Social capital and educational aspirations of day secondary school students in Kenya

Abstract

Educational aspirations are linked to academic achievement at all school levels. They are formed in a process of interactions, especially at the secondary school level. Educational aspirations at this level are a major determinant of progressive academic and career choices. Educational aspirations among secondary school students are formed and developed not only in the school social environment, but also in the out of school social environment. Students in secondary schools have varied social environment that can be attributed to the home and school environments. The study therefore sought to assess the role of social capital in the formation and development of educational aspirations of day secondary school students in Kericho County, Kenya. The objectives of the study were to; identify the social capital available to individual learners to form their own educational aspirations, determine how family units develop and use the available social capital to influence educational aspirations of their children, explore how the school social capital determines the educational aspirations of day secondary school students and develop a social interaction model for use in day secondary schools. The study was guided by social capital theory of social networks and used a case study involving 17 participants in Tendeno day secondary school. The study adopted the social constructivism paradigm and a qualitative research design. Data was collected from both the primary and secondary sources. Primary data was collected from parents, teachers and students using interview guides and focus group discussions as well as researcher observation. The data included participant’s voices and field notes. Secondary data was collected through document analysis. Content analysis was used to analyze data from documents and thematic analysis was used to analyze data from participants’ voices and observation. The results revealed that, the day secondary school students had limited social capital to help them form high educational aspirations. Additionally the study revealed that the family units’ development and use of social capital to influence educational aspirations of their children was limited by social environmental factors that the family units were part of and had no control over. Further the study revealed that the school social capital determines the educational aspirations of day secondary school students. The secondary school category determines the quality of social capital the students access from other students, teachers and other stakeholders to help them develop educational aspirations. Further, the study developed a social interaction model which contends that enhancing formation, development and accumulation of social capital would raise educational aspirations for day secondary schools students. The study thus concluded that educational aspirations are not only innate within individual students, but they are also socially acquired and enhanced by the social capital available within the student’s social environment. The study recommended policy formulation to have social capital barriers tackled through improved student’s social interactions, having educational social support responsible for bridging the gaps for the family unit, dealing with the masked inequalities entrenched in the categorization of schools, and having a school model interaction framework adopted to guide, enhance and access social capital resource through social networks at home, school and the community.