International Journal of Education and Research Vol. 13 No.

1 January 2025

Teacher’s Role in Education Reform:

The Case of the Competency Based Curriculum in Kenya

Lucy Mule
Education and Child Study, Smith College, Northampton, USA
E-Mail: lmule@[Link]

Abstract
The competency based curriculum (CBC) has become a focus of educational reform
in Kenya in recent years. Teachers are expected to play an important role in the reform. Drawing
from the sociocultural approach to educational reform, this study examined how the teacher’s role
in the CBC reform process was conceptualized and expressed in extant literature. One overarching
question guided the study: How is teacher participation in CBC reform characterized in the
reviewed texts? Over half of the reviewed articles indicated the view of teachers solely as
implementers of the CBC. They emphasized inadequacies in teacher training, physical
infrastructure, and teaching resources, as well as implementing the curriculum as received. Fewer of
the reviewed articles centered teachers’ agency or involvement in reform beyond the classroom.
This paper urges policy makers and researchers to pay attention to ways that teachers could have
more agency and serve as substantive partners in CBC reform.

Key words: Competency-based curriculum, educational reform; teacher’s role; curriculum

implementation, educational change; Kenya

1. Introduction
There has been an increased focus on educational reform in recent years in Kenya. The
Competency based curriculum (CBC) became a focus of national conversation following
recommendations in the 2012 report by the Taskforce on the Realignment of the Education Sector to
the 2010 Constitution. The Report recommended a new structure of education and a competencies-
focused curriculum. It informed the Kenya government’s Sessional Paper No. 2 of 2015 on
Reforming Education and Training in Kenya, a policy document that articulated Kenya’s version of
competency based curriculum (RoK, 2017). In 2018, the government supported the CBC pilot
program for pre-primary 1 to grade 3 (Kaviti 2018). The CBC was rolled out for these grades in
January 2019. The policy to guide the new curriculum was launched in May 2019 amid criticism
that the launch should have preceded the rollout, not the other way around. The CBC will be
completely phased in when the first CBC grade 3 students complete senior secondary in 2028. CBC
reform, especially its implementation, has dominated public discourse in Kenya and is well
represented in a growing body of scholarship.
Scholarship on Kenya’s CBC acknowledges that teachers play an important role in
education reform (Katam, 2020; Koskei & Chepchumba, 2020; Momanyi & Rop, 2019; Muasya &
Waweru, 2019; Mwita et al., 2022; Rupia, 2022; Owidi & Lyanda, 2023). This sentiment is echoed
in the broader education reform literature, in which teachers are acknowledged as crucial
stakeholders in educational change (Datnow, 2020; Dozier, 2009; Giudici, 2021; Levinson et al.,
2013; Shen et al., 2010). Datnow stated that “unequivocally, teachers are central to educational
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change.” Often in education reforms, however, as Levinson et al. (2013) noted with regard to
Mexico’s education reform efforts, “teacher professionalism is placed at the heart of reform but the
nature of such professionalism, and how it is exercised, remains ambiguous” (p. 2). Vähäsantanen
(2015) specified that teacher professional agency amid change can be understood in three ways: as
opportunities to influence their work, including “influencing the contents and design and
organization of educational change”; as making choices and decisions about their involvement in
reforms; and their perceptions of self as professional actors in participating in reforms (p.2).
In situations where the teacher’s role in educational change is ambiguous, a technicist model
of teacher participation becomes the default. In this model, teachers are relegated to “executor of
scripted curriculum” (Levinson et al., 2013), implementing reforms in the classroom as received,
with limited expectation of any agency beyond this role. The perception of the teacher as receiver
and implementer of educational reform is captured well in the “recipient” role, which Levinson and
colleagues (2013) contrasted with the more empowered roles of “agent” and “partner.” This
characterization of roles, as discussed later in this paper, offers a useful framework for
understanding how teachers participate in the CBC reform process.
In the Kenyan context, an increasing number of studies have examined teacher involvement
with CBC reform, emphasizing the new skills and resources they need for implementing it in the
classroom. However, there is limited discussion on how teachers and other stakeholders perceive
their role in the CBC reform process. This paper examines how the teacher’s role in the CBC
reform process is conceptualized and expressed in the reviewed literature. The paper draws
evidence from the literature to address the overarching question: How is teacher participation in
CBC implementation characterized in the reviewed texts? The findings from this study inform
recommendations for substantive engagement of teachers in the CBC, a reform that has been touted
as constituting a paradigm shift in the way Kenya has historically conducted educational reform.

