Thinking the Implied Curriculum in Empowering Youth to Efficiently Manage Social Challenges

Abstract

Dinah Katindi Nyamai

This article investigated the role played by the implied curriculum in the holistic nurture of youth—nurturing their cognition, inculcating positive attitude, and relevant social skills, through sequential explanatory mixed methods research. The target population was 997. Current researcher used Taro Yamane’s sample calculation formula to determine the sample size, which was 613. Three curriculum experts determined the content validity of the research questionnaire while its reliability was determined through a pilot test among 20 youths. Researcher used Chronbach’s alpha to calculate the consistence coefficient of the research items, which was .87. Out of 613 questionnaires the researcher distributed, 610 were correctly filled and returned. The information in the filled questionnaires informed the development of an interview guide with 8 open-ended items to guide in gathering indepth explanations as to why some implied curriculum elements were perceived as more influential than others. The descriptive and inferential statistics in the SPSS software program version 25 and the grounded analysis approach were used in analyzing the data. The findings revealed that accidental lessons arising from implied curriculum elements create lasting impressions on youth’s view of self and society. The findings also revealed that accidental lessons arising from learning environments where youth are treated the same way in the name of ‘fairness’ negatively shape the kind of people youth become because even identical twins are unique.

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