Sociocultural Practices and Senior School Transition: Pastoralist Community Perceptions in Turkana County, Kenya
Joshua Napoco, Cyrus Muhanga & Hellen Opingo
Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology
napoco78@gmail.com/ muhanga88@gmail.com/ opingohellen@gmail.com
https://orcid.org/0009-0003-5351-6852
https://orcid.org/0009-0004-6451-5799
Abstract: Pastoralist communities in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs), particularly in the Turkana County, have extremely low transition rates between junior and senior secondary schools despite significant national initiatives of expanding access to education in Kenya. This research attempted to explore the sociocultural activities that act as impediments to senior school transition in Turkana County. A phenomenological research design was used in the study. This study concentrated on the experiences of parents, elders, teachers, and students based on the Ecological Systems Theory of Bronfenbrenner. A total of 35 participants were purposely selected to take part in semi-structured interviews as a method of data collection, and the collected data were analyzed using the inductive reflexive thematic analysis. Among the main results, gender norms create certain exclusion channels early marriage and household duties in girls, and labour needs in boys. Nomadic migration disconnects school enrolment and encourages families to place greater emphasis on livestock herding than on school. Students and teachers were very critical of the applicability of senior secondary education, considering it to be urban-based and therefore not relevant to pastoralist life and indigenous knowledge. The research determines that the low transition rates are mainly because of the mismatch of culture and structure between mainstream schooling system and pastoralist lifestyle. It advocates culturally responsive policies such as flexible school year or mobile, community-based senior secondary models, interventions that are gender sensitive, integration of pastoralist knowledge within the curriculum as well as increases school-community relationships to foster trust and progress.