2.1. Contextualizing CBC Within the History of Education Reform in Kenya

Kenya has seen two significant curricular reforms since independence in 1963, each
popularly known by the number of years students spend at each level: 8-4-4 and 2-6-6-3. The 8-4-4
system was implemented in 1985; students spent eight years at primary, four years at secondary,
and four years at tertiary level. It replaced the British-style 7-4-2-3 system (seven years of primary,
four years of Ordinary Secondary School level, two years of Advanced Secondary School level, and
three years of tertiary education) inherited at independence. The 7-4-2-3 system was criticized for
being elitist and unresponsive to the lived realities and needs of the majority of Kenyans (Bunyi,
2013; Ogutu, 2017). The 8-4-4 system, which was seen as an antidote to elitism and alienation,
emphasized technical and vocational subjects, presumably aimed at cultivating self-sufficiency in
students. That curriculum was expected to equip students with skills geared toward self-reliance and
alignment with the workplace. The 8-4-4 system was reviewed severally, and in 2003 technical
subjects were dropped from the curriculum. Soon the system was also faulted for its politicization,
poor implementation, obsession with content coverage and rote memorization of knowledge, and
producing graduates unable to fit into the marketplace ( Bunyi, 2013; Muricho & Chang’ach, 2013).
The 8-4-4 system was replaced by the 2-6-6-3 system, which was unveiled in 2017 and has a
focus on developing “engaged, empowered, and ethical citizens” of the 21st century through
exposure to competency-based curriculum (Aradi, 2019; KICD, 2016;). In the new system, students
are expected to complete two years of pre-primary and three years of lower primary education
(together known as Early Years Education), followed by three years of upper primary, three years of
lower secondary, three years of senior school, and three years of tertiary education. At the senior
school, students would be sorted into one of three pathways based on their talents and interests:
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social sciences; arts and sport science; science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
They may have the opportunity to pursue these interests further at the tertiary level. As mentioned
above, the 2-6-6-3 system would adopt the new curriculum.
Several major factors have influenced education policy in the recent past and paved the way
for the CBC reform. Vision 2030, a long-term national development blueprint developed in 2007,
contains a detailed articulation of Kenya’s national goals, including educational goals. In this
blueprint, education is seen as vital for the achievement of broader aims such as national unity and
patriotism, individual development and self-fulfillment, national development (social, economic,
and industrial), social equality and responsibility, respect for Kenya’s rich and varied cultures,
positive attitudes toward good health and environment protection, and international consciousness
(RoK, 2012b). Kenya’s Constitution 2010 also influences education policy by articulating the
country’s aspirations, including integrity, individual rights, and environmental responsibility.
International frameworks, such as Education for All, Sustainable Development Goals, and the 21st
Century Skills, are another key influence on policy development. A Policy Framework for Re-
aligning Education to the Constitution 2010 and Vision 2030, released in 2012, brought these
influences to bear on curriculum reform (RoK, 2012b, 2018, 2019). Subsequently, Kenya’s
education policy documents have decidedly emphasized the CBC as a way to organize learning in
the specific areas corresponding to national goals, principles articulated in the constitution, and
relevant goals of international frameworks.
The CBC is framed in policy documents as a reform that could fulfill all Kenya’s aspirations
for education. As KICD (2016) noted, “The shift to competency based approach to curriculum and
learning is an integrated and holistic understanding of what it is that we want our young people to
learn, be able to do and to become” (p. 44). One major aspiration is to “produce citizens equipped
with relevant and quality knowledge with national values and social competencies and to equip
them with the 21st century skills and competencies in line with Kenya Vision 2030, Kenya
Constitution 2010 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” (RoK, 2018, p. v). This is a lot
to expect from one curricular reform, and why, as argued in this paper, care must be taken to
recognize and appreciate the complexity of the CBC and the important role of teachers in the
reform. Some of the complexities of the CBC as an educational reform are related to its global
character.

