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The purpose of this paper is to share reflections of the three authors on the process of instructional design and implementation of blended learning for teachers ' professional development (PD) in rural western Kenya. It proposes reforms in provision of teachers ' professional development to enable professional development providers to access specialized skills in instructional design (ID) and blended learning.

The paper resulted from a design-based research including 12 entry and 12 exit interviews, observations of three face-to-face meetings of blended learning sessions and ten classroom observations of teachers implementing new teaching approaches learned through blended learning.

The paper provides insights into the authors ' experiences in this research. They shared the following reflections: engagement in ID empowered them and they are confident that they can engage in systematic instructional design on a larger scale; they gained technical knowledge and skills in authoring content in HTML on eXe open source platform; uploading the content and processing audio and video content was equally enthralling to them.

Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalisability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to consider incorporating the design-based research, instructional design and blended learning approaches used in this study while conducting related research in their dissimilar contexts.

The paper includes implications for the design, development and implementation of teachers ' professional development for challenging contexts as a contribution towards achievement of both Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Education for All (EFA).

This paper fulfils an identified need to study provision of professional development for teachers who lack opportunities for professional development.

The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the principal preparation programming available to school leaders in Kenya and Tanzania.

The authors analyzed information about the educational leadership programmes offered by a range of public and private institutions in East Africa. Data were gathered primarily through document analyses based on publicly available information describing certificate, diploma, and degree programs related to principal preparation in Kenya and Tanzania.

A description is offered of the intended client group for leadership preparation programmes along with an overview of programme content, structure, delivery modes, and credentialing. Gaps were noted in the areas of instructional leadership, educational technology, and visioning. Further, the authors noted the insufficient capacity of educational institutions in East Africa to prepare new principals or to offer ongoing professional development.

The study was limited to publicly available documents. There is a marked need for more detailed empirical reports of principal preparation in sub‐Saharan Africa.

The suitability of the content of existing principal preparation programs warrants closer examination.

This report contributes to the understanding of principal preparation in sub‐Saharan Africa in terms of its capacity, content, and delivery modes.

This introductory chapter provides background information and an organizational structure for the book. The authors begin with a brief history of the research project that undergirds the work presented in each chapter. Drawing from the fields of enology and viticulture, the authors introduce the concepts of terroir, millerandage, and appellations as section headings that help to frame brief descriptions of each chapter. The authors conclude with an invitation for the reader to engage with the authors in a discussion about the contents of the book.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a discussion on the construction of followership identity among teachers in Kenya which has had less attention. Further, as Kenya is currently implementing a new education curriculum (competency-based curriculum) which requires teachers to be more proactive in their work, an understanding of how they construct their followership identity in schools is paramount, as this is linked to the attainment of learning outcomes.

Symbolic interactionism theory, which suggests that individuals respond to phenomena based on the meaning they give such phenomena and through interactions with others, has been used to support arguments in this paper. This theory is relevant to this paper, as it helps in understanding the meaning that teachers give to ‘followership’ through interactions with others in their schools.

The arguments in the current paper suggest that as Kenyan teachers interact with colleagues, their meaning of ‘followership’ is defined and refined. The resulting identity is important for these teachers, especially as they embrace the new curriculum in the country which requires them to be more proactive, unlike the previous one.

As this is a conceptual paper, there is no empirical data to ground validate the arguments given.

The use of symbolic interactionism in the discussion of this paper adds another dimension to the followership and identity construction among followers. Much of the literature has focused on followership in general but not from the lens of symbolic interactionism.