https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/694 2026-05-15T12:08:36Z 2026-05-15T12:08:36Z AGAK, John Oduor https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/5031 2022-03-10T10:29:12Z 1995-01-01T00:00:00Z

Reading Literacy in relation to patterns of academic achievement in Kenya AGAK, John Oduor How is reading literacy related to academic achievement among 14 year old students in Kenya? This was the main issue in focus for the present study. The lEA Reading Literacy Test was used for measuring reading literacy and the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) was used for measuring academic achievement. It was hypothesized that there are degrees of variation in correlation between reading literacy and each subject areas a student opts for at KCPE. It was also hypothesized that there is a variation in performance on reading literacy due to influences caused by background factors (literacy interaction) and voluntary reading processes. Reading literacy was assumed to be decomposable into latent variables including: a general reading ability factor, a document reading factor and specific passage factors. However, such a measurement model was not successful. The selected measurement model constituted only two latent variables: a general reading ability factor which covers most of the items with very few exceptions and a documentary factor which entails those items related to identification, location and association of information in brief documents. There was also a clear evidence that the postulated components of academic achievement, namely: general reasoning and verbal abilities were present in this study. General reasoning ability proved to be the main factor across most of the subjects at KCPE while verbal ability was connected to the subjects loaded mainly with connected texts to be comprehended. When voluntary reading was explored, a good measurement model was obtained. The measurement model for voluntary reading encompassed seven different types of voluntary reading topical readings from books, magazines and newspapers. Significant relationships between voluntary reading and both reading literacy and academic achievement were observed: An examination of the background factors in the study indicated that they have an impact on students' performance on reading literacy and academic achievement. A strong relationship between reading literacy and academic achievement was noted especially when latent variables were used. This relationship remained even when the background factors were controlled. The measurement model for reading literacy and academic achievement turned out to be the same. However, there were some differences in terms of performance on reading literacy and academic achievement location wise. Key words: academic achievement, reading literacy, Lisrel, performance, Kenya.

1995-01-01T00:00:00Z BWONYA, Uside Jane https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/4930 2022-02-09T13:15:36Z 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z

Gender spaces in Maragoli children's play poetry BWONYA, Uside Jane Children's play poetry exhibits gender spaces owing to the children's reactions to social, political and economic issues about their community. The gender spaces assigned to each gender also depict gender roles as well as the children's reactions to their gendered bodies on which poetry is inscribed to articulate societal norms and mores. Studies conducted in children's poetry have not addressed gender spaces in children's poetry more pointedly and any mention of it in those studies is incidental. The aim of this study was to establish gender spaces in Maragoli children's play poetry. The objectives of the study were to: analyze the depiction of feminine and masculine gender spaces in Maragoli children's play poetry; examine how gendered bodies and subversive signification are highlighted in Maragoli children's play poetry, and investigate how gender, style and language are highlighted in Maragoli children's play poetry. The study population comprised the play poems that added up to two hundred and twenty nine and performance events - all of which were sampled using the proportional allocation so as to use manageable data in the study. The sampled informants were drawn from five locations in Sabatia District, namely Busali East, Busali West, Idzava North, North Maragoli, and Wodanga. Three locations were used in Vihiga District namely Central Maragoli, Mungoma and South Maragoli. Structured interview schedules were used to collect primary data from one hundred and eight interviewees in the face to face interviews using interview schedules. Focus group discussions were also conducted to eight groups that had a total of eighty interviewees. Three primary schools in each district were used to provide primary data. In Sabatia district, Keveye, Kigama and Tsimbalo primary schools were used while Madira, Vigeze and Womulalu primary schools in Vihiga were used. The data collected was analyzed using the hermeneutical analysis. The study is justified because of its relevance to literary scholars who could use the play poems to teach children's literature and orature Teachers of children's literature will benefit from this study because children's play poetry is one of the sub-genres of children's orature. Pre-school andprimary school curriculum developers will also benefit from the study in their planning for children's song games along gender issues. Since studies in gender are multidisciplinary, the results will benefit sociologists and anthropologists. Anthropologists will use the Maragoli ethnography to discuss gender spaces and compare them with those from western cultures. Since sociology is the study of the development, structure, and functioning of human society, sociologists will benefit from the spaces assigned to each gender in Maragoli children's play poetry. The study showed that there were feminine, masculine and both the feminine and masculine gender spaces in Maragoli children's play poetry. It was observed that the number of masculine gender poems was thirty eight (38) compared to the sixty seven (67) feminine poems because the masculine gender censored the information to divulge which the feminine gender was receptive and generous. The school system also enabled Maragoli boys and girls to play together thereby reinventing and redefining the gender spaces. This was evident in the one hundred and twenty four poems performed by both genders together. The review of related literature showed that there was a Luo poem that was performed in a similar manner with a Maragoli one in which children stretched their feet with one of them facing them as she lightly hit the outstretched feet with an object. Since comparative studies were outside the scope of this study, it is recommended that such a study be conducted using the historical-geographical theory. Thesis(PhD)

