Utility Of Change Management Strategies In Curriculum Implementation In Public Secondary Schools In Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya

Abstract

Secondary schools need change management strategies to come up with new management plans and strategies. However, change in organisations will be slowed down without the approval of the management who are the key advance programme. Therefore, ithe ipurpose iof ithis istudy iwas ito iassess ithe iutility iof ichange imanagement istrategies iin icurriculum iimplementation iin ipublic isecondary ischools iin iElgeyo-Marakwet iCounty, iKenya. iThe ifollowing iobjectives iguided ithe istudy: ito idetermine ithe iinfluence iof ipreparedness ion icurriculum iimplementation iin ipublic isecondary ischools, ito iexplore ithe iinfluence iof iresource imobilisation ion icurriculum iimplementation iin ipublic isecondary ischools, ito iassess ithe ieffect iof ischool ileadership iin icurriculum iimplementation iin ipublic isecondary ischools iand ito iexamine ithe iinfluence iof istakeholders’ iparticipation ion icurriculum iimplementation iin ipublic isecondary ischools iin iElgeyo-Marakwet iCounty. iThe istudy iwas iguided iby iKurt iLewins ithree istep itheory imodel. iA ipragmatic iresearch iparadigm iwas iutilised iin ithis istudy. iThis istudy iutilised iconcurrent itriangulation imixed iresearch idesign. iThe itarget ipopulation ifor ithe iresearch iinvolved ifive i(5) idirectors iof ieducation, ione ihundred iand itwenty-three i(123) iprincipals, i123 ideputy iprincipals iand i984 iheads iof idepartments i(HODs) ifrom iall ipublic isecondary ischools iin ithe iCounty. iThe irespondents iwere iselected iusing istratified irandom isampling i(principals, ideputy iprincipals iand iHODs) iand ipurposive isampling i(directors iof ieducation) itechniques. iThe istudy iutilised ia iquestionnaire iand iinterview ischedules ias iinstruments ifor idata icollection. iThe iresearch iinstruments iwere ivalidated iand itested ifor ireliability iprior ito ibeing iadministered ito ithe ifield. iQuantitative idata ianalysis iwas iperformed iusing idescriptive i(frequencies, ipercentages, imeans iand istandard ideviation) iand iinferential i(multiple ilinear iregression) istatistics. iStatistical iProduct iand iService iSolutions i(SPSS iVersion i25.0) icomputer isoftware iassisted iin iquantitative idata icoding, ientry iand ianalysis. iQualitative idata ifrom iinterview ischedules iwas ianalysed ithematically iusing icontent ianalysis imethod. iThe istudy ifindings irevealed ithat ithere iwas isignificant ipositive irelationship ibetween iutility iof ichange imanagement istrategies; ipreparedness i(β=0.231, it=3.316, ip=0.001), iresource imobilisation i(β=0.134, it=2.096, ip=0.037), ischool ileadership i(β=0.323, it=4.202, ip=0.001) iand istakeholder iparticipation i(β=0.203, it=2.644, ip=0.009) ion icurriculum iimplementation iin ischools. iAll ifour-null ihypothesis ifor ithe istudy iwere irejected i(p<0.05). The study concludes that 39.4% of change in the curriculum implementation level in secondary schools was determined by utilisation of change management strategies. This means that for proper implementation of curriculum in secondary schools, the way school management utilised change management approaches were key. The study recommends that administrative members needs to be trained on planning, leadership skills, resource management, accountability and integrity.