A Cohort of Secondary School Principals from Nairobi County are currently enrolled in a series of virtual coaching and mentorship sessions on Cultivating Virtues for Leadership (CViL). The purpose of CViL Coaching and Mentoring sessions is to help guide the school Principals on a personal and professional development journey. A journey of self-discovery and appreciation, a
deep understanding of servant leadership virtues, character education, and skills necessary to lead school transformation. The mentorship sessions are being hosted by the Centre Director for the Character Education Programme, Peter King’ori, in collaboration with stakeholders from the Center for Character and Citizenship (CCC), University of Missouri-St. Louis and Teachers Service Commission (TSC) Regional Director in Nairobi County.

The third coaching and mentorship session on ‘Six Design Principles for School Improvement (PRIMED for Character Education)’ was facilitated by Prof. Marvin Berkowitz, Sanford N. McDonnell Professor of Character Education, Center for Character and Citizenship, University of Missouri-St. Louis. The discussion emphasized on the importance of character education in schools, the role of educators in shaping character, and the need for a backward design and evidence-based approach in education. Prof. Berkowitz specified that “Schools are perfectly designed for the results we are getting. If we don’t like the results, we need to redesign schools.” He highlighted the significance of prioritizing character development in schools, fostering healthy adult culture, promoting intrinsic motivation, role modelling, teaching social-emotional competencies and empowering all stakeholders in the school community. A published copy of ‘The PRIMED for Character Education” is available through this link:  www.routledge.com/9781138492554

The fourth coaching and mentorship session on ‘Leading for and with Character: Insights from My Educational Leadership Journey’ was facilitated by Dr. Lili Borrero, Director of Learning Programs at Colegio Nueva Granada (CNG), the American school in Bogotá, Colombia. Dr. Lili shared her personal journey from teacher to leader, emphasizing the importance of building caring relationships, role modeling, and creating positive school cultures. “What do excellent teachers do?” she asked, as she advised Principals to discover and strive to develop their noble purpose, build relationships that demonstrate caring and understanding, and believe that every child can learn.

The fifth coaching and mentorship session on ‘Living and Leading with Purpose: Are you just Managing the “Whats” or are you Nourishing the Flourishing?’ was facilitated by Dr. Julie Sperry, Director of Leadership, Expansion and Innovative Programming Consultant, CharacterPlus. Dr. Julie shared her own character leadership journey through the perspective of a purpose-less managing principal to becoming a purpose-full leader. She highlighted Simon Sinek concept of the Golden Circle as she said ‘people follow leaders who operate from their core; from their why; who lead with purpose and clarity.’

The Centre for Character and Leadership (CCL) together with the School Principals and teachers in some of our Character Oriented Schools were privileged to host Adam Seldom, UK -based teacher and author. Adam was on journey to understand what makes a good school and the purpose of education as he is writing a book that its titled “Around the World in 80 Schools”. At CCL, we champion the development of good character that helps the learners to flourish in life beyond the school. Accompanied by the Director of Character Education Programme, Peter Kingori and Justina Ndunge, Programme Assistant from CCL; Adam visited 3 public Secondary Schools namely Ruai Boys Secondary School, Dandora Secondary School and Buruburu Girls Secondary School. The visit included a series of interviews with the school principals, teachers and students majoring on how the school teaches character, school culture and identity, and how the school shapes behavior and the wider educational development of the child. Additionally, the visitors spent some time as they attended classroom lessons with an intent to deepen their understanding on how teachers integrate values such as honesty, diligence, caring and respect during subject lessons.

Notably, Principals shared valuable insights on why educating for character and academic excellence are intertwined and inseparable. At Ruai Boys Secondary School, Principal and teachers attributed teaching of character and values to students modelling good behavior and excellent performance. They shared a story of hope and success by giving an example of the top students who scored grade A- and the most improved students in the last 2 years in
national examination. The schools have documented several Character Promising Practices including virtue of the week initiative, branding of school vision, mission, motto and core values, and integration of values during subject lessons.