2.2. CBC in a Global Context

CBC is often used interchangeably with other terms such as competency-based education
(CBE), competency-based approach, competence-based education, outcomes-based education
(OBE), and proficiency-based. Similar to other educational reform initiatives, the CBC traveled to
the African continent from the Global North to the African continent. Complexities associated with
adoption of ideas from elsewhere are often an area of focus for researchers. South Africa adopted
OBE in the 1990s, and curriculum scholarship there is especially notable for its interrogation of the
reform’s origin and life. Attributing its origins in the Global North (United States, Australia, United
Kingdom, New Zealand), South African scholars have examined many of the challenges that
resulted in disjunction between OBE policy and practice ( Harley & Wedekind, 2004; Molapo &
Pillay, 2018; Schmidt, 2017). These challenges include the top-down and politicized nature of the
reform; inadequate coordination and management; insufficient resources (personnel and finance);
inadequate teacher development; philosophical misalignment with the country’s democratic ideals;
resistance from a system that is already steeped in a national high-stakes metric assessment; and
curriculum and assessment descriptors that are often vague, ambiguous, difficult to measure, and
low in academic content. Some South African scholars have gone further to posit that the reform
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was merely “policy positioning and symbolism [and] was never meant to be implemented”
(Schmidt, 2017).
Other African countries, such as Tanzania, Nigeria, and Cameroon, have adopted CBC-
related reforms, and similar challenges have been identified (Diffang, 2019; Kafyulilo et al., 2012).
Countries, such as Rwanda and Kenya, have recently joined the bandwagon. What the literature
across national contexts in Africa suggests is that how CBC implementation is done can
substantially impede its successful adoption and institutionalization. In Kenya, as previously
mentioned, the CBC found its way there following the contested recommendations of the 2012 Task
Force and subsequent policy statements. The CBC was hailed for its promise of a focus on student
learning through learner-centered pedagogy; emphasis on transparency of educational experiences;
and measurability of learning outcomes or competencies that departs from the current overreliance
on high-stakes testing (RoK, 2012a).
On paper, Kenya’s version of the CBC reflects the basic premises, which are articulated
across the countries that have adopted the CBC and associated models. It is also framed around the
21st Century Skills, which include learning and innovation skills (such as critical thinking, problem
solving, creativity, communication, and collaboration); information, media, and technology skills;
and life and career skills (such as flexibility, adaptability, initiative, self-direction) (RoK, 2016).
Echoing these premises and competencies, the National Curriculum Policy notes that establishing
the CBC in Kenya calls for the development of appropriate structures, curriculum
frameworks/designs/support materials, standards and indicators of competencies at each level,
mechanisms for inclusion, and effective channels to communicate about the reform (RoK, 2018, p.
8).
As defined in Kenya’s policy documents, the CBC so closely reflects the global trend that
questions have been raised about its sensitivity to local contexts (Ajuoga & Keta, 2021; Ruth &
Ramadas, 2019; Sifuna & Obonyo, 2019). With regard to CBC adoption in Kenya, Sifuna and
Obonyo noted that,
Whether this is as a result of the operationalization of the outcomes of competence-based
education or not, it seems that there is only very little attention to testing the policy-
assumptions that competence-based education is a worthy educational innovation which has
taken place in many countries as supported by many researchers. (p. 48)
Similar skepticism about the CBC’s adaptability to local contexts has been raised by scholars
elsewhere, including Anderson-Levitt (2017), who argued that:
Constructing a reform as “global” or as very widely adopted by other countries is a
mechanism for persuading other countries—or one’s own country—to embrace the reform.
To make such an argument persuasively can be an exercise, deliberate or not, of “soft
power” when the argument is backed by an aura of expertise. Therefore it is always
important for would-be reformers to investigate such claims with an appropriate level of
skepticism. (p. 48)
Healthy skepticism notwithstanding, there is no doubt CBC reform enjoys immense political will in
Kenya. The reform also suggests a fundamental shift in the way Kenyans have historically
understood and organized education. The complexities of such a paradigm shift are reflected in the
growing scholarship on this topic, some of which is discussed below.

