Personal and socio-contextual factors as predictors of academic resilience among public secondary school students: a case of Turkana County, Kenya.

Abstract

Turkana County is ranked as the most marginalized county in Kenya in literacy levels, access to education, unemployment levels, erratic climatic conditions, infrastructure and poverty index, health facilities, food insecurity, access to water and electricity, insecurity, land productivity and historical injustices among others. Despite the challenging situation, some students in the locality continue to persist in education, surmounting challenges and moving from one level to another in education. This study therefore, sought to determine the personal and socio-contextual factors that predict academic resilience among secondary school students in Turkana County in Kenya. To achieve this, the research set out to examine the level of academic resilience of secondary school students in Turkana County and to investigate the relationship between; personal factors and academic resilience; school factors and academic resilience; parental involvement factors and academic resilience and; to compare the predictive value of personal, school and parental involvement factors on academic resilience. The study was based on the Bioecological systems theory by Urie Bronfenbrenner and adopted a mixed research methodology, with a concurrent triangulation design. The sample size consisted of 392 students and 10 teachers making a sample of 402 respondents. Questionnaires for students and interview schedules for both teachers and students were used to collect data in this study. Descriptive statistics included frequency counts, percentages, means, standard deviation and scatter plots whereas inferential statistics involved Pearson Product Moment correlation coefficient, Multiple Regression Analysis and ANOVA. Qualitative data was analysed using thematic analysis. The results of the study revealed; the students had a high level of academic resilience (x̄=39.75); a significant positive relationship between personal factors and academic resilience (r=.712, n=378, p<.05), a significant positive relationship between school factors and academic resilience (r=0.550, n=378, P<.05); and a significant positive relationship between parental involvement factors and academic resilience (r=.285, n=378, p<.05). Further analysis revealed that among personal, school and parental involvement factors, personal factors had the highest positive predictive value on academic resilience (β= 0.571, p<.05). In addition, qualitative data revealed that personal factors of students’ social competence, autonomy and sense of self, sense of meaning and purpose have a positive correlation with academic resilience. Similarly, school factors that yielded high academic resilience among students were caring and supportive school relationships and high expectations by teachers. In regard to parental involvement factors; parental involvement academically, physically, socially, emotionally, financially and parental communication of expectations yielded high academic resilience among students. The study therefore concluded that personal and socio-contextual factors were predictors of academic resilience among public secondary school students in Turkana County in Kenya. Based on these findings, the study recommended that parents should be involved in children’s lives in all aspects and set high expectations of their school going children. Similarly, schools should foster an enhancing social environment, and communicate high expectation to students. Additionally, there is need to support students to develop and increase social competence, autonomy and sense of self, meaning and purpose in their lives, and nurture positive relationships so as to enhance academic resilience.