MAPE Theses and Dissertations (2018)

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    The Effect of menstruation on academic performance of high school girls: a case study on human dignity in Migori County, Kenya
    (Strathmore University, 2018) Osea, Josephine
    Numerous studies have been conducted on menstrual hygiene the world over. However, Menstrual Hygiene Management is an insufficiently acknowledged problem especially in rural low-income countries, like Kenya, particularly in its relation to school absenteeism. Modesty is the natural tendency of persons to protect their intimacy. Intimacy is a private interior that only the individual person concerned is aware of. There are three contexts which may be used to shield intimacy from strangers and protect it from public view, namely, language, clothing and shelter. This study examined the effect of menstruation on academic performance among high school girls within Kuria East and Kuria West Sub-Counties of Migori County, as a way to recognize their human dignity. This Thesis focuses on three specific objectives, namely, to explore the social and infrastructure support systems about the menstrual event within the family context, to explore the social and infrastructure support systems within the school context and to assess the effect of environmental factors surrounding the menstrual event in the academic performance of high school girls. This study is based on a Conceptual Framework by Mortimer J. Adler known as Educational Perennialism; which is the teaching of students to appreciate unchangeable things like human dignity. A mixed methods research was adopted. The population of the study is adolescent girls in Form 2 and Form 4 randomly selected from three purposefully selected girls-only rural public secondary schools; namely Kwibancha, Nyaroha, and Taranganya Girls Secondary Schools. The sampled data comprised 151 female students of ages between 14-17 years using questionnaires; and 30 females of ages between 17-19 years through focus group discussions. The Parallel Convergent Design Approach was used to analyze the data; with the aid of descriptive and narrative analysis to analyze the qualitative and quantitative data collected, respectively. The study found that the first menstrual experience of the high school girls was challenging considering that some of them did not understand what was happening to them. Some of the girls experienced fear and embarrassment because of a lack of early and effective training at home and in school on the everlasting things of life, lack of support systems at home and at school, lack of money to purchase sanitary pads and lack of accurate information about menstruation and its effective management. The study recommends that there should be training at an early age to empower, train and educate girls on unchangeable things like human dignity and intimacy; introduction of effective and efficient menstrual hygiene management as a topic in subjects for high school girls, and to empower the girls to appreciate themselves first as being human beings and secondly to appreciate their natural girlhood as girls because that is their human nature as adolescent girls; the development of a Code of Ethics and mainstreaming Menstrual Hygiene Management with reference to the yet to be published National Policy on Menstrual Hygiene Management for Kenya. Furthermore, this study makes several recommendations, including, the urgent need of breaking the silence on menstruation.
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    Perceptions of primary stakeholders on the ethical duty of parental involvement in pupils’ intellectual development: a study of selected schools in Lavington area Nairobi County
    (Strathmore University, 2018) Wanjala, Bernard Juma
    This study investigated the perceptions of primary stakeholders on the ethical duty of parents being actively involved in the intellectual development of primary school children in Lavington Area of Nairobi County. Primary stakeholders were defined as the immediate beneficiaries or directly involved in the intellectual development of primary school children. Primary stakeholders therefore, included teachers, parents and pupils themselves. Philosophers and religious leaders as well as governments suggest that parents should play a leading role in their children’s intellectual development. They cite the many benefits that emanate from such parental involvement, especially when genuinely played. These include academic excellence in school and competence in self-expression, among others. Subsequently, plenty of research has gone into it and outcomes attest to the fact that the intellectual development of primary school children whose parents work closely with them is much better unlike those almost entirely left to teachers. It is on this premise that this study took the interest in the primary stakeholders’ perceptions on parental involvement as a way of enhancing children’s intellectual development. Specifically, the study assessed: parents’ provision of children’s basic learning needs, assistance with school assignments, giving regular motivation of children, participating in school-organised activities and taking part in training sessions. This study was guided by the ethical and philosophical postulations of Aristotle; the Vatican IIDeclarations of 1965 document and St. JosemaríaEscrivá who understand a holistic education as involving parents. This study used descriptive research design in gathering the required data from all respondents without seeming to influence them in any way whatsoever. In addition, they were allowed to give responses from their usual places of operation, that is, the school environment or at home. Using survey method, the researcher got together a sample size of 180 pupils, 14 teachers and 120 parents randomly selected from 7 primary schools who responded to questions in questionnaires and some oral interviews. Data was collected between October and December,2017. To ensure content validity, the questions were structured carefully in line with the study objectives and the findings discussed using descriptive statistics.Analysis was done basing on the collected data and presented in percentages, tables and figures. The findings revealed that most primary stakeholders in Lavington Area of Nairobi County consider parental involvement in their children’s intellectual development as necessary. However, not many parents know their role and therefore there is need totrain them. The researcher hastens to note that while this study alone might not be exhaustive enough; it can serve as an eye opener to sensitive society more.