2.3. Literature on CBC Reform in Kenya

The growing corpus on this topic has focused on the novelty of the reform, as well as on
issues and challenges associated with CBC implementation in Kenya. While the bulk of this work is
in the form of dissertations or master’s theses, peer-reviewed publications on the topic have also
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increased in recent years. This scholarship hails the CBC as an innovative and much needed
direction toward achieving equity and quality in Kenya’s educational system (Mackatiani et al.,
2023a; Mauki et al., 2020). In examining issues and challenges, many studies have focused on
implementation challenges, highlighting issues related to inadequate infrastructure, including
classrooms, furniture, textbooks, and needed technology (Muasya & Waweru, 2019; Ngeno et al.,
2021b; Waruingi et al., 2022). A handful of studies have examined the role of politics, arguing for
the need to decouple politics and education reform (Gichuru et al., 2021; Imana, 2020; Inyega et al.,
2021).
Other studies have focused on challenges related to the sensitization of stakeholders,
including school administrators and parents (Chepkonga, 2023; Mackatiani et al., 2023a;). An
impressive number of studies have focused specifically on teachers, examining:
i) teacher preparedness, competence, and training (Momanyi & Rop, 2019; Muthanje et al.,
2020; Mutua, 2023; Mwita et al., 2022; Ngeno, 2023; Okeyo & Mokua, 2023);
ii) pedagogy and assessment (Chepsiror, 2020; Ituma, 2022; Momanyi & Rop, 2019; Murithi
& Yoo, 2021);
iii) teacher attitudes (Katam, 2020; Koros & Achieng, 2023; Ngeno et al., 2021a); and
iv) teachers’ relationships with parents (Amunga et al., 2020).
A small number of studies have highlighted the challenges of CBC implementation by comparing
Kenya to other countries (Muchira et al., 2023; Okeyo & Kanake, 2021). Comparative studies have
found that challenges related to implementation are pervasive in many countries, especially in the
initial stages, underlining the potential of CBC reform in Kenya. Okeyo and Kanake note that
“based on related experiences of other countries, the new curriculum has high chances of success”
(p. 322). There is no doubt that, judging by representation in the current scholarship, teachers are
seen as important stakeholders in CBC reform.
This paper focuses on how the teacher’s role in the CBC reform process is conceptualized
and expressed in the reviewed literature. Some CBC articles have used metaphorical expressions to
convey the centrality of teachers in the reform process. For example, Koskei and Chepchumba
(2020) referred to teachers as the “cornerstone” in the CBC reform process, while Akala (2021)
referred to them as the “heartbeat of CBC innovation.” Other terms used in the literature described
teachers as “core implementers” (Owidi et al., 2023), “key agents” (Ajuoga & Keta (2021), and a
“linchpin in curriculum implementation” (Kituu et al., 2022). These characterizations are often
found in statements in introductory sections; however, they are seldom explained, nor are they used
to organize or interpret data. Yet, a review of the extant literature on the CBC in Kenya revealed
that there were qualitative differences in the way the teacher’s role was expressed. The current
study, therefore, examined this scholarship and explored characterizations that emerge from
expressions of teacher’s role in the reform.

2.4. Teacher’s Role in Education Reform

Policy implementation theory and the teacher’s role in reform implementation literature
inform this study. Gieser (2016) discussed three “waves” of research on policy implementation: the
top-down approach, the bottom-up approach, and contemporary sociocultural approaches. He noted
that the top-down wave of research prioritizes “authority, hierarchy, and control in the
implementation process,” while the bottom-up perspective “foreground[s] the role of local actors,
immediate contexts, and local conditions.” He observed that “the contemporary sociocultural
perspective emphasizes that policy-as-mandated and policy-as-implemented may be markedly
different things,” noting that there are “multiple sociocultural realities that impinge upon the
implementation process” (p. 64). The sociocultural perspective, he argued, “makes the assumption
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that the implementation process will be powerfully and inevitably shaped by multiple actors who
themselves are situated in a diversity of contexts and influenced by myriad concerns” (p. 65).
Sociocultural scholars emphasize that the understandings of the teacher’s role in educational
reform must be attentive to teachers as professional individuals —their experiences, emotions,
concerns, meaning-making, and decision-making (Datnow, 2020; Fullan, 2015; Hargreaves, 2005;
Levinson et al., 2013; Vähäsantanen, 2015). In the sociocultural approach, the teacher’s role is also
understood as being “relationally embedded across social circumstances, tools, and people”
(Vähäsantanen, 2015, p. 3). That is, the teacher’s role is impacted by social constructs (such as
policy), resources (such as physical infrastructure and instructional materials) and other
stakeholders (including government, students, parents, and administrators).
Levinson and colleagues (2013), in their excellent examination of the contradictions of
teacher participation in Mexican secondary education reform, urge for examinations of the views of
the teacher’s role in education reform as expressed by teachers themselves, as well as by other
stakeholders. They propose a conceptualization of the teacher's role as “either agents, recipients, or
partners.” They explain:
[We] utilize the term agency to denote “teachers assuming active responsibility for
innovation in their own classrooms. Such an emphasis on practical agency conceives of
teachers as actively “appropriating” the reform, in effect producing new practices, rather
than merely implementing it. . . . By recipients, we mean a situation in which teachers are to
receive the reform from the reform planners and proceed to implement it exactly as planned.
. . . Finally, our characterization of teachers as partners . . . is the conception of teachers as
collaborators in the reform process itself. . . . Partnership views reform as “an ongoing
process, which includes substantive participation from both administrative and teaching
sectors. (p. 9)
Recipients, agents, and partners are useful descriptions that can deepen our understanding of the
teacher’s role in the CBC reform process. The study described below reviewed scholarly articles
and distilled views about the teacher’s role in the CBC reform process in Kenya. The
characterization of teachers as either agents, recipients, or partners was applied to help organize the
reviewed literature with the goal of contributing to the conversation about the need for substantive
engagement of teachers in CBC reform.