2013-01-01T00:00:00Z OGONYA, Julie Everline https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/3632 2021-04-15T10:45:58Z 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z

The Depiction of Jesus Christ as an Epic Hero in The Gospel According to Matthew OGONYA, Julie Everline ABSTRACT In the past the Bible was studied as a purely religious text but now there is a revolution in its study. At the centre of this revolution is a growing awareness that the Bible is literature, taken that literature refers to pieces of writing that are valued as works of art. Since literary studies are useful in the study, evaluation and interpretation of literature, methods of literary scholarship are therefore a necessary part of any complete study of the Bible. In addition, there is now an inclination to use literary instead of traditional theological terms to discuss the stories and poems in the Bible. The same applies to studies on Jesus. Not much has been done on Jesus Christ as an epic hero. He has mainly been studied as a religious personality and less from a literary perspective. Since the concept of the epic hero is universal and epic heroes share most characteristics, there is need for more people to know Jesus in a manner that resonates with them. This study therefore, using a literary approach, attempted to interrogate the depiction of Jesus Christ as an epic hero. The main objective of this study was to explain how Jesus is depicted as an epic hero in the Gospel according to St Matthew. This was done by first explaining how the Gospel according to St Matthew fits in the epic genre, then analysing how Jesus Christ is depicted as an epic hero in the Gospel and finally, looking at Jesus Christ beyond the epic hero. The study employed Deconstruction as propounded by Jacques Derrida as its theoretical framework. The Bible, specifically The Gospel according to Matthew and the literary epic was the area of research. This is because this gospel, compared to the others, most resembles an epic in terms of themes and style. The study utilised the analytical research design. Analytical research, a style of qualitative inquiry, is a noninteractive document research which describes and interprets the past from selected sources. These sources might be documents preserved in collections or participants oral testimonials or in the case of this research, a literary text by an author. The use of the analytical design was justified because it is ideal in a situation where a researcher attempts to analyse a situation or make an evaluation. The study population was the Gospel according to St Matthew in the New Testament of the NIV Bible. It made use of purposive sampling to select fourteen chapters, which best depict Jesus Christ as an epic hero, out of the twenty-eight chapters in the text for analysis. Textual analysis formed the basis of the qualitative data from the Bible and library sources respectively. The study was expected to contribute in the field of literature by showing how skills of literary appreciation can enhance our understanding of the Bible and Jesus Christ in particular.

2018-01-01T00:00:00Z ATIENO, Christine Winga https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/965 2019-10-30T13:33:16Z 2015-01-01T00:00:00Z

The denigration of the male image in Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye’s selected novels ATIENO, Christine Winga This study investigates Marjorie Oludhe’s portrayal of male image in Coming to Birth and The Present Moment. Of primary influence to the study is that little attention has been given to the analysis of women’s writings in relation to the representation of male image even as the male characters are used as a foil to articulate the experiences of women which has risked perpetuating the derogatory views of women as victims and men as agents of social ills. The literary devices have also been manipulated to subvert the falsification of female image, raising the question of how the same has been exploited to represent the male image. Finally, the feminist literary writers have, in earnest, reasserted the female identity in manners that transform the stereotypes into liberating modes of selfhood and agency. However, the male characters have not been given the alternative paths. This research; therefore, is concerned with the impact that this has on the male characters. It is because of the above gaps that this research looked into the works of Marjorie Oludhe and analyzed the denigrated male image. The study is hinged on the premise that there are few critical studies on men. A study of male image in Marjorie Oludhe’s selected novels; therefore, enriches the available criticism on the author’s art. This research is limited to the following specific objectives that are to: explore the denigrating male image brought out in Marjorie oludhe’s selected novels, examine the literary devices that Marjorie Oludhe use to depict the adverse male image in her selected novels and, analyze the social impacts of the denigration of male image on the characters in selected novels. Queer theory that is a response to perceived limitations in the liberationist and identity conscious politics guided this study. The study utilized analytical research design. A universe of feminist literary writings was targeted and a sampling unit extracted purposively. Marjorie Oludhe’s Coming to Birth and The Present Moment formed the primary sources of data that were used for this study. Data was obtained from a close reading of primary novels supplemented by secondary texts. From the findings, the ideas that are articulated with regard to masculinity are informed by and juxtaposed to those around femininity. Additionally, the study shows that Marjorie Oludhe deconstructs the male image; however, they are placed in a state of inactivity. The literary devices used are also permeated with an internalized ideology that imposes a unified meaning in the selected novels: the male characters are wicked. Finally, the concomitant impact of the shifts on the balance of power relations between the male characters and the female characters is overwhelmingly detrimental to the male characters. This study concludes that both men and women have a lot to learn from being seen through the lens of the other. This research; thus, recommends that the notion of masculinity needs revision in order to accommodate the multiple fissures that occur between them. Masters Thesis

