Doctor of Philosophy (Early Years Education)

Background

The Department of Educational Communication, Technology and Pedagogical Studies
has been offering diploma, bachelor and masters programmes in Early Years Education
(EYE) since 2000. The PhD programme in Early Years Education addresses capacity
building for innovation and sustainable development in this sector of education. It
targets to have a highly skilled human resource in Early Years Education for the
realization of Vision 2030 and beyond.
The doctoral programme in Early Years Education is intended to improve strategic and
tactical thinking to remove wastage and add value in the teaching, management and
evaluation of the sub-sector. The doctoral graduates will have holistic perceptions of
Early Years Education as a critical component of achieving newly industrialized status
of our societies. Therefore, the department has structured this doctoral programme in
Early Years Education by coursework, examination and thesis. The programme is
pegged on the field of Teacher Training with subject Specialisation according to the
UNESCO/ISCED Category 0114.

Philosophy of the Programme
The philosophy of the programme is guided by the need to connect and inspire the
Kenyan community, to provide leadership and stewardship and to give hope and faith to
the Kenyan society so that it can excel in whatever it chooses to do with passion, moral
responsibility and a strong sense of patriotism.

Rationale of the Programme

The Early Years Education subsector has experienced massive expansion requiring high
quality human resource to handle the area at different tiers of the education system.
However, this expansion has not been matched with corresponding human resource to
manage it. Even though the University has been training specialists in Early Childhood
Education (ECE) at Masters level since 2008, there is still need to train highly qualified
human resource at PhD level to handle ECE programmes in existing and emerging
universities in Kenya. This doctoral programme focuses on developing practitioners for
EYE sector as a provision to the expectations of Kenya Constitution 2010 and for the
realization of vision 2030 by creating a pool of highly skilled specialists. To this end,
the programme is devised to produce professionals for universities, middle level

Objectives of The programme is to:

1. Explore the theoretical and applied knowledge of contemporary issues in early childhood education.

2. Acquire a critical understanding of the theoretical lens to look at specific issues of Early Childhood            Education.

3. Apply philosophy, principles and practice of Early Childhood educational research.

4. Conduct research independently at a high level of originality and quality. 

5. Continue to advance knowledge and its application in particular fields of study of Early Childhood                  Education.