Influence of School Based Factors on Participation of Refugee Students in Public Secondary Schools in Kamukunji Sub-County, Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the school based factors influencing participation of refugee students in public secondary schools in Kamukunji sub-county, Nairobi, Kenya. The research objectives which guided this study were to determine the influence of language of instruction on participation of refugee students; to establish the influence of subject content on participation of refugee students; to examine the influence of teaching methods on participation of refugee students in public secondary schools; and finally to determine the influence of instructional resources on participation of refugee students in public secondary schools. Descriptive survey design was used to gather data for the study. The target population included all seven public secondary schools in Kamkunji sub-county. The sample was drawn from five schools after two schools were randomly selected for piloting. The sample included 266 refugee students purposively sampled and 37 teachers randomly selected. The study employed two sets of questionnaires to gather data; one for teachers and the other for students. Both questionnaires contained open-ended and closed items. Both inferential and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data with the aid of SPSS computer program version 21. The study found that language of instruction influenced and was a barrier to the participation of refugee students in school. The study also found that subject content influenced participation of refugee students in school activities with a correlation of 0.59. The study also found that teaching methods influenced participation of refugee students with a Pearson correlation of 0.58. Finally, the study found that instructional resources influenced participation of refugee students and that dictionaries and textbooks significantly contributed to the participation of refugee students. The study concluded that school based factors influence participation of refugee students in school. The study recommended that those schools serving a large number of refugee students initiate after school tutoring programs targeting refugee students. The study also recommends that bilingual dictionaries be made available in schools.