A Critical Analysis of Master of Education Degree Programme in the Department of Educational Foundations in Selected Public Universities in Kenya From 1993 to 2014
Abstract
The study sought to investigate the growth and development of Masters Degree
programmes in Departments of Educational Foundations in selected Kenyan public
universities in from 1993 to 2014. The study had three research objectives namely; to
establish the enrolment of Masters Degree students in the Masters Degree
programmes between 1993 to 2014, to document trends in the recruitment of
academic staff of the Masters Degree programme as from 1993 to 2014, and to
determine the number of graduates of the Masters Degree and their recruitment as
academic staff in the selected Kenyan Public Universities. The reviewed literature
found that the expansion of the existing public universities and the establishment of
new ones had brought new challenges in the education sector. These challenges
include the concerns about the academic staff establishment, the enrolments of
students into the Masters Degree programmes, the number of graduates of Masters
Degree programmes and those absorbed into careers in public universities. This study
was both qualitative and quantitative in nature and relied upon the document analysis,
interview guides and questionnaires to collect the data objectively hence the
utilization of historical research method. Kenyatta University, Moi University and the
University of Nairobi were purposively selected as they were the oldest public
universities in Kenya with developed schools of education required for the study. The
sample size constituted 3 heads of department, 3 academic registrars and 59 academic
staff. A total of 25 respondents responded to the interview schedules and 34
questionnaires were used in the analysis of the study. The findings established that the
three departments had a total of 32 academic staff teaching the Masters Degree
programmes and a total of 460 students who had enrolled for the studies between1993
and 2014. In addition the findings established that the departments had employed
Masters Degree graduates as academic staff and the departments had inadequate
teaching staff in the Educational Foundations courses. In order to address the shortage
of academic staff levels, the study recommends that universities to invest in human
resource development, capacity building of the human resource and a comprehensive
policy framework on enrolments students in relation to the workload of the teaching
staff.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
- Faculty of Education (FEd) [6020]
The following license files are associated with this item: