Effect of gender mainstreaming in education on secondary school girls’ psychological adjustment and career aspirations in selected Counties in Kenya

Abstract

The ministry of education has a critical role to play in addressing issues of gender equality and equity in Kenyathrough the implementation of gender mainstreaming in schools. It provides a framework for the planning and implementation of gender responsive education. The high girl-child drop-out rates, early and forcedmarriageofgirls, adolescent pregnancyand gender discrimination in Kenyan secondary school have caused prevalent gender inequality. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of gender mainstreamingin educationon secondary school girls’ psychological adjustment and career aspiration in selected counties in Kenya .The study employed ex postfacto research design. The target population was one hundredand fifty nine thousand and thirty nine (163,748) girls while the accessible population consisted oftwenty five thousand six hundred and fifty four (25,654).The sample size comprised of 378 secondary school girls, 50 counsellorsand 50 head teachers.Stratified and simple random sampling was utilized to select school girls while purposive sampling was adopted to select the head teachers and school counsellors. The data was collected through the administration of questionnaires to students, while questionnaires and interview schedules were administered to school counsellors and head teachers. Validity of the instrument wasascertained with the assistance of the expertsfrom the department of Counselling, Psychology and Education Foundations. The reliability was determined by conducting a pilot study. ACronbach’s alpha was computed to determine the reliability of the instrument.Areliability coefficient of 0.7was established. This was considered to be acceptable and reliable. The data collected was analyzed using chi-square (χ2),ANOVAand Linear RegressionAnalysiswith the aid of statistical package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20for windows. Analyzed data was presented usingcumulative frequency tables, ANOVA tables, percentages, bar graphs and pie charts. Hypotheses were tested at the significance level (alpha) of 0.05. The findings of the study indicated that head teachers possessed highlevel ofawarenessgender mainstreamingin educationwhile the level of awareness of schoolcounsellors and girls was moderate and low respectively.Further the findings revealed that gender mainstreaming in educationhas a significant relationship with both psychological adjustment and career aspirations of the secondary school girls.Hypotheses tested showed that there is statisticalsignificanteffect of gender mainstreaming in education on girls psychological adjustment and career aspiration(P-value=0.009). The study recommends gender mainstreaming sensitization among secondary school girls and counsellors, change of public advocacy, carrying out follow-up surveillance, facilitation of a more gender focus career counsellingand mentorship programmes and evaluation of existing policies and practices to identify their shortcomingsand areas of improvement. The study suggests further research on barriers to a gender enabling environment and an assessment of an effective mechanism of implementing, reviewingand monitoringof gender mainstreamingin educationpolicy in schools.