cameroon 
have established strong orien-
tations towards entrepreneur-
ships education and wealth 
creation in enterprises. As a 
matter of fact, 61% strongly 
disagree, while 22.4% also 
disagreed, thus aligning to this 
thesis. The 2016 report by the 
National Institute of Statistics 
held that a key strategy to fight 
the premature collapsing of 
small and medium sized en-
terprises is establishing strong 
human capital training 
policies. To Rowe (ibid), the 
leadership of enterprises must 
receive essential skills for the 
task at hand.

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



 111

82.9% of respondents strongly disagree their 
enter-prises are growing sustainably in terms of 
reputation and credibility, candidates, human 
resources, logistics, and financial capital. This falls 
squarely with the re-formist and idealized qualities of a 
transformational leader by Bass (1995), who thinks 
that wealth creation means transforming every aspect 
of the organization. 

However, when we look at the unexploited op-
portunities which could help sustain these firms, we 
conclude that there is need for strong transformational 
leadership skill for these owners of the businesses. 
Some opportunities include: existence of multiple 
funding opportunities by non-governmental organi-
zations, and some government initiatives such as the 
recent presidential funding for graduates’ start-ups, 
leadership workshops organized by the British council, 
and business organizations, strategic location of the 
businesses around the university campus, a heavy pop-
ulation thirsty for knowledge, and existence of trained 
teaching staff. This means that the need for transforma-
tional leadership is imperative so as to transform these 
opportunities into strength towards wealth creation in 
these firms. 

Conclusion
This study set out to investigate the bearing of 

transformational leadership education in universities 
on graduates’ wealth creation. The wealth creation 
skills acquired by graduates will be a signal as to 
whether their business start-ups succeed or fail. Pos-
session and use of these skills in small and medium 
sized enterprises opened by graduates of the university 
of Yaoundé I are therefore determinants of the lifespan, 
growth and profitability of these businesses. Based on 
SWOT and regression tests, findings revealed lapses in 
programs, government policy and teachings methods. 
Given the grim picture of employment in the country, it 
will be high time transformational leadership skills are 
embedded in higher education curricula as a whole to 
equip graduates with skills that can enable them have a 
smooth transition to the volatile labor market and to 
keep afloat in the tense competition therein. 

Another concluding note in this paper is in this 
paraphrase by Victor Hugo in Axford (1969), that 
nothing is truer than the power of an idea when its 
time has come. But that idea must be borne by people 
with vision, leadership and moral fortitude to recognize 
the validity of the idea andinstitutionalize it. It is 
therefore time transformational leadership education 

Teneng, Transformational Leadership and Weath Creation

Moreover, 66.2% and 21.9% strongly disagreed and 
disagreed to the statement that education reforms tar-
gets are quite specific with regards to various domains. 
This has specifically taken care of the realities of the 
educational industry. The observation in the Faculty of 
Education indicates the absence of transformational 
leadership courses as obligatory teaching units, as well 
as the absence of a specific entrepreneurship content. 
Statistics indicates a 100% of respondents strongly 
disagreeing to the presence of domain specialization in 
leadership courses, and the presence and an obligatory 
leadership and entrepreneurship education. This posi-
tion is supported by the European document on entre-
preneurship leadership in education recommends high 
level mainstreaming of this type of education in educa-
tional policy, curriculum and teaching approaches. 

The world document for 2019 on leadership which 
makes mention of the need for intellectual skills as crit-
ical to the success of educational leaders. In this light, 
Bass & Bass (2009) talk of intellectual stimulation as a 
key quality of transformational leaders. These authors 
explained that transforming leaders is a great deal of 
having the intellectual capacity to get followers into 
creativity and innovation. However, this cannot be done 
without having acquired relevant leadership skills. 
Things become more serious as 91.9% of respondents 
strongly disagreed that the dose of entrepreneurship 
courses are significant in terms of start-ups, organiza-
tional leadership, wealth creation, and business man-
agement. This is followed by 100% of respondents dis-
agreeing that voluntarism is being encouraged during 
training. The European entrepreneurship leadership in 
education posits that strong educational leaders cannot 
be produced when field acquaintances are excluded 
during training. The document upholds key modes like 
meaningful partnerships between faculty and industry 
in curriculum design and delivery, and a significant 
mainstreaming of volunteerism culture in our system. 

The degree of weaknesses presented by these 
enterprises is a vivid indicator of the absence of trans-
formational leadership skills in these firms. These 
weaknesses range from limited infrastructure to no 
partnerships, lack of a strategic plan, but to name a 
few. In addition to this, a close look at the at the threats 
such as Lack of operation license, Illegal location, an 
increase in e-marketing, increase in ICT integration in 
the teaching-learning process, poor organization, no 
strategic business plan, weak leadership strongly justify 
the premature shoot-down of these businesses. These 
weakesses are visible in wealth creation statistics as

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



112

Suggestions for further research
The following suggestions for further research are 

made based on the believe that no research work can 
be all encompassing and that research is continuous. It 
will therefore be proper to open up and cast a glance 
into future research interests which could emanate 
from this one or build on it. The same research top-
ic could be carried out with a larger population and 
sample, covering more African countries selected for 
comparability and best practice. Other research in-
terest could focus on the comparability of private and 
public universities in terms of graduate employability 
in Cameroon. Another study could also focus on the 
demand and supply of entrepreneurship education and 
the effects on economic growth. Finally, these 
suggested areas of research could be carried out for 
longer peri-ods of experimentation and with larger 
sample sizes to enhance the degree of reliability. 