3. The Study
3.1. Methodology
To explore how the teacher’s role in the CBC reform process was characterized in the
scholarship, 48 peer-reviewed articles published between 2017 and 2024 were analyzed. The
articles were derived from a broad search of online databases: Google Scholar, JSTOR, and
ResearchGate. As a first step, Boolean searches were conducted with combinations of these
keywords: competency-based curriculum, CBC, Kenya, education, reform, teachers. The searches
returned numerous sources. For example, a Google Scholar search using implementation of CBC
AND Kenya AND teachers yielded 1,690 hits for the period 2017–2024. Articles were screened
against inclusion and exclusion criteria, selecting for peer-reviewed articles published in scholarly
journals. Reference lists of the selected articles, as well as sources citing them, yielded additional
articles. Theses, dissertations, reports, conference papers, and other publications that were not peer-
reviewed, as well as articles unrelated to teachers, were omitted from the current analysis. Also
excluded were peer-reviewed articles that did not include a focus on teachers and their role in CBC
reform.

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This author read all 48 articles that were considered relevant to the current study, using
spreadsheets to map information about each article, including authorship, title, year of publication,
research questions, sample size, data collection and analysis strategies, and findings. It was also
noted whether each article was based on a desk study or on primary data. Several readings of the
articles allowed for identifying segments of each text that illustrated perceptions or views, and
possible examples, of the teacher’s role in CBC reform efforts. These were coded using Levinson
and colleagues’ (2013) characterizations of teachers as recipients, agents, or partners.

3.2. Data Analysis

A wide range of methodologies and theoretical frameworks were used in the articles
reviewed for this study. However, all of the articles addressed the issue of teachers and CBC
reform. The studies employed a combination of questionnaires, observation checklists, and
interview schedules to collect data. There was a healthy mix of quantitative and qualitative studies.
A few articles were based on desk study. In coding the articles, attention was paid to articulations
about teachers in the research questions, study findings, and discussion sections. Some articles were
coded for more than one role depending on the particular study’s emphases, which explains why the
frequency percentages in Table 1 total to more than 100.

Table 1: Roles and Key Emphases

Category Frequency Key emphases
(role) (percentage)
Recipient 58 –adequate training, physical infrastructure, and resources
–adequacy and compliance as success

Agent 31 -examine teacher motivations, attitudes, and sensemaking

–provide strategic support as voiced by teachers
–adaptability of the curriculum by teachers
–empowerment as autonomy and collaboration

Partner 14 –inclusion of teachers in all levels of reform process

–social constructs (e.g., policy) impact teachers’ work
–power considerations (between agency and social constructs)

4. Findings
4.1. Teachers as Recipients
As Table 1 indicates, the recipient role was highly represented (58%) in the reviewed
articles, compared to the agent (31%) and partner (14%). Although some articles were coded for
more than one role, the articles that characterized teachers as recipients involved detailed discussion
in two areas. The first emphasized the professional development opportunities offered to teachers—
the what, who, where, and how often. Details were provided about training around lesson plans and
schemes of work, content, target competencies, learning outcomes, pedagogy, and assessment.
These articles also described who was conducting the professional development; this included
government agencies (e.g., KICD), other trained teachers, County Education Officers (CSOs), and
principals. Noting whether in-service or preservice contexts, the articles also provided details about
training workshops and regular supervision procedures, as well as their duration and frequency. The
second area of emphasis in the articles coded “recipient” was inadequate physical buildings,

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personnel, and instructional materials—emphasizing existing gaps and the ways those inadequacies
endanger the success of CBC reform.
Articles coded for this role contained many recommendations that urged commitments from the
government, Teachers Service Commission, and related agencies to ensure adequate training and
provision of needed physical infrastructure and learning resources. The authors associated the
presence of these elements with successful implementation of the CBC. Some studies went to great
lengths to establish positive correlations between adequacy of these factors and successful CBC
implementation. For example, Isoboke and colleagues (2021) communicated their findings
regarding teacher training thusly:
[The] majority of the pre-primary school teachers in public pre-primary schools had not
received any training on how to implement the curriculum. The few who had been trained still
lacked adequate knowledge and skills in handling various areas meant to be integrated in the
curriculum. Therefore, it can be resolved that the teachers were not fully prepared to implement
the curriculum, which calls for more training opportunities. (p. 51)
In this and many of the reviewed articles in the recipient characterization, study findings inevitably
reported gaps that prevented teachers from implementing CBC as received from government
agencies.
While there was an acknowledgement in the articles that a combination of factors—including
training, physical facilities, instructional and assessment materials, and school leadership—impact
the implementation of the CBC, the assumption was that the CBC should be faithfully implemented
as handed down. For example, some studies saw constant monitoring and supervision of teachers by
principals, quality assurance officers, and others to determine how well they were adhering to the
script as evidence of successful implementation of the CBC. The emphasis in these articles was on
this adherence rather than on ways that the teachers make sense of and appropriate (Levinson et al.,
2013) the CBC as agents.

