| dc.description.abstract | Modernization or industrialism and cultural reproduction theories offer explanations about the expected direction of social change.· Kenya, a developing country, has experienced rapid educational expansion since its independence. As a result of this, the association between social background and educational attainment is expected to reduce. The aim of this thesis is to establish the trend of social background inequalities on educational attainment, using Kenyan censuses data and two surveys, one conducted in 1969 (Rado et aI., 1969) and another in 2004 conducted by this researcher. The educational expansion that has taken place in Kenya is presented in the thesis. There has been an increase in proportions in the population attaining some education and secondary schooling. Gender inequalities have reduced but persisted. Inequalities based on social background have reduced but persisted as evidenced by the over representation of students whose fathers had secondary education and under representation of students whose fathers had no education. The odds of reaching form four rather than not for students whose fathers have some education, rather than no education have reduced, but the odds of access to form four for students whose fathers were secondary and above educated have somewhat increased, indicating that the advantage experienced by these privileged groups has been maintained. There has been change in distribution patterns and widened access to form four education for students from all backgrounds but continuity of inequality evidenced by the relative advantage that students from privileged background has persisted. Social background influences which types of school students attend and this in turn improves their life chances since further advancement to university and better entry to the labour market is determined by achievement, which is linked to school type. Students from privileged backgrounds attend provincial and national schools. The relative advantage of social background on school type selection has remained the same over time. Students in national schools achieved better than those in provincial and district ·schools. Controlling for school type, the direct association of family background and achievement was not as strong as that between school type and achievement. Over time, the association between school type and attainment has remained the same. ModernIzation theory is supported as far as distribution of education is concerned, but in the process relative inequalities as a result of privileged background have persisted in educational access, attainment and achievement among form four students in Kenyan secondary schools. Continuity has thrived, despite change and modernization. - See more at: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.487165#sthash.vVOmV9Bg.dpuf | en |