At Dandora Secondary School, Principal shared his personal perspective on the purpose of education and stated that ‘a great school should aim to bring up a holistic child who is competitive in academics but has admirable character.’ He attributed teaching of character within the school to an improvement in the number of students who qualified to join university after they sat for national examination as he compared KCSE results for the past two years. This included 12 students in 2023 to 31 students in 2024. One noticeable activity
which the school have used in teaching character is the ‘adopt a tree and tag a virtue’ initiative.

At Buruburu Girls Secondary School, CCL team together with Adam were impressed on how teachers integrate values during subject lessons as they attended Kiswahili and Christian Religious Education lessons. Besides that, several classes have written their classroom values on the wall and students are keen to practice and model the virtues. Additionally, school culture includes an aspect of identifying a key virtue from distinguished visitors and
planting a tree that it’s tagged with the virtue and name of the visitor. Students tend to inculcate those virtues as they take care of the trees.

In each school, Adam delivered a speech to the students, offering valuable insights on how to be successful as a student. Key points of his message included having resilience and effort, focusing on what matters, early study and revision, developing a reading culture, having interest and values over wealth and modelling gratitude.

A Cohort of Secondary school principals from Nairobi County are currently enrolled in a series of virtual mentorship and coaching sessions on Cultivating Virtues for Leadership (CViL). The CViL modules were designed to guide and support educators on a personal and professional journey of growth and development through the cultivation of servant leadership virtues. The
mentorship sessions are being hosted by the Centre Director for the Character Education Programme, Peter King’ori, in collaboration with stakeholders from the Center for Character and Citizenship (CCC), University of Missouri-St. Louis and Teachers Service Commission (TSC) Regional Director in Nairobi County. The mentorship sessions are being offered to the Principals in line with the TSC policy that stipulates on the need of providing mentorship to ‘institutional administrators by building and enhancing skills and competencies for proper management of learning institutions’ The participants include newly appointed school administrators.

The first mentorship session featured inspiring insights from Dr. Melinda Bier, a research scientist and developer of CViL model from CCC. Dr. Melinda’s message was centered on servant leadership—a philosophy that prioritizes on valuing and developing people, sharing power, promoting trust, and building a sense of community. Unlike traditional leadership models, servant leadership places the leader in the role of a servant first. A servant leader strives to model virtues such as noble purpose, humility, courage, forgiveness, gratitude,
integrity, empowerment, foresight and stewardship. Speaking about nurturing of noble purpose, she challenged each participant to know his/her ‘why’ citing that “Successful people stay grounded in their why.” She added that ‘noble purpose drives a person to make a positive difference in the world.’

The second mentorship session on “Creating a Culture Where Everyone Grows: Every Educator is a Chief Empathy Officer” was facilitated by Dr. Thomas Hoerr, Scholar in Residence, University of Missouri-St. Louis; Emeritus Head of the New City School, USA. Dr. Hoerr shared invaluable insights on the transformative power of empathy, appreciation, and trust in creating a thriving organizational culture. He urged school principals to ‘create spaces where every individual feels seen, valued and heard,” as he said that ‘culture happens when the leader inspires and gets everyone to buy in’. He added that creating such a positive environment begins with leaders encouraging open communication, and ensuring that everyone feels safe to
express their thoughts and concerns. Further, he urged educators to intentionally cultivate gratitude in order to create a culture of care in the school community.

In conclusion, participants have found the mentorship and coaching sessions being valuable in their individual life as they are able to gain skills and competencies which enable them to serve their school communities as servant leaders.

The Centre Director for the Character Education Programme, Peter King’ori, together with stakeholders from the Ministry of Education organized a capacity building and research dissemination workshop that was hosted by the Kenya Education Management Institute (KEMI). The workshop brought together over 65 Principals from Nairobi County working and managing public secondary schools under Teachers Service Commission. Other stakeholders included speakers from Kenya Methodist University, Center for Character and Citizenship (CCC) and Cohort 1 representative pilot schools.

