Intellectual agency and curriculum reform: The contribution of Bethwell Allan Ogot to basic education in Kenya (1964–2025)

Brenda Sara Khanani

doi:10.51867/ajernet.7.3.116

Authors

Brenda Sara Khanani Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Kenya https://orcid.org/0009-0002-6517-7539

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51867/ajernet.7.3.116

Keywords:

African-Centred Knowledge, Bethwell Allan Ogot, Basic Education, Curriculum Reform, Educational Policy, History Education, Historiography, Post-Independence Kenya

Abstract

This paper analyses how Bethwell Allan Ogot contributed to the evolution of basic education in Kenya from 1964 to 2025. Although Ogot is recognised as being a prominent figure in African historiography and higher learning leadership, his long-term impact on primary and secondary education has been minimally tackled systematically. This paper fills that gap by examining the influence that the intellectual work of Ogot, his advocacy of curriculum, his publishing projects, and his involvement in the education policy argument had on the content, orientation, and purpose of basic education in post-independent Kenya. The research is also based on the interpretive paradigm and uses historical research methods to collect, analyse, and present data. The main sources are oral interviews, Kenya National Archives records, school and institutional records, and church records, and secondary sources are books, journal articles, and theses, among other published resources. Internal and external criticism was applied to all the sources to make sure that they are historically credible. Critical policy historiography and theory of development are also used to inform the analysis, which allows Ogot to place his interventions into the wider context of post-colonial education reforms, Africanisation of knowledge, and nation-building agendas. The results demonstrate that Ogot had concrete contributions to basic education by his support of African-centred history education, leadership in indigenous textbook publishing, encouragement of oral tradition as a valid pedagogical tool, and continued work with community-based schools. Ogot impacted the realm of scholarship but also put into practice interventions that transformed the way Kenyan learners engaged with history, citizenship, and national identity. The article adds to the education history as it foreshadows personal intellectual agency in curriculum reform and shows the usefulness of the biographical method to the explanation of post-independence educational change.

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