Association Between Political Beliefs and Educational Courses

ASSOCIATION BETWEEN POLITICAL BELIEFS
AND EDUCATIONAL COURSES

Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................1
Problem statement..................................................................................................................................1
Objectives of the study............................................................................................................................2
Research question...................................................................................................................................2
Hypotheses..............................................................................................................................................2
Research methodology................................................................................................................................2
Research design.......................................................................................................................................2
Data collection.........................................................................................................................................2
Data analysis............................................................................................................................................3
Results.........................................................................................................................................................3
Descriptive statistics................................................................................................................................3
Inferential statistics.................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................7
Recommendations.......................................................................................................................................7
References...................................................................................................................................................8

P a g e | 1
Introduction
The education system of any country can be defined from the perspective of formal systems
(Sanprasert 6). This incorporates early childhood education, primary education, secondary
education, tertiary and university education. As noted by (Alexandre 4), more external factors
than internal factors affect tertiary and university education. In most cases, these external factors
dictate what normally happens within the institutions. Some of these external factors include
geographical, socio-cultural beliefs, religion and political affiliation. Politics is thought to have
an impact on the courses that students pursue in tertiary and university institutions.
Political administration and affiliation plays a big role in the education sector. Different political
spectra have different political philosophies and thereby have different levels of influence on
daily way of life, including educational pursuit (Fott 2). For instance, a political party that
believes in the philosophy of economic emphasis could result to more of its supporters taking
courses in the field of economics. However, a political party believing in the philosophy of
socialism could have several of its supporters taking courses in the field of sociology, political
science and other social sciences (Jones 7).
Problem statement
Several factors affect the general education system in a country, and more specifically the
courses that students pursue at tertiary or university level. Some of these factors include
historical, religious and political ideologies (de 5). This study therefore tried to investigate the
association between courses done by students and their political ideologies.

P a g e | 2
Objectives of the study
The main objective of this study is to investigate whether or not students’ courses of study are
related to the types of political beliefs they hold. The study tries to explore whether an
association exists between college/university course and political ideologies.
Research question
Based on the objective of the study, the below research question guided the study;
Does there exist an association between political beliefs and courses done by student?
Hypotheses
Based on the above research question, the following null and alternative hypotheses are
formulated;
H0: There is exists no association between political beliefs held by students and courses done by
students.
H1: There exists an association between political beliefs and courses done by students.
Research methodology
Research design
Descriptive research design was employed for this study. A random sampling survey was
employed for collection of data.
Data collection
Data was collected by administering questionnaires to a random sample of 100 participants, from
the faculties of sciences and humanities. Quantitative data was collected from the survey.
Data analysis
Quantitative techniques were used for analyzing the data. Data was analyzed for both descriptive
and inferential statistics. The inferential statistics tool used was the chi square test for association
of variables.