4.2. Teachers as Agents

The studies coded for agent went beyond acknowledging the need for support to alleviate the
challenges highlighted in the recipient role and focus on teacher agency. Those studies prioritized
examinations of teachers’ motivations, attitudes, sensemaking, adaptability, and autonomy. They
presented teachers as professionals who made conscious decisions to interact with the CBC.
Teachers’ motivation in these articles was associated with their commitment to student learning.
Koros and Achieng (2023), for example, found that teachers were “motivated to implement the
CBC because it gives the learners opportunities to develop independence and freedom of expression
due to the friendly learning environment that it creates” (p. 12).
A number of examined teachers’ attitudes, revealing a mix of positive and negative attitudes
toward the CBC—although the majority were negative. For instance, Ngeno and colleagues (2021a)
explored how teachers’ attitudes affected the implementation of the CBC in one county and
confirmed that their attitudes mattered and differed based on age, but not on gender. Other studies
in the agent characterization focused on the teacher’s adaptation of the CBC in the classroom.
Adaptation requires teachers taking responsibility for and ownership of the curriculum and
creatively acting upon it to suit the learning goals of their students. For example, Owino et al.
(2022) reported that teachers who were successful at implementing CBC also had a high mean score
on adapting instructional methods.
Another focus of the studies coded for teacher as agent was on empowering strategies for
enhancing autonomy and collaboration. For example, Njiru and colleagues (2024a) reported that
“conferences, specialized seminars, and collaborative learning communities were the most critical
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in building instructors’ pedagogical skills and subject knowledge needed for the successful
implementation of CBC.” Mogere and Mbataru (2023) noted the importance and benefits of
collaborative environments and leadership styles in supporting teachers. Commenting on contexts
they described as supportive to teachers, they observed that “the school leadership encourages
teamwork, there is delegation of duties by the school leadership, and the school leadership
encourages teachers to be autonomous in decision-making” (p. 49). Benson and Njuguna (2023)
highlighted the positive effects on teacher expertise and attitude when teachers and their supervisors
worked collaboratively to enhance student learning. The autonomy and collective efficacy in
professional learning communities, such as the ones described in these articles, can help enhance
teachers’ agency by developing teacher leadership, increasing knowledge-sharing practices,
regulating workload, bolstering a sense of self as professional actors, and mitigating negative
attitudes toward the reform.
The articles coded for the agent characterization were more likely to transcend the
ubiquitous “more training and more resources” recommendations common in the articles coded for
the recipient characterization. They instead emphasized the need to listen to teacher concerns while
understanding the nexus between teachers and the broader contexts for the CBC reform. Katam
(2020), for instance, emphasized the need to understand teachers’ hidden concerns and cautioned
that “the vitality of curriculum efforts depends on the teacher’s acceptance of the reform and how
their concerns are addressed, because teachers are expected to put reform ideas into practice” (p.
52). Gichurur (2024) called for “restructuring administrative policies to provide robust support
systems for teachers” (p. 1690). This proactive way of viewing teachers’ hidden concerns, related
resistance, and connections to policy structures is an important characteristic of the teacher as agent
characterization, as explained in the Discussion section.

