Jacquelyn Skinner and Dr. Julie Hite, Educational Leadership and Foundations
Education is a major instrument in establishing self-sustaining growth and reducing poverty throughout the world. Specifically, educating females reaps additional benefits including increased family incomes, later marriages, reduced fertility rates, reduced infant and maternal mortality rates, better nourished families and greater opportunities for women in the workforce. These returns to investment for women are imperative to society and are vital in improving developing countries such as Uganda, Africa.
The problem for women’s education in Uganda is girls are not obtaining the advantages education can offer. Currently, an extreme gender disparity exists in the adult literacy rates between men and women. In addition, current female enrollments are significantly decreasing after each year of secondary education. Factors appear to exist that are hindering female access and completion of a secondary education. Yet an increase in female participation in secondary education could have a significant effect on both female adult literacy and the future benefits of education that have been found.
The challenge is identifying the factors that may be influencing female participation and performance in Ugandan secondary schools. Three general factors exist that may be contributing factors restricting female enrollment and academic performance: (1) cultural issues; (2) problems within the education system itself; and (3) factors relating to the physical nature of being a girl. These factors may influence both initial and continuing enrollment as well as actual academic performance. This study seeks to further explore these factors and the extent to which they influence female enrollment and performance in secondary education.
In this qualitative ethnographic study, stratified random sampling identified four schools in the Mukono District in Uganda. These stratification criteria were chosen to demonstrate a school’s credibility and provide a variety of different school atmospheres. After contacting each school’s headmaster, two female students were randomly selected to have a confidential one-hour interview with two investigators. During this interview, a variety of questions were asked concerning the struggles and challenges they face in their respected secondary school experience. At the conclusion of each interview, the students gave the research team a tour of their school and its facilities. This tour allowed the investigators to examine and photograph their living conditions as well as other resources belonging to the school.
The hypothesis in approaching this venture was that factors exist within and outside of the education system that appear to affect specifically females by causing their enrollment rates and academic performance to digress. Findings identified clear factors that acted as obstacles that directly attacked the educational completion and performance of female students. Factors affecting female education fell under the following five categories (see Table 1).
Although this project was a success overall, two unexpected obstacles occurred that I had to overcome. First, transcribing the interview tapes took an extremely long time due to the heavy accents of the Ugandan girls interviewed and the outside static noise. Conveniently, backup supporting notes were taken that served very beneficial in both transcribing and analyzing our data. Second, because this research was an ethnographic study, each interviewee gave insights of which I had not previously been aware. Unfortunately, due to the scope of the study, I was unable to explore many of these new emerging themes in the depth that I would have preferred. While I have incorporated these themes into the findings, these emergent themes provide rich, yet untapped avenues for further research that can be more detailed and extensive.
After transcribing, analyzing, and sorting the data, I was the lead author on an academic paper that reported this study and its findings. In March 2004, I had the unusual opportunity, as an undergraduate, to present this paper at a prestigious international education conference, The Comparative International Education Society Conference. This conference is attended by education researchers from around the world. In addition, Mr. Yusuf Nsubuga, the Director of Secondary Education and Sports from the Ugandan Ministry of Education, attended my presentation and made comments thanking me for presenting problems regarding female education that he did not know existed. Currently, I am working along with my mentor and two other students to publish this paper and my research.
Carrying out this research project was an invaluable learning experience and will benefit me in future contexts. With the help of my mentor, I learned a lot about what composes a sound report, how to create a reliable method design, and how to analyze my data effectively to come up with valid findings and conclusions. I plan to continue working toward my goal of publishing this research and know that this experience will aid me in this endeavor.