Teacher Preparedness in Community Service Learning and Acquisition of Core Values Among Learners in Early Years Education in Murang'a County, Kenya

The teacher forms the link between the intended curriculum and the intended learners experience. This is nowhere more evident than in Community Service Learning (CSL), where value formation depends on deliberate planning, modelling and assessment rather than content transmission. Kenya's Competency-Based Curriculum places core values such as unity, responsibility, integrity and patriotism at the heart of early years education, yet the extent to which teachers are prepared to cultivate these values through CSL has received little empirical attention. This study sought to determine the degree of teacher preparedness in community service learning and its relationship with the acquisition of core values among learners in early years education in Murang'a County, Kenya. The study was guided by Bandura's social learning theory and Kolb's experiential learning theory; the study employed a mixed research design. From a target population of 10,882 and an accessible population of 7,395. A purposive random sampling was used to obtain a sample of 46 respondents from four sub-counties. This consisted of 28 Grade Three teachers and 18 heads of institutions. Data were collected using a five-point Likert questionnaire (Cronbach's alpha =.842) and structured interview for head of institution. Quantitative data were analyzed through descriptive statistics and Pearson Product Moment Correlation at the 5% significance level using SPSS Version 30, while qualitative responses were analyzed thematically. The findings showed uniformly high self-reported preparedness, with role modelling drawing the strongest endorsement (96.6% strong agreement). Correlation analysis returned a positive, moderate and statistically significant relationship between teacher preparedness and acquisition of core values (r = .452, p = .014). The study concluded that teacher preparedness in CSL significantly influences value acquisition among early years learners and recommends sustained, value-specific continuous professional development so that what teachers know is matched by what they practice daily in the classroom.