4.3. Teachers as Partners

The notion of teachers as partners is premised on the acknowledgement that teachers should
not be mere technicians who implement a curriculum handed down to them; rather, they must
exercise their agency as well as have substantive involvement in all aspects of reform, including
reform formulation, planning, and evaluation. Vähäsantanen (2015) noted that teachers should
influence the content, design, and organization of educational change—and they should be treated
as “active participants . . . whose actions and opinions matter” (p. 2). Participation here speaks to
inclusivity. Articles coded for this characterization tended to emphasize noninclusion of teachers, as
well as the understanding of the teacher’s role relationally and paying attention to how power is
exercised in CBC educational change.
Some articles highlighted that the lack of substantive inclusion of teachers in the reform
process was a significant misstep in CBC reform. Ngeno and colleagues (2021a) concluded that
“there is need for teachers to be involved at all levels of curriculum development” (p. 126).
Similarly, Owidi and Lyanda (2023), in their meta-analysis of the transition from 8-4-4 to CBC,
noted that,
The teacher’s role was not clearly defined in the development of Competency Based
Curriculum (CBC) in Kenya. This has resulted in various challenges in its implementation
right from the onset. This is because the teachers were only involved during the
implementation stage, which is the last step of the curriculum development process (p.
1088).
They urged construction of a “pedagogic discourse in which the teachers as the core implementors
[sic] of the curriculum [have] a clear understanding of the whole process of development,
implementation, evaluation, and challenges expected of the new curriculum.” (p. 1094).
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Many articles coded for the partner role considered the lack of substantive involvement of
teachers in the reform process as a serious threat to sustainability of the CBC reform. For instance,
Muchira and colleagues (2023) reported evidence from their comparative study revealing that:
Inadequate involvement of teachers in the curriculum development process impedes
effective implementation of a CBC. Thus, it is important to engage teachers throughout the
implementation stages, including their participation in technical working groups that
examine the gaps in the curriculum to foster improved pedagogical skills and techniques.
Teachers also can be involved through government funded action-research to better identify
challenges in the implementation process and as sources of recommendations on how to
solve the challenges. (p. 70)
Sifuna and Obonyo (2019) presented the “bottom-up” model as an ideal, where teachers among
other stakeholders are collaboratively involved in the planning and implementation of education
reforms (p. 43).
The limited participation of teachers was attributed to existing policies and related attitudes
of the policy makers toward teachers (Ajuoga & Keta, 2021; Kubai, 2023; Mackatiani et al., 2023a;
Sifuna & Obonyo, 2019). Regarding policy makers’ attitudes, for example, Ajuoga, & Keta (2021)
criticized as unethical utterances by a deputy director of the curriculum development agency in
Kenya who seemed to suggest teachers should borrow teaching materials from neighboring schools
as a way of silencing teachers’ demands for resources. They summarized the poor perceptions that
state agencies have of teachers as “fail[ing] to be creative” and too “lazy to think out of the box” (p.
46). Examinations of the intertwining of teachers’ work and the social structures in which they work
are critical for understanding the partnership role of teachers in CBC reform. More studies are
needed that examine this nexus.

