ETHICS EDUCATION IN TEACHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS IN KENYA: A TOOL FOR RADICALISATION PREVENTION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

Teacher education is an important driver for sustainable develop ment (SD).13 This is because literally every knowledgeable and skilled individual in either micro or macro productive activity has been shaped in some ways by the contribution of a teacher. Together with cognitive and psychomotor developments, teachers also shape the affective do main of learners through teaching ethics, which are necessary for SD. To develop into responsible adults and be equipped with knowledge, skills and values for personal, national development, and healthy coexistence with others in the society, morals and ethics are critically important. Informed by current literature on ethics education in teacher education institutions, teachers experience a number of challenges both in the institutions where they train and in the schools where they teach. The mismatch between knowledge, skills and lack of a value laden education affects their influence on learners’ ethical development. This in turn promotes vices such as radicalisation, corruption and robbery amongst youths, which negatively affect SD. This conceptual paper attempts to foreground societal and institutional challenges concerning ethics educa tion that teachers face right from their training institutions to the schools they are posted to work in. It also looks at the possible ways to over come these challenges to make SD a reality in our communities.