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Unravelling gender and ethnic bias in higher education: students’ experiences in access to ocean science education and career opportunities in Kenya

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Abstract

The lack of highly-trained ocean science professionals constrains sustainable development and management of the oceans. In Kenya, the government is committed to improving access to education for all, regardless of gender, ethnicity, and social status. Increasing female student enrolment has been one of the top priorities, particularly in science-related courses, which have long been male-biased. Feminist political ecology is applied as an analytical framework to understand how gender and ethnicity influence student access to, participation in, and experience in ocean science-related programmes. Data was collected through a questionnaire survey with students undertaking ocean science courses in seven public universities in Kenya. The findings revealed an underrepresentation of women and minority ethnic groups. Fewer female respondents than males received financial support from their families, and more female respondents than males reported that they had experienced discrimination related to their ethnicity and gender. In addition, a higher percentage of female respondents reported having fewer opportunities in higher education and ocean science careers than males. These findings reveal the persistent inequalities among students and suggest that Kenyan public universities need to pay more attention to how intersectional identities, such as gender and ethnicity, influence and shape the distribution of resources and opportunities if equitable diversity and inclusion are to be achieved. Also, they need to strengthen their gender policies and actions to tackle these social inequalities to promote gender equality in ocean science education.

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The data that has been used is confidential because participants were promised anonymity as stated in the Research Ethics protocol.

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Acknowledgements

The study is a part of the author's PhD dissertation. The author would like to express her enormous gratitude to the Nippon Foundation for their generous funding of the World Maritime University (WMU)-Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute. The author also acknowledges and appreciates the generous financial support from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) Canada to the Empowering Women for the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development programme. My deepest appreciation goes to my PhD supervisory team: Professor Momoko Kitada, Professor Francis Neat and Professor Susan Buckingham for their time, support, and contribution throughout this study. The author also wishes to extend her sincere gratitude to Professor Ronan Long for his connections and to Mrs. Nancy Gitonga, who provided technical support to the author by sharing contact details of the respective persons, institutions, and guidance during the field survey. The author also sends her indebtedness to Dr. Risper Ondiek for her technical support. The author would also like to extend her special thanks to all the students who participated in this study. My gratitude goes to the heads of the departments and class representatives of the universities studied for facilitating the dissemination of the questionnaires through email and other social media handles such as WhatsApp. Lastly, the author would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their incredible feedback that greatly improved this manuscript.

Funding

This research was supported by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) Canada, under the Empowering Women for the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development programme.

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    Renis Auma Ojwala

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Before data collection, the questionnaires were approved by the Research Ethics Committee at World Maritime University, and permission was granted from the Kenyan National Council of Science, Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI) (License No. 824286). Questionnaires had a short description explaining the purpose of the research to each potential participant and included a statement that guaranteed anonymity and confidentiality to participants.

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Ojwala, R.A. Unravelling gender and ethnic bias in higher education: students’ experiences in access to ocean science education and career opportunities in Kenya. High Educ (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-024-01198-x

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