5. Discussion
The CBC in Kenya, for all intents and purposes, can be described as a top-down education
reform. There is ample literature opining that top-down education reform strategies can be useful
for the implementation and sustainability of centralized education reforms ( Bjork, 2003; Tikkanen
et al., 2019). However, as Tikkanen and colleagues note, “top-down reforms tend to have a weak
impact on the everyday life of schools because they often fail to enhance ownership over the reform
and build aligned understanding of the reform across different levels of the educational system” (p.
547). This paper indicates one such weakness when it comes to the conceptions of the role of
teachers in CBC reform in Kenya. In most of the reviewed articles coded recipient, perceptions of
the teacher’s role employed what is referred to in this paper as the “unpack and implement” lens. In
this conceptualization, the focus is on the received curriculum, and teachers view themselves (and
are viewed by others) solely as implementers of the curriculum in the classroom—not as individuals
engaging in a moral, intellectual, and transformative practice. Studies emphasizing this role see
teachers from deficit and technicist perspectives, emphasizing their lack of training or preparedness,
instructional and other resources, and the physical infrastructure needed to do their work—while
underplaying their agency.
The “unpack and implement” understanding of the teacher’s role in the CBC reform process
can be contrasted to the view of teachers as agents. A focus on agency must start with recognizing
teachers as individuals with desires, motivations, beliefs, concerns, attitudes, sense-making, voice,
and power to interact creatively with (or thwart) reform. Agency is premised on the belief that, in
the words of Katam (2020), “all change origin[ate]s with the individual.” An emphasis on teacher
agency can enhance ownership—and hence sustainability of the reform (Tikkanen et al., 2019).
Articles coded for “agent” in the current study explored various aspects of teacher agency, including
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motivation, attitudes, adaptability, and autonomy, as well as the effect of these aspects on CBC
implementation.
Centering agency allowed these articles to present teachers as volitional actors who interact
with CBC as professionals. In this role teachers worked creatively with the CBC even when
training, physical infrastructure, and resources were inadequate. They adapted the curriculum in
response to the needs of their students and worked in learning communities to mitigate some of the
negative effects related to the less-than-ideal development, implementation, and evaluation of the
CBC. The articles depicted teachers as likely to embrace the CBC when it served their professional
needs and well-being, and when their concerns were seen as opportunities to problem-solve. The
articles also presented teachers’ negative attitudes and resistance as a symptom of the lack of
recognition of teacher agency by the government. Giudici (2021) noted that teachers “resist policy
change, alter it, or forge new policy on the ground” by exerting influence through strategies such as
“voicing experience, subversive enactment, and open resistance” (p. 801). Katam (2020) was
among those echoing this view of teacher resistance. She cautioned that policy makers in Kenya
should view “teachers’ resistance as a positive force” (p. 60). More studies are needed that examine
proactive ways of treating teachers’ hidden concerns and resistance as important characteristics of
their agency. Such studies would highlight proactive strategies—or the lack thereof—to enhance
teacher agency and mitigate resistance that could undermine the sustainability of the reform. They
would also pay attention to proactive strategies (Tikkanen et al., 2019) for ensuring the well-being
of teachers.
Teachers as agents in the reform process should be complemented by regarding teachers as
partners. As noted in the Findings section above, teachers as partners characterization was least
represented in the reviewed articles. The articles in this category decried the non inclusion of
teachers beyond the classroom and began to examine social structures and issues of power that
hinder robust participation of teachers in the CBC reform process. An important step in the fight for
inclusion that was mentioned in some of the reviewed articles is an acknowledgement that
substantive teacher inclusion is political and must be fought for. Some articles noted the struggle for
inclusivity through the efforts of teacher unions, especially the Kenya National Union of Teachers
(KNUT), but they offered little else in terms of exploring or theorizing teacher inclusion in a
context with a long history of disempowering teachers. Other articles mentioned a sociocultural
context in which government officials harbor disempowering attitudes toward teachers. There is a
need for researchers to move beyond reporting on deficit views of teachers. They could further
examine how embedded power in the sociocultural and political structures impedes robust teacher
partnership in the CBC reform process. Such a focus is likely to reveal ways to help elevate teachers
to become partners in CBC reform. The goal, as Levinson and colleagues (2013) note, is to achieve
a robust and substantive—rather than merely symbolic—participation.
The oft-cited case study of Ontario, Canada, can be useful. According to Boyd (2021), past
education changes were “disempowering for teachers and ultimately detrimental for students” (p.
40). The government then adopted a “collaborative and problem-solving approach at all three levels
of government” (p. 41)—national, provincial, and school; enhanced teacher leadership at all levels;
and “took action to rebuild a trusting relationship with [teachers]” (p. 45). Teacher leadership
emphasized collaboration with and among teachers. Teacher collaboration, as Hargreaves (2021)
noted, “depended as much on how well leaders helped teachers develop collective ownership…, as
on where the changes technically come from” (p. 608). He and others have cautioned that
empowering teachers in these ways demands a culture shift.
Empowering teachers in Kenya would require, as a first step, improving the working
conditions of teachers. As pointed out in many of the articles reviewed for this study, teachers in
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Kenya currently face numerous challenges, including heavy workload, low pay, and lack of
adequate infrastructure, training, and teaching materials. As urgent as the support needed to address
these challenges is, however, a collaborative model would couple this support with cultivating an
empowered teacher role in and beyond the classroom. Empowered teachers are likely to function as
agents and partners; owning the reform and collaborating on solutions to the current challenges
facing the CBC curriculum reform process. Both teachers and policy makers at the ministry level
must value this view of collaborative partnership for the needed culture change to take effect.
Researchers in Kenya could focus more on examining and theorizing the forms of collaboration
experienced by teachers in the CBC reform process in Kenya, while being attentive to broader
social structures and power relations. They could ask, for instance, about the dynamics that
influence how teachers interact collaboratively with the policy structure.

6. Conclusion
The CBC has been touted as constituting a paradigm shift in the way Kenya has historically
conducted its educational reform process. In a rapidly growing Kenyan CBC literature dominated
by the “teacher preparedness” and “infrastructural challenges” emphases, discussions about
competing perceptions of the role of the teacher in the CBC reform process are underrepresented.
This paper has argued that the ways in which teachers and other stakeholders perceive the teacher’s
role is critical in educational change. In Kenya, while teachers are acknowledged as critical to the
CBC reform process, their role beyond implementing a scripted curriculum remains unclear. The
ubiquity of the characterization of recipients and underrepresentation of agents and partners in the
conceptualization of the teacher’s role is not unique to Kenya. However, researchers need to expand
and deepen examinations of teachers as agents and partners in the CBC reform process in Kenya.
Such studies would require a commitment by researchers to integrate a consideration of the
dynamics among social structure, culture, and teachers’ experiences in their exploration of the
teacher’s role in the CBC reform process. In addition, there is no doubt that while research is
important, the reconceptualization of the teacher’s role in CBC reform will require a cultural shift in
the way educational reform is approached in Kenya.

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