Factors influencing peace building initiatives in secondary schools, the case of Nairobi county, Kenya

Abstract

The structure and rationale of any peace building training has the goal of building patterns of unity in diversity amongst the members of the major diverse (ethnic/economic) groups. The purpose of the study was to investigate the factors influencing peace building initiatives in secondary schools in Nairobi County. The study adopted the classical ecological model of child development as its theoretical framework and sought to achieve four objectives. The first was to determine how training students in peace building initiatives is successful in the county of Nairobi. The second was to investigate the extent social and educational infrastructure in schools influences peace. The third, the influence of training heads of schools in peace building initiatives. Lastly, the study also sought to determine the role teachers play in peace building initiatives in schools. The research used descriptive survey design. Using purposive sampling, five secondary schools which had been in existence for at least four years were sampled for this study. The data collected was analysed using descriptive statistics in frequency tables with the help of the statistical package for social sciences software and was collected using a questionnaire. Purposive sampling was used to draw a sample of 5 principals, 20 teachers and 122 students. There were three sets of questionnaires. One questionnaire was meant for students another for teachers and another for head teachers. Apart from section A of the three sets questionnaire, which was required respondents to fill in their background information, section B was totally different in all three sets. Section B of the three sets of questionnaires meant to address the objectives of the study. A pilot study was conducted in Kibra constituency, Kibera division. The return rate of the questionnaire was very high at 98%. The reliability of the instruments was above 0.8 using Pearson‘s product moment correlation coefficient. The main findings of the study indicated that the peace building initiatives programs are yet to be fully rolled out in all schools. The study also found out that some of the initiatives were very effective in bringing about a peaceful school and thus peaceful society while others were not very effective. Most of the teachers and administrators welcomed peace building initiatives positively. In addition, there is a positive relationship between the training of students in peace building initiatives and the peace in school. The relationship between social, educational infrastructure in school and peace was found to be positive. The training of heads of schools and influence of peace building initiatives is also positive. The findings have important implications on peace building initiatives. For instance, more teachers need to be trained in peace building initiatives. And although peace clubs in the form of Amani club is an initiative that is noble, it has not been embraced as most students are not members of this club. This implies that the students have not fully understood what Amani club is. Further areas of research suggested were carrying out a study on factors influencing peace building initiatives in the whole society in Kenya. In addition, a study may be carried out to investigate the factors influencing peace building initiatives in institutions of higher learning so as to determine if there exist any peace building initiatives in institutions of higher learning, how it was implemented and the relevance of peace building initiatives in institutes of higher learning