Assessment of Participation of Secondary School Female Teachers in Leisure and Recreation in Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

The study evaluated the extent of participation in leisure and recreation by female teachers in Nairobi. The study assessed the influence of demographic characteristics; age, marital status, number of children, and level of education of the female teachers in Nairobi County on their leisure and recreation participation. It also assessed the influence of other social factors like; teaching workload, domestic chores, availability and access to facilities, cost of leisure gender discrimination, time spent in commuting and type of class taught in leisure and recreation participation of the female teachers in Nairobi County. The study also sought to determine the most preferred choice of leisure and recreation activities of female teachers in Nairobi County. In addition, the study also sought to find out if the type of school had any significant influence in leisure and recreation participation. Data were gathered from 291 respondents who included teachers from public and private schools from Nairobi. Questionnaires were used to gather data. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics while hypotheses were tested using chi-square and One Sample T- test. The results indicated that most of the female teachers were aged between 36 -45 years, married and had children. The largest proportion of teachers was bachelor degree holders. The most popular leisure and recreation activity was watching television. Amongst the teachers, teaching work load was rated as the most important factor in influencing leisure and recreation participation while gender discrimination emerged as extremely unimportant factor. A larger proportion of teachers rated their participation in leisure and recreation as frequent, enjoyable and fun. This is despite the various factors that influenced their leisure and recreation participation. Age yielded X2 = 18.36 (P<0.05), an indication that age had a significant influence on leisure and recreation participation by the female teachers in Nairobi County. Marital status yielded X2 =3.6 (P< 0.05), an indication that it also had a significant influence on leisure and recreation participation. Number of children, level of education and school taught did not have significant influence on leisure and recreation. It was, therefore, recommended that leisure and recreation providers to increase opportunities for all teachers by providing variety of activities, facilities and also have friendlier programmes and facilities for the aged in order to cater for the aging teachers. The proprietors and managers of schools need to provide crèche facilities and programmes to cater for the female teachers with young children. The government should employ more teachers to minimize teachers‟ workload.