The ultimate goal of the workshop was to communicate research results of the ‘Cultivating Virtues in Kenyan School leaders’ (CViL) project and promote open science practices among the Heads of institution. The principal is the most responsible person in the education system for establishing the vision and overall ethos of the school. Thus, CViL was designed to guide and support educators on a personal and professional journey of growth and development through the cultivation of servant leadership virtues.

The occasion was graced by Wycliffe Wasike on behalf of Executive Director, KEMI. Speaking during the event, Mr. Wasike urged the school principals to become moral exemplars as he said ‘you have two critical roles, the role of being a good example to the staff that you lead and the role of being a good example to the young people who are learning in your respective institutions.’ He added that ‘they want to see good character, values and virtues in us so that we can be able to impart something in them.’ Additionally, Dr. Hellen Boruett from the Ministry of Education shared about the 8 National Goals of Education and emphasized that a school leader should always aim to ‘foster nationalism, patriotism and promote national unity.’

Dr. Melinda, research scientist and developer of CViL model from CCC, University of Missouri-St. Louis shared a keynote presentation on ‘Cultivating Virtues for Leadership Model as Professional Development for Educators.’ She challenged the principals to embrace servant leadership as she claimed that the ‘model theorizes that servant leaders are motivated by compassionate love which encourages moral emotions and strengthens virtuous attitudes which in turn motivate leadership behaviors that lead to the well-being and development of followers.’  The CViL Model encompasses learning and modelling 9 virtues namely: noble purpose, humility, courage, gratitude, forgiveness, integrity, empowerment, foresight and stewardship.

Furthermore, Daniel Kerandi from Kenya Methodist University shared a presentation on ‘Promoting Research Uptake Through Open Scholarship.’ He emphasized on the need for school principals and academic scholars to embrace Open Scholarship as it has the ‘potential to lower barriers to knowledge by making the processes and products of scholarship more distributed, transparent, and accessible.’ He added that embracing different forms of openness in the scholarly and research environment such as Open access, Open science, Open research and open education stimulates and enhances a culture of open scholarship at the institutions of learning.

Lastly, participants were informed that the CViL pilot program was delivered to two cohorts with a 7-month gap between each cohort.  The findings of the pilot study showed that school leaders and teachers who participated in the CViL program reported that the training was worthwhile and informative, and that it improved their understanding and appreciation of servant leadership virtues. Also, participants found the CViL program appealing and relevant to their contexts, and shared positive feedback on training personnel, activities, and logistical support. The evaluation also found that participants’ understanding and appreciation of servant leadership improved post training.

The CViL pilot project was supported with funding from Templeton World Charity Foundation. The Cultivating Virtue for Leadership Through Open Scholarship workshop was supported with the Open Scholarship Seed Award granted by the Open Research Funders Group.

The Centre Director for the Character Education Programme, Peter King’ori, gave a keynote address to the school Principals and teachers during an open day on ‘Teacher Induction, Mentorship and Coaching (TIMEC) Programme’. The mentorship event brought together over 70 School Principals and teachers selected as the first cohort of Mentors and Mentees in an effort to institutionalize the TIMEC programme in Secondary Schools and Primary Schools in Embakasi Central Sub County. The event was hosted at Edelvale Primary School on May 24, 2024 and was coordinated by the office of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) Sub County Director and Regional County Director, Nairobi.

The occasion was graced by TSC Chairperson, Dr. Jamleck Muturi. Speaking during the event, Dr. Muturi reminded school Principals and teachers that they are called to serve as he said ‘serve God’s purpose and serve your generation.’ He further urged the school administrators to avoid the shame and bad character that comes with power, money and possessions.

