Relationship Between Mothers’ Demographic Characteristics And Their Involvementin Pre-Primary School Children’s Homework In Nairobicitycounty, Kenya

ABSTRACT

Extensive studies have been done on the importance of parental involvement in children’s homework, yet relatively few studies have explored the contributions that either mothers or fathers make to their children’s schooling. However, this study is interested, in the involvement of mothers in their pre-primary II children ‘s homework. Homework is assignments given to children by their teachers that are supposed to be done at home. This interest stems from the fact that traditionally in Africa, mothers were assumed to be the housekeepers of their families, but of limited importance in academic aspects of children’s well-being and development. Homework can be a double-edged sword having a positive influence, or one that is destructive and damaging, to academic achievement. It is also clear that most of the studies on this topic have been carried out in developed countries. Most of the existing studies do not focus on mothers. In Kenya, mothers occupy a strategic position in children’s lives and it is therefore important to establishtheir involvement in the child’s homework. Studies on the involvement of parents in children’s homework are few. Homework is common among learners at all levels and thus offers an opportunity for parents' involvement. The objectives of this study, therefore, were to establish the relationship between mothers’ educational level, occupation, work schedule and their involvement in children’s homework as well as to find out the challenges faced by mothers in their involvement in children’s homework, in selected private preschools in Nairobi County, Kenya. The findings of the study may provide relevant information that can be used by scholars, non-governmental organizations, government, School managers, institutions, Child Welfare Organizations (CWOs) and other stakeholders. The study was guided by Epstein’s framework of parental involvement. A mixed-methods approach was employed in this study whereby the correlational research design was used. The research also used quantitative research methods to investigate the mothers’ involvement in their children’s homework. Purposive sampling was used to select Nairobi City County, simple random sampling was used to select six private pre-schools and stratified random sampling was used to select 192 children, whom their mothers were included in the study. Results from this study have shown that there was no relationship between mothers’ involvement in their children’s homework and their educational level, occupation and work schedule. Most of the mothers encountered more than one challenge. Various recommendations were suggested for various stakeholders including, school Managers, Administrators, and KICD and future research.