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.

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Considerable research has highlighted the power of development agencies and the influence of international agendas in national policymaking across the Global South. In recent years, increasing critical attention has been paid to the promotion of the dominant economic and rights-based approaches to educational quality at the primary level, with some authors arguing for the reconceptualisation of educational quality in alternative and participatory ways. This study contributes to this literature by developing the relationship between pm1icipation and context and addresses gaps in the existing knowledge by shifting the focus to the secondary level where it is argued out-of-school factors are pat1icularly pet1inent. Kenya was one of the first African countries to extend free basic education to the secondary level with the introduction of the Free Secondary Education (FSE) policy in 2008. This is, to my knowledge, the first in-depth case study of its implementation and the associated challenges to educational quality. The study documents local conceptualisations of quality in Kenyan secondary education and compares and contrasts these with those identified in the national FSE policy documentation. The empirical research answers three research questions: (1) how is quality defined in the Kenyan FSE policy documents? (2) what does a quality secondary education look like for a range of local stakeholders? (3) what are the main challenges facing secondary education in practice in two case study schools? Guided by a postcolonial methodological framing, the research is conducted using a two-level case study design. At the national level, thematic discourse analysis is employed to interrogate dimensions of quality in the policy documents, and at the local level, in one rural community in the Kisii region, a range of qualitative and pm1icipative methods are used to gather data on the perspectives, experiences and attitudes of teachers, students, governors and parents. At the national level, thematic discourse analysis reveals the strong presence of global discourses underpinned by Eurocentric values with little contextualisation for Kenya. Key findings from the local level include that major challenges facing secondary education in practice are imposed from above through policy and curricular decisions. The student-generated data shows that many also face significant out-of-school challenges related to poverty, an unconducive home environment, sex and alcohol. These act as barriers to their achievement of a quality education. A perceived quality education is shown to be one that addresses such curricular and out-of-school challenges, promotes a quality school where good governance and discipline are pm1icularly highlighted, and has wide-ranging outcomes.

The purpose of this research was to explore the subject of integrating philosophy of education and the goals of education in education practice at the high schools in Kenya. It is stated that the impact of education practice is hinged in the statement of philosophy of education and the goals of education which has been neglected by researchers and scholars in Kenya. An intensive literature review which was undertaken revealed that philosophy of education and the goals of education are flouted in education practice. The sources of literature review were books, journals, policy documents, dissertations, theses, newspapers, and websites. In this qualitative research, phenomenology was selected as suitable theoretical framework to situate education practice as a human activity which is shaped by philosophy of education and the goals of education. A qualitative design was used, and purposive sampling was identified to select the schools and the respondents. The respondents in this research included the school principals, teachers, education officers, board of governors, and the parents-teachers’ representatives. The main qualitative research methods involved literature review and interviews. In this study, ideograms were utilized in the process of analysing the responses acquired from the respondents. According to the respondents, the statement of philosophy of education is foreign in the high schools, but the goals of education are printed in the syllabi, and this explains why the study focused on the goals as the familiar items. The views obtained from the respondents emphasized on what is envisioned to occur at the high schools, and this explains that the students are estranged from philosophy of education. It was concluded that high school pedagogy is exposed to conflicts in relation to integrating philosophy of education and the goals of education. In this case, the study recommended the following insights to improve the process of integrating philosophy of education, the goals of education, and education practice in Kenya: The necessity of revising the content and material resources of high school syllabi to comprise the attributes of philosophy of education in pedagogical activities.  Another suggestion emphasized on restructuring evaluation strategies to integrate the attributes of social cohesion, human progress and economic development.  The final recommendation is that the teaching and learning activities are necessary to intensify knowledge transfer which articulates the attributes of philosophy of education and the goals of education. / Teacher Education / D. Ed. (Philosophy of Education))

The purpose of this research was to explore the subject of integrating philosophy of education and the goals of education in education practice at the high schools in Kenya. It is stated that the impact of education practice is hinged in the statement of philosophy of education and the goals of education which has been neglected by researchers and scholars in Kenya. An intensive literature review which was undertaken revealed that philosophy of education and the goals of education are flouted in education practice. The sources of literature review were books, journals, policy documents, dissertations, theses, newspapers, and websites. In this qualitative research, phenomenology was selected as suitable theoretical framework to situate education practice as a human activity which is shaped by philosophy of education and the goals of education. A qualitative design was used, and purposive sampling was identified to select the schools and the respondents. The respondents in this research included the school principals, teachers, education officers, board of governors, and the parents-teachers’ representatives. The main qualitative research methods involved literature review and interviews. In this study, ideograms were utilized in the process of analysing the responses acquired from the respondents. According to the respondents, the statement of philosophy of education is foreign in the high schools, but the goals of education are printed in the syllabi, and this explains why the study focused on the goals as the familiar items. The views obtained from the respondents emphasized on what is envisioned to occur at the high schools, and this explains that the students are estranged from philosophy of education. It was concluded that high school pedagogy is exposed to conflicts in relation to integrating philosophy of education and the goals of education. In this case, the study recommended the following insights to improve the process of integrating philosophy of education, the goals of education, and education practice in Kenya: The necessity of revising the content and material resources of high school syllabi to comprise the attributes of philosophy of education in pedagogical activities.  Another suggestion emphasized on restructuring evaluation strategies to integrate the attributes of social cohesion, human progress and economic development.  The final recommendation is that the teaching and learning activities are necessary to intensify knowledge transfer which articulates the attributes of philosophy of education and the goals of education. / Teacher Education / D. Ed. (Philosophy of Education))