2015-01-01T00:00:00Z OGOLA, Solomon Owuor https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/901 2019-10-30T18:01:00Z 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z

Beyond the tirade: the portrayal of Kenya’s historical process in Miguna Miguna’s autobiographical works OGOLA, Solomon Owuor Literature and history represent the morphing of social, political and cultural realities. The two employ similar techniques so that in a subtle sense literature is really an artistic reflection of history. The historical process is captured and transformed by literature. Miguna Miguna’s Peeling Back the Mask and Kidneys for the King have been dismissed by historians, the literati and even the common Kenyan as unworthy of academic pursuit. The commentators argue that being a barrister; Miguna lacks the skill to confront historical and literary issues. They argue that the tone of Miguna’s texts is so overly livid that it smothers objectivity. The researcher rebutted these conclusions. He believed that they are unfair unless a concerted exploration of the texts is done. The study, therefore, proposed to investigate how Miguna’s autobiographical works use literary strategies to portray Kenya’s historical process. The specific objectives of the study were: to identify and analyse the themes portrayed in these autobiographical works; to examine how the literariness of the autobiographies aids the delineation of the historical process in Kenya and to analyse the literary significance of the autobiographies in interpreting Kenya’s recent history. The study used New Historicism as a theoretical framework. New Historicism has evolved since 1960s. Marylin Butler and Stephen Greenblatt’s version, popularised in the 1980s, was used to found this study. The theory advocates the textuality of history and the historicity of texts. Butler and Greenblatt argue that history is conveyed through social discourses which include literary texts. As these literary and other discourses are studied, history is recreated. The interpretation of discourses influences how historiography is undertaken. According to Butler and Greenblatt, there are no facts in texts – literary or historical – only interpretations. This theory was found of relevance to this study because non-canonical texts and discourses such as Miguna’s, which are treated by the literati as anecdotal, are, under this theory, given the same weight as the canonical ones. The scope of this study was the portrayal of the historical process in Kenya as captured in Peeling Back the Mask and Kidneys for the King. The study applied analytical research design. This design enabled this study do an in-depth analysis of the historicity of the autobiographical works. The data used for this study was collected from both primary and secondary sources. Primary data was collected through a close study of the texts. Information that portrayed Kenya’s historical process was extracted and analysed. Secondary data that touch on literary portrayal of the historical process was gathered from library research. Relevant journals, periodicals, relevant books and the internet were referred to. Both sets of data were analysed with reference to the study objectives and presented in analytical essays. The study used purposive sampling to select a hundred percent of Miguna’s autobiographies. Peeling Back the Mask was published in 2012 while Kidneys for the King came out in 2013. Rather than choose one, both works were purposefully selected because they both extensively capture Kenya’s historical process and so were information-rich texts that provided the researcher with a wider base from which to found the study and prop his arguments. This study has found, among others, that Miguna makes a fair attempt at using literary devices to portray Kenya’s historical process. It has found, however, that the shrillness of his tone at times impinges on a balanced portrayal of the historical process. The study concludes that it was erroneous to dismiss Miguna’s autobiographies as of no worth to the historian, the literati or the citizen. This study hopes to add to the corpus of the growing literature on Miguna’s works as well as contribute to our understanding of Kenya’s recent history having elucidated Miguna’s work on it. The findings, recommendations and suggestions of this study, it is hoped, will present useful insights for students of literature who wish to do a study on Peeling Back the Mask and Kidneys for the King.

