Integration of moral values in the secondary school humanities curriculum across Lake Zone, Tanzania

Abstract

This study employed survey design to investigate the integration of moral values in the Secondary School Humanities Curriculum across Lake Zone, Tanzania. A random sample of 95 teachers and 411 students participated in the study. Validity of Research Instruments was established through expert judgment and reliability test yielded Cronbach’s Alpha of 0.87 for students and 0.88 for teachers’ questionnaire. Qualitative data was analyzed using thematic approach while descriptive statistics determined mean scores and Standard Deviations; the null hypothesis was tested by Analysis of Variance and the study established no significant difference in the integration of moral values by teaching subjects. Thus, Christian Religious Education is as important as History, Geography and Civics. Therefore, there is no good reason to exclude it from the school curriculum, since it can play good deal to eradicate immoral behaviors in the society and therefore fulfills the objective of secondary school education in Tanzania. Humanities subjects are full of moral value aspects yet teachers did not thoroughly derive them from the subject matters but they simply mentioned without contextualizing them into real life situations of the learners. Based on these findings, several recommendations were made.

Keywords: Moral, values, humanities, curriculum, history, geography, civics, christian religious education, Tanzania.