The Relationship between Agricultural Teaching Approaches and Food Security in Kenya

Abstract

The continued food insecurity, despite the teaching of agriculture amidst the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), is a major global concern especially in Africa. There is food shortage in Africa and Kenya in particular despite the teaching of agriculture as a major subject in secondary schools. Many youth who have graduated from Kenyan secondary schools cannot adequately employ the agricultural skills developed during and after school for food security. The teaching approaches employed in secondary school agriculture should be able to develop skills of students on the aspects of food production, its accessibility, food safety, and nutrition as well as production economics. Towards this direction, this paper investigates the relationship between the agricultural teaching approaches employed in secondary schools and food security in Kenya. The study adopted descriptive survey design where data were collected using an Agriculture Teachers’ Interview Schedule, a Students’ Focus Group Discussion Guide, and a Parent’s Questionnaire and were then analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The research findings established that the lecture method, class discussions, class projects, problem solving, and tours and field trips were the common methods in agriculture classes. Though recommended in the literature review section, digital learning was hardly mentioned as a teaching approach for this study. A major conclusion for this study is that there is statistically insignificant relationship between the teaching approaches and food security. There are other factors not in the scope of this study that could be affecting food security and can be tackled at secondary school level. This paper makes a contribution to the growing body of knowledge by highlighting research gaps worth investigation on the relationship between the agricultural teaching approaches and food security that were beyond the scope of the study.