In his Keynote address titled ‘Application of Induction, Mentorship and Coaching in the Teaching Service’, Peter King’ori emphasized on the need of structured mentorship in the teaching profession. ‘Teachers require support systems to manage the challenges associated with globalization, social dynamics and technological changes due to their effect on people’s conduct and professionalism,’ he said. He expressed that a professional teacher should possess moral character and performance character beside having moral sensitivity, moral judgement, moral motivation and consistently modelling ethical actions. He urged the mentors and mentees to strive to become servant leaders and good moral exemplars who can be emulated by other teachers and learners within the school community and beyond.

“Good mentors offer priceless advice that comes from their own experiences – both successes and failures. They teach us, they guide us, they encourage us, and they increase our chances for success in life. Every kid and every adult should have mentors,” Anonymous.

The Teachers Service Commission is committed to institutionalize the TIMEC Policy in learning institutions in order to enhance teachers professional conduct and performance in the teaching service. You can read more about the TIMEC Policy here

In a concerted effort to promote virtue development, environmental sustainability, and community engagement; the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) Sub County Director of Embakasi Central, in collaboration with the Centre for Character and Leadership (CCL) and East African Cables spearheaded a tree growing drive. The stakeholders donated and engaged learners in Komarock Primary, Komarock South Primary and Busara Primary School to plant and take care of over 400 tree seedlings as part of adopt a tree and tag a virtue initiative.

The ‘Adopt a tree and tag a virtue initiative’ is a service-learning best practice which is implemented by involving the learners to plant, adopt and tag the trees with environmental related virtues which they aim to nurture in life as the trees grow. Research shows that nurturing of virtues such as appreciation of beauty, love of learning, bravely, curiosity, spirituality, gratitude, social intelligence, kindness and zest predicts development of positive environmental attitudes, intentions, and behaviors. Also, students who are exposed to nature through environmental education tend to experience nature connectedness.

Through the adopt a tree and tag a virtue initiative, learners take on the responsibility of caring for their tree and the development of their chosen virtues as a ‘personal project’ under the guidance of a teacher or staff mentor. The trees include both the indigenous and fruit trees.

During the occasion, students received education on tree planting, nurturing of virtues, and environmental conservation. This holistic approach fosters character development alongside environmental awareness. Ms. Pauline, TSC Sub County Director addressed the learners and the teachers and emphasized on the need of taking care of mother nature as she said, “In the Bible, human beings are commanded to take care of God’s Creation.” Mr. Peter King’ori, Director of Character Education Programme, reiterated CCL’s commitment in the cultivation of virtues in learners through experiential learning approach as he said, “we champion development of good character through nurturing of virtues.’

In conclusion, this collaborative effort between CCL, East African Cables, TSC Sub County Office and local educational institutions in Embakasi Central exemplifies the power of collective action in nurturing virtues and restoring greener spaces in schools. By investing in environmental sustainability and character development, we nurture future generations of responsible citizens, contributing to a better future for our communities and the environment.

References
Diessner, R., & Niemiec, R. M. (2022). Can beauty save the world? The character strength of appreciation of beauty predicts proenvironmental behavior and moral elevation better than 23 other major character strengths. Manuscript under review.
Merino, A., Valor, C., & Redondo, R. (2020). Connectedness is in my character: The relationship between nature relatedness and character strengths. Environmental Education Research, 26(12), 1707-1728.

The Centre Director for the Character Education Programme, Peter King’ori, facilitated the training for Master Trainers and Trainers of Trainers (TOTs) on Teacher Induction, Mentorship and Coaching (TIMEC) at a workshop that was organized by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC). The workshop participants included leaders who are in-charge of teachers’ management at the Regional, County, Sub-County and Zonal level from the 47 Counties.  The training was held at the Kenya School of Government-Embu Campus from June 12-17, 2023.

