Title: Scarcity and Abundance Mindsets in Educational Reform: A Case Study of Uganda's Competence-Based Curriculum
Authors: Dr. Arinaitwe Julius, Akampulira Sarah, Nabaasa Desire
Volume: 10
Issue: 6
Pages: 235-243
Publication Date: 2026/06/28
Abstract:
Uganda's roll-out of the Competence-Based Curriculum (CBC) at the lower secondary level has been accompanied by uneven implementation outcomes across schools, prompting scholarly attention to the psychological orientations that teachers bring to reform. This study investigated the relationship between scarcity and abundance mindsets among secondary school teachers and the effectiveness of CBC implementation in Ugandan secondary schools. Anchored in scarcity-abundance theory and Rogers' diffusion of innovations framework, the study adopted a quantitative, cross-sectional survey design administered to a sample of 240 teachers drawn from government and private secondary schools across the Central, Eastern, Northern, and Western regions of Uganda. Data were collected using a structured, validated questionnaire comprising Likert-scale constructs measuring resource perception, innovation orientation, collaborative practice, and CBC implementation effectiveness, and were analysed using univariate, bivariate, and multivariate statistical techniques, including descriptive statistics, Cronbach's alpha reliability testing, independent samples t-tests, chi-square tests of association, Pearson product-moment correlation, and binary logistic regression. The findings revealed that a majority of teachers (56.7 percent) exhibited an abundance mindset, with private school teachers significantly more likely to hold abundance orientations than their government school counterparts (chi-square = 7.98, p = 0.005). Teachers with abundance mindsets reported significantly higher mean scores on innovation orientation, collaborative practice, and resource perception than scarcity-oriented teachers (p < 0.001 in all cases), and these constructs were strongly and positively correlated with CBC implementation effectiveness (r ranging from 0.59 to 0.71, p < 0.001). The logistic regression model demonstrated that mindset orientation was the single strongest predictor of successful CBC implementation, with abundance-minded teachers being approximately 31.8 times more likely to report successful implementation than scarcity-minded teachers (Odds Ratio = 31.76, 95% CI: 9.29-108.57, p < 0.001), after controlling for school type, years of experience, and academic qualification, while the model explained approximately 27.9 percent of the variance in implementation success (Nagelkerke-equivalent McFadden pseudo R-squared = 0.279). The study concluded that psychological mindset, rather than purely structural or resource-based factors, was a decisive determinant of how effectively teachers translated CBC policy into classroom practice. It was recommended that the Ministry of Education and Sports and teacher-training institutions integrate mindset-transformation modules into continuous professional development programmes, that school leadership cultivate collaborative and resource-sharing cultures irrespective of school type, and that future curriculum reform initiatives be accompanied by structured psychological readiness assessments prior to roll-out.