2017-01-01T00:00:00Z OUNO, Victor Onyango https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/822 2019-01-16T11:58:06Z 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z

Portrait of displacement, migration and Transculturalism in the novels of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie OUNO, Victor Onyango ABSTRACT The socio-cultural patterns of the twenty first-century have increased people’s mobility across the planet. The cultural complexities and interactions that these combined factors generate seem to foster an emerging transcultural orientation. Literature is a mirror of the society and these patterns have not eluded literary writers. Both physical and metaphoric manifestations of dislocation exist in literary works. By way of characterisation and manipulation of a variety of stylistic resources, literature provides resourceful ways for describing ourselves or altering our vocabularies for a variety of purposes. Thus, literature gives us the chance to enlarge our sensitivity and our imaginations. Against this backdrop of denationalisation, new arrangements of form and content in novels that have adapted to a changed cultural and social paradigm need to be investigated. There is need for interrogation of literary works, Adichie’s novels in particular, which fall within this purview to determine the socio-cultural dynamics of displacement and demonstrate how émigrés navigate their way through new cultural environments as they strive to attain a cultural equilibrium. This is the critical burden of this investigation. The specific objectives of the study are: to explore the socio-cultural circumstances that compel characters of Adichie’s novels to move out of their traditional localities; demonstrate how the émigrés of Adichie’s novels negotiate the cross-cultural complexities of their new worlds; and determine how the émigrés of Adichie’s novels establish transcultural citizenship. This study benefits from a multi-dimensional construct of critical hybridity, a conceptual framework comprising ideas drawn from postcolonial studies and dialogism. Premium is placed on the ideas of Fanon, Said, Bhabha, Epstein and Bhaktin. The study takes an analytical research design. The three novels, Half of a Yellow Sun, Purple Hibiscus and Americanah, constitute the study population for this research. This homogeneous sample represents one third of Adichie’s literary publications. These three novels have been purposively sampled. The novel form, on account of length, accords a literary writer all the freedom they need to explore issues extensively; it is bereft of the structural limitations of condensed forms like poetry and short stories. The three novels are also set in the same fictional universe. Close reading is adopted as the primary data collection method. This study concludes that dislocation is both physical and transcendental. Physical and transcendental émigrés wade through new cultural environments and struggle for belonging in such culturally fractured worlds. In their endeavour to carve a cultural niche for themselves, they embrace transcultural citizenship. This study enriches the body of critical studies on displacement, migration and transculturalism. The results of this study demonstrate the nature and content of transcultural outputs that are more attuned to the cosmopolitan and pluralistic sensibilities in the contemporary society.

2018-01-01T00:00:00Z Odero, Lilian Akoth https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/695 2018-10-09T12:49:49Z 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z

The Place of Indigenous Theatre in Early Childhood Development in Ugenya Sub-County of Kenya Odero, Lilian Akoth Children’s right to participate in cultural and artistic life is enshrined in policy documents yet in practice, it is only considered when other basic rights have been fulfilled. Theatrical genres in ECD are privileged mainly for their functional values rather than artistic merits. Analyses of literary genres dominate scholarly works with less regard for the dynamics of performance which characterize indigenous theatre and children’s artistic culture. With a focus on Ugenya Sub-County, the study sought to analyze the place of indigenous theatre in ECD by determining theatrical genres employed by children and caregivers, analyzing how children and caregivers engaged with indigenous theatre genres and establishing factors that enhanced or inhibited engagement with indigenous theatre. The study was guided by postcolonial theory as advanced by, Bhabha (1994), Spivak (1990) and Said (1978). Postcolonial theory facilitated the study in interrogating mainstream views on theatrical genres in ECD to conform only to Western models and literary aesthetics. This study is a descriptive study anchored on an ethnographic research design to capture the lived theatrical experiences of children and caregivers in ECD centres. The population of the study was children and caregivers in ECD centres and key informants from government departments. Single stage cluster sampling was used to draw a sample of 33 out of 111 ECD centres: a sample of 30%. All the children and caregivers in the sampled clusters were participants. 1,110 children were engaged through participant and non-participant observation and 78 caregivers were engaged through FGD aided by audio visual recordings. Purposive sampling was used to identify 2 key informants from government departments who were engaged through in-depth face to face interviews. Content analysis was applied in analyzing the data which was processed by generating categories, themes and patterns relevant to the research problem. From the analyses, interpretations were made, gaps identified and conclusions drawn. The data was mainly represented in narrative prose and visually displayed in tables. The findings of this study revealed that theatrical genres depicted a wide range and dynamism in their construction during performance thus deviating from mainstream ways regarding the classification of theatrical genres. Strengths such as the capacity of indigenous theatre to act in synergy with other interventions, adapt to contemporary ways and resilience in children’s play culture were compromised by a combination of factors such as poor implementation of policies, the dominant Western, Christian narrative on ECD and the privileging of academic curricular.

2017-01-01T00:00:00Z