INFLUENCE OF PARENTING STYLES ON THE STUDENT’S CHOICE OF AGRICULTURE SUBJECT IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KEIYO NORTH SUB-COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

Agriculture is a key vocational subject in Kenya’s secondary schools, as it equips learners with knowledge and skills for entrepreneurship, employment and further education.  Despite its importance to national development, enrolment in agriculture has persistently been low in Keiyo North Sub-County. Studies suggest that parenting style shapes students’ academics decisions and career pathways. This paper investigated the influence of parenting style on students’ choice of agriculture subject in public secondary schools in Keiyo North Sub-County. It adopted the correlational research design. The accessible population comprised 50 career guidance teachers and 1448 form three students. A sample of 337 students and 45 teachers were selected using stratified, proportionate and simple random sampling techniques. Data was collected using structured questionnaires for both students and career guidance teachers. The face and content validity of the two instruments were established through expert judgement. The reliability of the students’ questionnaire was estimated using the Cronbach Alpha method while that of the teachers was assessed using the inter-coder agreement. The reliability coefficient of the students’ questionnaire was 0.890 while the teachers’ questionnaire yielded a Cohen Kappa coefficient of 0.726.  The paper hypothesis was tested at .05 level of significance using binary logistic regression. The findings revealed that only 45.3% of the students had chosen agriculture subject, underscoring the continued low uptake of the subject. Authoritative parenting style was predominant (67.8%) but parenting style was not a significant predictor of students’ choice of agriculture subject (pseudo R2 = .008, model coefficient χ2 (2, N = 400) = 2.280, p = .320). The paper concludes that parenting style plays a limited role in shaping students’ decisions to enroll in agriculture subject, other factors are more influential in determining students’ subject choices.