Teachers’ Professional Identity and its Impacts on Teachers’ Pedagogical Practices: A Comparative Review of Two Counties of Kenya

Abstract

Quality education outcomes are the driving force of society’s development and this has been the quest for various local, national, and international frameworks including Kenya’s Vision 2030 and Sustainable Development Goals. Nevertheless, an examination of their pedagogical practices reveals gaps in the achievement of quality education outcomes. This study examined a comparative review of teachers’ professional identity and its impact on teachers’ pedagogical practices in two counties of Kenya. Social Constructivism Theory, which theorizes how social learning occurs, guided the study. Through a comprehensive review of literature, the study identified gaps in teachers’ pedagogical practices that motivated the present study. The study purposively sampled 24 principals and systematically randomized 80 teachers and 144 students. The key research instruments were questionnaires for teachers and students, while interview guides were used to collect data from principals from the selected public secondary schools. Validity was enhanced by the piloting of the instruments before collecting the final data. To enhance credibility, an adjustment of the tools was done according to the opinion obtained from respondents and the advice provided by university supervisors. The reliability of the instruments was calculated using the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient and found to be ρ =.77, hence considered reliable. To test the internal consistency of reliability within the questionnaire items, Cronbach alpha based on the standardized items was used, which yielded α =.759.  Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS Version 25 for both descriptive and inferential statistics.  Measures among variables were described using standard deviations, SD. The test generated Chi-square coefficients of χ (1) =.87.685, 176.153 with corresponding significant levels of p=, .000 for teachers and p= .000 for learners which were both equal to the already determined level of significance of 0.05, that is p values of 0.00 and 0.00 are equal to 0.00. The reporting of the quantitative data was in percentages, tables, and charts. Qualitative data was analyzed through identification, categorization of data into concepts, and interpretation of patterns and themes in textual data, which determined how these patterns and themes helped answer the research questions. The study findings indicated that teachers are pivotal in determining educational outcomes through their pedagogical practices as corroborated by the respective research objectives and findings. The study is significant to education policymakers as they design effective curriculum delivery strategies and to school administrators and wider educational stakeholders. The study also concludes that a pedagogical practice among teachers plays a great role in quality educational outcomes. The study recommends that teachers should undergo continuous professional development to improve curriculum delivery. Also, the government should enhance quality assurance and monitoring strategies in schools to ensure that the school curriculum is highly implemented to achieve the educational goals in Kenya and beyond.