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    The Influence of environmental virtue ethics in water conservation
    (Strathmore University, 2018) Marima, Pauline
    Our world, our common home, is in a tragic crisis because of increasing environmental degradation brought about by human activity. While it must be acknowledged that a lot has been done to mitigate environmental degradation at global, regional and national levels, there has been an over-reliance on solutions that revolve around policy -, economy -, science- and technology-based interventions, that have at times placed a further burden on the natural environment. The study contends that people, not rules or consequences, are the root cause of change, and argues for a radical change in the way we look at environmental morality – beyond a notion of obligations, and towards the development of virtues and habits for human flourishing. From a conservation perspective, virtue ethics is concerned with the type of virtuous characteristics man must have in relation to how he interacts with the earth and how he preserves its well-being. The study tries to establish the extent to which Virtue Ethics has a positive influence on decision-making concerning water conservation in particular. It also explores on the reasons for promoting virtue Ethics as a framework for conservation ethics in general, especially among the youth who have an opportunity to really change the course of the planet’s future. This research has taken a mixed approach by integrating quantitative and qualitative analyses, based on data collected from a sample of 698 secondary school students in Kiambu County. The research has identified various perceptions held by the youth regarding virtue ethics, specifically as it relates to water conservation. The research also identifies the perceptions of youth regarding some of the merits of using a virtue-oriented approach for conservation. The research reveals that, indeed, there is proportion of youth who use virtue ethics as their main ethical framework for decision making concerning water conservation; they do this mainly with a non-utilitarian and non-obligatory intention, and they do this as a stable habit of character under different contextual settings. The research concludes that Environmental Virtue Ethics can be effective as an ethical framework for water conservation among the youth.
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    Benchmarking the philosophy of Nigerian policy on education with the United Nations’ sustainable development goals and traditional ethical principles of the social doctrine of the Catholic Church
    (Strathmore University, 2018) Chidozie, Ihekwoaba Michael Festus
    This dissertation seeks to benchmark the philosophy of Nigeria’s education policy with the United Nations’ sustainable development goals as well as the traditional ethical principles of the social doctrine of the Catholic Church, with the primary aim of identifying where there is a total, partial or zero relation for a possible improvement of Nigeria’s education policy philosophy. Igbuzor (2006) in stressing the importance of education stated that “Education is a human right that should be accorded to all human beings solely by reason of being human”.The utmost importance attached to education in Nigeria was clearly emphasized in the National Policy on Education (NPE, 2004). The Federal Republic of Nigeria, in this policy, adopted education as an instrument "par excellence" for effecting national development. But despite the government's commitment to education, the quality of education in Nigerian schools has been declining tremendously, thereby giving successive government's serious concern. The question has become, what is wrong with the Nigeria educational system? The investigation utilized a philosophical approach that leverages on a personalistic anthropology which underscores the centrality of the person as the primary focus of investigation. This involves the systematic identification, location, and analysis of documents containing information related to the research problem. The researchers use the information derived to evaluate whether the philosophy of Nigerian education policy can be improved.While the results of the benchmarking of the philosophy of Nigeria’s education policy against the United Nations’ development goals as well as the traditional ethical principles of the social doctrine of the Catholic Church were highlighted, the findings revealed that there are areas where the NPE philosophy needs partial and total improvement at the same time.