Fostering values education through storytelling for children’s behaviour management in Rwanda’s lower primary schools

Abstract

Values education is one of the elements of key competencies besides knowledge/understanding and skills in Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) that has been implemented in Rwanda since 2016. Hence, the focus of this research was to explore the implementation of values education by lower primary grade teachers to illuminate children’s behaviours by addressing the following questions: How do Rwanda’s lower primary school teachers perceive disruptive behaviour? How do Rwanda’s lower primary school teachers implement values education? What values are embedded in Rwanda’s lower primary school storybooks? How do Rwanda’s lower primary school teachers promote values education via storytelling? This qualitative research used a phenomenology method with interpretivist paradigm. Data were collected qualitatively by means of interviews, observations, and document analysis from fifteen lower primary school teachers who were purposively selected from five schools in Rwanda. The analysis of data was done thematically in the framework of the social constructivism theory of teaching and learning. Four major findings are highlighted in this study. First, it was found out that teachers hate the teaching career due to the children’s misbehaviour which makes them want to quit the teaching profession. Second, the study revealed that the word ubukesha used in the Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) framework to mean value has various interpretations among teachers, which makes the teaching of values problematic. Third, it appeared that lower primary grade stories are rich in values. Fourth, though teachers are aware of the important role of teaching values such as promoting positive behaviours among learners, this study revealed that the teaching of values via stories is not well implemented because many teachers rely on indoctrination or do not teach the values embedded in the stories. vii Therefore, it is recommended that teachers be trained on values education, which increases positive behaviours among children. It is also suggested that the confusing term ubukesha be replaced by other meaningful terminologies such as indangagaciro to mean values. Additionally, to ensure deeper learning of values, teachers should prioritize constructivist teaching and learning which encourages critical thinking and active and collaborative learning.