TSC is committed to institutionalize the Teacher Induction, Mentorship and Coaching Policy in order to enhance teachers professional conduct and performance in the teaching service. This includes retention of teachers within the teaching service; reduce the number of teachers who are involved with cases of professional misconduct; and establishing a life-long learning culture that is attractive to teachers who desire opportunities for career growth in the teaching profession.

Throughout the workshop, the participants were engaged in critical reflections and interactive dialogue in order to deepen their understanding and application of Teacher Induction, Mentorship and Coaching in the teaching service at this time of global transition.

The discussions were spurred by questions such as: How can institutions of learning develop a flourishing community of all staff in an era of globalization, social dynamics and technological changes? How do we educate and raise moral citizens for the 21st century? How does one cultivate leadership in others? How are the virtues manifested in your words and actions? How important is emotional intelligence in our personal and work environment? What are the causes of inter and intrapersonal conflicts in the work place? How can Induction, Mentorship and Coaching contribute to flourishing of teachers within the teaching service?  

Evidently, teachers require support systems to manage the challenges associated with the changes due to their effect on people’s conduct and professionalism. To act morally, a professional teacher needs to develop moral sensitivity, moral judgment, moral motivation and consistently model ethical actions. The TIMEC programme uses a preventive approach to promote positive discipline as it mainly targets to empower the newly recruited teachers, newly appointed institutional administrators/ heads of institutions, teachers with identified performance gaps and those with professional misconduct.

The institutionalization of TIMEC is structured in a manner that mentors and coaches are recruited within the teaching profession. They are required to provide coaching and mentorship to the mentees even at the institution level and as well develop community of practice. Each school is required to establish a mentorship and coaching committee with the head of institution as the supervisor.  The committee should meet regularly to review school level implementation of TIMEC and to ensure sustainability of the programme. You can read more about the TSC Induction, Mentorship and Coaching Policy here

The adopt a tree and tag a virtue initiative is not only helping in nurturing good character among the students in Primary and Secondary schools but also becoming a great education innovation towards achieving sustainable development goals. The ‘Adopt a tree and tag a virtue initiative’ is a service-learning best practice which is implemented by involving the students to plant, adopt and tag the trees with positive virtues which they aim to nurture in their life as the tree grows. The trees include both the indigenous and fruit trees. The students take on the responsibility of caring for their tree and the development of their chosen virtue as a “personal project’ under the guidance of a teacher or staff mentor.

A case study example is in Mutira Girls High School where the School Servant Leadership Team (SLT) has collaborated with the school principal to establish a green garden for fruit trees. The SLT received a 4 days training on “Cultivating virtues in Kenyan school leaders (CVIL)“ which was organized by the Centre for Character and Leadership (CCL) in partnership with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development and CViL developers from the Center for Character and Citizenship, University of Missouri-St.Louis. The CViL program seeks to guide educators on a personal and professional development journey. A journey of self-discovery and a deep understanding of servant leadership virtues, character education, and skills necessary to lead school transformation,

With the guidance of the SLT, every class teacher engage their students in interactive discussions with an aim of identifying a virtue which they would like to inculcate and model as a class. The class teacher together with the students’ representatives from each class participate in the launch of the green garden for fruit trees. Each class is then tasked to take care of its fruit tree as they encourage each other to nurture and model the virtue. The virtues tagged on the trees include stewardship by CCL, empathy by Form 1W, respect by Form 1U, considerate by Form 2V, forgiveness by Form 3X and generosity by Form 4W among others.  Currently, the trees are doing well and have started to bear the fruits. In addition, the SLT has reported that as a result of virtue development, “students in the school have become more hospitable, responsible and more determined.”

One of the favorite stories of character transformation from the school include students sacrificing their pocket money in order to raise funds to pay school fees of a needy girl. A form two class prefect mobilized her class, teachers and the whole school to raise money for a student who had been away from school due to illness for three months. A total of sixty-four thousand Kenya shillings was collected to finance the medical bill. This was indeed a kind gesture that showed selflessness and love, reported by the SLT.

