(International Journal of Education and Research, 2014-10) Makwinya, Noel M.
Children’s participation in extracurricular activities is associated with numerous positive outcomes,
including fostering students’ sense of belongingness. The objectives of this study were firstly, to
investigate the role nature of sports/games can play in influencing students’ sense of feeling part of
the playing-teams; secondly to investigate whether presence of local-based and context-specific
games in school can improve general sense of relatedness among students. Using 103 sixth-primary
school graders, in a pretest-posttest design, results showed that relatedness among students
improved when students were given chances to play context-specific games. Following these
results, teachers and other educational practitioners are recommended to allow school-children to
play African-based games together with those innovated outside Africa. Since context-specific
sports improved students’ sense of belonging, in a long-run, it is expected that this will help to
improve students’ daily school attendance.