| dc.description.abstract | This research sought to establish the factors that influence the access and
participation of refugee girls in primary education in Eastleigh. The study
investigated the school, the family and the individual factors affecting refugee
girls’ education. The study was guided by Socio-cultural theory of education. The
school, family and individual factors were the independent variables while access
and participation was the dependent variable. The study used descriptive survey
design. The target population of the study was the refugee girls, primary school
teachers and IRC officials. The researcher used purposive and simple random
sampling to select 75 teachers, 126 girls and 10 IRC officers as the sample. Data
was collected using questionnaires for teachers, focus discussion groups for the
girls and interview schedules for head teachers. The study adopted content
validity which was tested by review of the instruments by the supervisor and
other lectuters from the department of education administration and planning of
University of Nairobi. The reliability of research instruments was tested by
determining the internal consistency of the items. A pilot study was carried out
and the results used to calculate the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. A cronbach’s
alpha value of 0.7 was used as the minimum recommended consistency. The
teachers’ questionnaires were found to have an alpha value of 0.82 thus they were
used without alteration. The study collected both quantitative and qualitative data.
Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies and
percentages and presented in tables and charts while qualitative data was analysed
thematically as per the objectives. The study established that the family factors
that influenced access and participation of refugee girls to education negatively
were: retrogressive culture, lack of support from parents, unconducive home
environment, gender roles and household chores. The school factors that had
negative influence were: use English language for instruction, lack of facilities
and instructional materials, lack of refugee integration services in the schools. The
individual factors were: poor mastery of English language, negative attitude of the
girls towards education, embracing of retrogressive cultures by the girls, and post
conflict trauma among the girls. The researcher recommended awareness
programmes and special services programmes for teaching language and
integration services to be offered to the girls. | en |