Other schools which have embraced the adopt a tree and tag a virtue initiative includes Ruai Boys Secondary School, Drumvale Secondary School, Buruburu Girls Secondary School, Kiamutugu Boys’ Secondary School, Ole Tipis Girls’ Secondary School, Kirimari Boys Secondary School and ACK Mukengesya Secondary School. The aforementioned schools received an in-kind donation of indigenous trees from the East African Cables in collaboration with CCL. A total of over 4300 trees have been planted through the adopt a tree and tag a virtue initiative in year 2022 with a goal of planting 12000 trees in 2023. These concerted efforts go along way not only on fostering students character development through service learning but also in realizing sustainable development goals such as food security and climate action.

When parents and educators engage in meaningful conversation about the virtues which they most hope to nurture in their generation, they often emphasize on character strengths such as gratitude, noble purpose, spirituality, integrity, love of learning, curiosity, and teamwork (Bier, 2021; Gillham et.al, 2011). The nurturing of virtues help the students to thrive and attain life desired outcomes such as school and work achievement, having ability to delay gratification as well as being a good leader in the family and society. Thus, the Centre for Character and Leadership (CCL) initiated the formation of the school Servant Leadership Team (SLT) with an aim of assessing the school culture; identifying the leadership training needs; and steering the implementation of customized Character Education plan.

A case example is in Ruai Boys Secondary School where the school Servant leadership team led by the school principal as its patron worked together to implement an immersive plan of good character and virtue development. The SLT received a 4 days training on “Cultivating virtues in Kenyan school leaders (CVIL)” which was organized by the Centre for Character and Leadership (CCL) in partnership with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development and CViL developers from the Center for Character and Citizenship, University of Missouri-St.Louis. The CViL program seeks to guide educators on a personal and professional development journey. A journey of self-discovery and a deep understanding of servant leadership virtues, character education, and skills necessary to lead school transformation.

The school leadership has embraced various effective strategies to foster character and virtue development among the students. This include the virtue of the week, empowerment of the student council, the adopt a tree and tag a virtue initiative, virtues integration during lessons and rebranding of the school vision, mission and core values. SLT has taken lead in guiding the entire school community in modelling virtues such as godliness, integrity, teamwork, discipline and compassion. These virtues are displayed in strategic places within the school and teachers keep emphasizing the importance of practicing them with an aim of reengineering a new school culture that produces great results. The SLT has reported that as a result of the school community embracing character and virtue development, “we have noticed improved discipline and academic performance. We have also noticed a warm friendly school environment where we live and work as a family.”

One of the favorite stories of character transformation from the school is that of the members of the students’ council mobilizing each other to raise money in order to buy a new school bell. “… what greatly touched me is when the manual school bell broke down and the prefect body decided to raise money from their pocket money which they presented to the school principal to buy a new bell,” reported the SLT. Such acts of generosity are indicators of students having a sense of belonging and ownership of the school as well as a commitment to pursue excellence.

Other schools which have shown remarkable progress in practicing the effective strategies of character and virtue development includes St. Brigid Baraka Oontoyie Girls Secondary School, Garissa high school, Nakuru Hills Special School, Mwangaza Girls Secondary School, Ruiru Girls Secondary School, Olbutyo Secondary School, Sandai Mixed Secondary School, Matobo
Secondary School and Nairobi Milimani Secondary School among others.

References

Bier, M.C. (2021). Servant Leadership for School Principals: A Virtue Cultivation Model. Journal of Character Education Special Issue, 16, (2).
Gillham, J., Adams-Deutsch, Z., Werner, J., Reivich, K., Coulter-Heindl, V., Linkins, M., Winder, B.,Peterson, C., Park, N., Abenavoli, R., Contero, A., & Seligman, M.E.P., (2011) Character strengths predict subjective well-being during adolescence, The Journal of Positive Psychology, 6:1, 31-44, DOI:10.1080/17439760.2010.536773