Social Construction of Retirement among Retired Teachers in Makueni County

Retirement is a transition from being in occupation to other life options such as leisure, volunteering to help others or to engaging in business activities (Kleiber & Linde, 2014). This is the time when one permanently leaves his or her job either due to official or personal reasons. There are two broad categories of retirement namely: mandatory/official and early/voluntary retirement (Teachers Service Commission, 2014). Mandatory retirement is the time that one is asked by the employer to stop working upon attaining the retirement age which ranges from 60years to 70years in many countries. Early or voluntary retirement is when a person chooses to retiree either due to health reasons or wishes to change his/her socio-economic lifestyle (Milligan, 2011;Were,2009). Retirement is thought to be a relatively new phenomenon in the world as it dates back to the 20th Century. Initially, workers were mostly employed in agricultural farms and were allowed to continue working till death. At old age, the workload would be adjusted to what one could manage given the state of his/her body and health due to ageing (Seattle Times, 2013).