Exploring opportunities and limitations of gender sensitive pedagogy and ICT training in rural Kenyan primary schools.

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Proposal

As part of its shift to the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC), which emphasizes program-solving, creativity, critical thinking, and technology, Kenya has made strides to advance gender equality and provide access to information and communication technology (ICTs) for learners. However, disparities in ICTs access for girls persist and many teachers lack training and knowledge of how to integrate ICTs in teaching, leading them to shy away from technology and revert to Kenya’s memorization and lecture based 8-4-4 curriculum.


In 2022, IREX initiated the Girls’ Learning Through Technology (GLTT) in 15 schools in Kenya’s Kilifi County to integrate technology and gender-sensitive pedagogy to enhance and accelerate upper primary (grade 4 and 5) educational gains in sciences, technology, and mathematics. Intervention components included a teacher professional learning series, provision of school-based ICTs, and teacher coaching. In line with the CBC, sessions included gender-responsive pedagogy, digital literacy, and coding. The gender-responsive pedagogy module supported teachers to gain awareness of gender stereotypes within themselves, their school, and their community, how students internalize stereotypes, and how those stereotypes affect their teaching. To date over 1,300 students and 61 teachers from 15 schools have engaged with GLTT.


Key collaborators in the project are district government officials, NGO representatives and academics from Pwani University, Pwani Teknogalz - a local STEM community-based organization, Curriculum Support Officers who provide technical assistance and oversight to teachers, teachers, education technology specialists, and girls’ education specialists. Efforts to increase GLTT’s acceptability and sustainability included the creation of a Community Advisory Board, master-training for Curriculum Support Officers, and collaboration with educators to align materials with the CBC.

With agreement from the local stakeholders, IREX used a mixed method, cluster randomized controlled study (15 intervention, 10 control schools) to study GLTT’s impact. We conducted pre-post surveys with learners and teachers and used observations, focus group discussions, and interviews to explain survey findings. Preliminary results indicate that, compared to non-GLTT learners, boy and girl GLTT learners made greater gains in key outcomes including knowledge of science, maths, and technologies and have greater access to and confidence using ICTs. GLTT learners made no gains in gender-equitable attitudes compared to non-GLTT learners. While GLTT and non-GLTT teachers reported similar levels of confidence using technology at baseline and endline, GLTT teachers showed a significantly greater increase in their use of gender-sensitive pedagogical strategies. Primary hindrances included the need to share devices, which limited teacher ability to practice with technology and prepare lessons, limited access to electricity to power gadgets, lack of local access to affordable computers, and ICT damages during storage.


We conclude that GLTT is an acceptable intervention for teachers in rural Kenya and supports teachers and all learners in rural primary schools to access and use technology to enhance learners’ knowledge. Next steps for IREX are disseminating lessons learned, working with educators to support sustainability of program impact, and pursuing funding to study how local ICTs may be used in rural schools and how communities of practice may deepen and sustain teacher and learner progress.

Authors

• Lucy W Maina, International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX)

• Sarah Bever, IREX

• Rachael Spencer, International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX)