Impact of Curriculum Review Policies on Music Teaching and Learning: Case of Public Primary Schools in Kiambu County, Kenya 1999-2019

ABSTRACT

The place of music in the Kenyan curriculum of education has for long not been assured as a result of curriculum review and changes. In order to understand how Kenya’s Curriculum Review Policies have impacted the stakeholders in the Public Primary Schools, this study examined the influence of Kenyan education policy and commissions of inquiry into the education system on the attitude /perception on the teaching and learning of Music as a subject in public primary schools in Kenya. This study identified its statement of the problem as being the various changes in the music curriculum whose impact has not been fully analyzed in literature thus creating a gap as to the relevance of these changes to the overall learning experience in public primary schools. This study sought to achieve the following objectives: to establish how the various music curriculum reviews have influenced classroom behavior and overall learning of music in PPS in Kiambu County; To determine how the music curriculum review and changes have affected the morale, performance and state of music in PPS in Kiambu county and; to explore strategies for better teaching and learning of music as a subject in PPS in Kiambu County. The study is significant as it contributes to knowledge by filling the present gap in literature on how music curriculum changes have affected the teaching and learning of music. Policy makers and scholars can therefore have a vital resource to rely on. The study employed the Functionalist Approach to Attitude Formation and change which suggests that attitudes impel people to react to objects, situations, or propositions in ways that can be called favorable or unfavorable. The study correlated the influence of Curriculum Review Policies (independent variable) as it affects the state of music in PPS, which is the dependent variable. A descriptive Research Design was chosen because it enabled the researcher to present the various opinions and attitudes from the subjects in the most effective way. For purposes of gathering objective data, the study employed participant observation of pupils, questionnaires and interview schedules as primary data collection tools with the findings being complemented by secondary data collected from journals, books, policy documents, and online sources. The research employed purposive sampling technique to select respondents based on the characteristics of a population and their level of engagement with music education curriculum. The study chose as its area of study Kiambu County (Kenya) because it has Public primary schools that have been in existence long enough to have been affected by the Curriculum Review Policies changes. This study shed light on the influence of policy on classroom behavior and the overall learning of music. The study therefore, provides a timely insight into this problem with a view to re-defining learning and teaching of music in the Kenyan public primary schools by proposing measures that are responsive and inclusive of the end users of any music policy. The study revealed that a majority of the respondents were in agreement as to the negative impact of the various music curriculum changes on the overall learning of music and on classroom behaviour. There has also been a marked decline in the place of music in the PPS education curriculum, a situation that has had a negative impact on the attitudes of teachers and pupils towards music.