Teneng, Transformational Leadership and Weath 
Creation

gained its place among the professions, especially 
within the profession of education in Cameroon. It has 
too long been peripheral and marginal. Government 
and other education stakeholders must start thinking 
of how this can be woven into the educational fabric of 
our country, so that it can play its own role; that of 
providing sustainable self-employment to graduates 
when government fails to.

Recommendations 
The following recommendations could greatly lead 

to improvements in the quality of education and cata-
lyze wealth creation for graduates. 

There should be reinforcement of policy imple-
mentation in higher education through commensurate 
quality control measures by putting in place a higher 
education planning team who should seek to under-
stand the needs of all stakeholders in the higher educa-
tion domain. This team will be in charge of carrying out 
a need analyses of all stakeholders in higher education 
periodically in order to inform curriculum designers. 
The team will advise the minister of higher education 
on issues of curriculum reforms by producing periodic 
reports on evolving global trends in the higher educa-
tion arena, so as to address quality and respond to the 
demands of the 21th century knowledge economy. This 
will partly solve Cameroon’s pressing need of produc-
ing more market ready graduates who will not fall into 
the unemployment trap.

Secondly, promotion of entrepreneurship education 
should be one of the topmost education reforms in the 
country so as to encourage the creation of enterprises 
which can absorb the growing number of unemployed 
graduates. Final year students should be placed in 
enterprises for internships or volunteerism to develop 
work experience as required prerequisites for finding 
first graduate employment or creating one. Finally, 
with regards to government policy, there is need for an 
in-crease in public spending on higher education in 
terms of updating dilapidated infrastructure such as 
labo-ratories, and installing modern technological and 
ICT gadgets in order to professionalize teaching and 
evalua-tion in a bid to enhance practical knowledge 
acquisition which is indispensable in wealth creation.

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020) Vol 2



Teneng, Transformational Leadership and Weath Creation 113

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Editorial Board. Global Journal of Transformative Education (2020), Vol 2 

Open Access

Global Journal of Transformative Education
Open Call for Papers 

The Global Journal of Transformative Education (GJTE). is an open-access journal that presents to learners, 
educators and researchers the optimal instructional strategies, transformative leadership, and inquiry methods 
that lead to better educational and research outcomes for their students and the society. GJTE is published by the 
Global Institute for Transformative Education (GITE). 

The editorial board of the GJTE invites authors to submit manuscripts relating to research about transformative 
education, innovative teaching strategies or curricula, policy issues, the role schools have in transforming commu-
nities and society, and resources that can help educators and policy makers enact meaningful reforms that contrib-
ute to transformative education.

GJTE publishes at least one issue of the journal each year, and we offer an open call for manuscripts submitted 
by authors around the world. There are no submission deadlines for our regular issues, and authors may submit 
manuscripts at any time. Special “themed” editions may be produced with guest editors. GJTE will post Calls for 
Papers on the journal’s website to announce those issues.

Manuscripts should be limited to about 8000 words, and may include photos, diagrams, tables, graphs and fig-
ures. Longer manuscripts may be accepted if the content warrants the length. 

Authors should consider the specifications listed in the GJTE Author Submissions page. In addition to images, 
authors may include hyperlinks to supplemental materials such as lesson plans, assessments, large data files, and 
video or other media. For more detailed formatting instructions, authors can download the GJTE Formatting 
Guide and GJTE Manuscript Checklist.

GJTE does not charge authors a publication fee. Authors retain ownership of the content of the article that will 
be published under a Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC-ND license. 

Submitted manuscripts undergo a double-blind review process, and authors may be asked to revise text or 
images before final publication. Communications about submitted articles will be managed through GJTE’s Author 
Submissions system.

Call for Reviewers
Authors and other individuals are invited to apply to be Reviewers. Reviewers may be asked to read and assess 

submitted manuscripts as part of the peer review process, and will be listed as members of GJTE’s Editorial Review 
Panel. This panel is an important part of a rigorous publication process, and we invite a diverse group of reviewers 
from a variety of relevant areas of expertise.  Click here to Register as a Reviewer.

Please direct any questions about submissions to the editors:
gjtemanager@gmail.com

Michael T. Ndemanu, Ph.D. 
Educational Studies 
Ball State University 
Muncie, Indiana, USA 

Managing Editor    
 Tom J. McConnell, Ph.D. 
 Department of Biology  
 Ball State University  
 Muncie, Indiana, USA

Editors-in-Chief 
Serafín M. Coronel-Molina, Ph.D.
Curriculum and Instruction
Indiana University
Bloomington, Indiana, USA

114

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