| dc.description.abstract | There has been a big shift in society toward men playing a greater role in the lives of young children as fathers and male caregivers. However, it is not an easy choice for a man to decide to become a teacher in today's world. The decision becomes even more difficult for a man to commit to a career in early childhood education, which for many years has beeq considered the domain of women. This study was conducted to explore factors influencing the enrollment of male students in early childhood education training colleges in Nairobi County.
Objectives that will guided this study include: to establish the influence of family related factors on male students to enrollment in early childhood education training colleges in Nairobi County, to explore the influence of socioeconomic factors on male students to enrollment in early childhood education training colleges in Nairobi County, to describe the influence of individual factors on male students to enrollment in early childhood education training colleges in Nairobi County and to determine the influence of personality factors on male students to enrollment in early childhood education training colleges in Nairobi County.
The benefits of this research findings include revealed insights of male students participating in early childhood education programme and therefore provide useful information to government agencies to lobby men into the programme, serve as an encouragement to other male teachers in early childhood education programme by shading light on some positive experiences of being a male teacher in early childhood education and also provide essential information to decrease current deficiencies in the body of research by contributing to the existing base of knowledge in this area, this study will also help inform school administrators to provide an additional resource to encourage men who are considering a career in early childhood education.
The study used descriptive survey and focused on male students pursuing a career in early childhood education teaching profession in Nairobi County. For triangulation and hence validity and reliability, data was collected through questionnaires and semi structured interviews, to establish factors influencing the enrollment of male students in early childhood education training colleges in Nairobi County. Data analysis was facilitated by use of Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software. The study used both quantitative and qualitative analysis. Quantitative data included use of frequency tables and percentages to present and summarize the information obtained while qualitative data included responses from open ended question items analyzed in narrative form. Of the 45 questionnaires disseminated, 40 questionnaires were duly filled and returned.
In conclusion of factors influencing enrollment of male students in early childhood education training colleges, family responsiveness, family encouragement, provision of family information, family role models and family commitment have the greatest influence. On socioeconomic factors, there is a great influence of opportunity to earn better salary and opportunity for job promotion in early childhood education field. On individual factors, love for children, becoming role models to the boy child, prior experience with children and opportunity to further their professional skills are of greatest influence on career choice of male students in early childhood education. On personality factors, attitude towards teaching is of great influence on career decision, while mental abilities, special skills in teaching, self image and sex were found to have a slight influence on career decision of male students in early childhood education. | en_US |
