access the factors both socially and culturally that affected female students in academic performance in secondary schools in Masasi District Council.
STELLA
MARIS MTWARA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE
(STEMMUCO)
(A constitute college of Saint
Augustine University of Tanzania)
FACULTY
OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE
Assessment
on the Socio-Cultural Factors Affecting Female Students In Academic Performance
In Secondary Schools. A Case Study of Masasi District Council.
A
Research proposal submitted on the Faculty of Education in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts with education at Stella
Maris Mtwara University College.
ESTHER
G. LIKOLO
May, 2021
CHAPTER
ONE
1.0 Introduction
This chapter dealt with the background of the problem,
statement of the problem, objectives of the study, research questions,
conceptual framework, scope of the study, significance, limitations of the
study and definition of key terms.
1.1 Background of the study
Education is the best legacy a nation can give to her
citizens especially youth. This is because the development of any nation
depends on the quality of education given. This development commence with the
development of human resources so education is a vehicle for social
mobilization in any society. Education enhance productivity, expand economic
system and also reduce social gap or inequality. (World Bank, 1998).
It was states that in the United Republic of Tanzania
(URT, 2000)that education serves as the main means of providing individual with
the opportunity to achieve their full potential in terms of acquiring the
knowledge, skills, values and attitudes needed for various social and economic
role as well as for personal development. As observed by by Engien-Demir (cited
in Dimbisso,2009) education is not a charity rather than a fundamental human
right for all people irrespective of their sex, race, economic status which is
a key to sustainable development, peace and stability among countries.
Sub-saharan Africa (SSA) has increased the enrollment
of female students during the 1990's with the gender parity rates ranging from
0.65 to 0.82 in 2000 at secondary level (UNESCO, 2006).
Tanzania has a variety of tribe, each having its own
value, beliefs and morals representing a sub culture, which has institution and
traditions for perpetuating its culture. A social group that believed in
righteous acts and decent interaction demanded its individual members to teach
the same to other people.
There were various socio-cultural factors affecting
female students in academic performance in secondary schools. Parents or
guardian socio-economic status in the society, family conflict, medium of instruction,
jando and unyago , traditional initiation ceremonies such as traditional
dances, weddings and also Female Genital Mutilation. Also there were various
cases concerned witchcraft that caused girls to faint during classroom
activities.
Parents education payed more attention on education
level as Stuart (1981) cited by Eyembe (2008) emphasized that, the level of
education attained by Fathers is systematically associated with the schooling
of daughters. So both girls and boys were needed to be emphasized about the
importance of education.
Distance from students home to schools also
deteriorated academic performance. Sometimes students used long time to walk or
travel as they used buses in long distance and sometimes were caused by traffic
jams. In Tanzania mostly in secondary schools its students faced long distance
before reaching their schools. This situation led tiredness to students where
creativity decreased, lateness truancy and even participation and performance
in subjects was decreased (Torso, 2006).
Culture refers to the total ways of life. It includes
traditions, norms and beliefs of the societies. Basically, female students faced with households chores, early and forced
marriage, Female Genital Mutilation and fainting. Also girls were viewed as
inferior to boys that there was favoritism between boys and girls by parents
and guardian and also teachers (Mbilinyi et all.,1991)
URT (2011) stated that girls poor academic performance
was one of the major problem in Tanzania and the World in general. In many
countries, concerned about gender disparities in education focused on student
performance also in terms of under achievement of girls (Davies as cited in
Simwata, 2014).Mgosi (2011) emphasized that in secondary schools, girls
enrollment was equal to boys but when you looked at performance, girls
generally performed worse than boys.
Table 1: Percentage of Form Four National Examination
from 2014-2015
|
DIVISION
|
2014 |
2015 |
||
|
BOYS. |
GIRLS |
BOYS.
|
GIRLS |
|
|
I-III |
19.07
|
11.65 |
29.99
|
19.6 |
|
IV-0 |
80.93
|
88.35 |
70.01
|
80.4 |
Source: Various NECTA Announcements from 2011-201
The data indicated in Table 1 showed that, the academic performance of boys was higher than that of girls in form four national examinations for the consecutive two years. Although there was a slight improvement of number of girls scoring division I-III in 2014 and 2015, but their performance generally was still lower than that of boys. Achoka, Nafula and Oyoo (2013) indicated that cultural challenges persisted and acted against academic excellence of girls particularly at the secondary school level in the developing nations included Tanzania.
1.3 statement of the problem
Despite the Tanzania government commitment to provide
equal opportunity to education for both sexes. The female students academic
gained and learning performance in secondary schools levels were affected by
various socio-cultural practices in the societies. This poor academic
performance of students caused both people and nation in poor states, the traditional initiation
such as female genital mutilation, traditional dances and wedding ceremonies
and also "jando and unyago" caused female students to pay more
attention in classroom hours to made stories and other jokes concerned those
events rather than their studies or subjects for example how they had dressed,
how they sung during initiation and so on. This cultural practice caused
students to ignore the importance of their studies. Also single parent family,
family conflict, guardian socio-economic status, medium of instruction and lack
of qualified teachers, medium of instructions as Torso(2006) explained. So this
problem should took seriously so as the
country to proceed in terms of development. Therefore this study aimed to made
an assessment on the socio-cultural factors affected female students in
academic performance in secondary schools in Masasi District Council.
1.3 Research objectives
1.3.1 General objectives
The general objective of this research was to
determine or access the factors both socially and culturally that affected
female students in academic performance in secondary schools in Masasi District
Council.
1.3.2 Specific objectives
- To determine the
socio-cultural factors affecting female students in academic performance
in secondary in Masasi District Council.
- To examine the
effects of socio-cultural practices on female students in academic
performance in secondary
schools in Masasi District Council
- To determine the
measures that can overcome undesirable socio-cultural practices in Masasi
District Council.
1.4 Research questions
In order to achieve the objectives of this study, the
following questions were put forward to guide the study;
- What were the
socio-cultural factors affected female academic performance in secondary
schools?
- What were the
effects of socio-cultural factors affected academic performance of female
students in secondary schools?
- What were the
possible measures to overcome or eradicate the undesirable socio-cultural
practices affected academic performance of female students in secondary
schools?
1.5 Significance of the Study
The usefulness of the study was to provide information
to education stakeholders and community at large on the social cultural
limitations on girls education in secondary schools and the way forward. The
findings would helped researchers, policy makers and administrators in all
levels to understood the influence of socio-cultural issues in limiting girls
education. The findings of the research would provided the education
authorities with the necessary needs to enhance the students and the community
to understood the importance of education with a positive socio-cultural
practices in their life. It would also guided other researchers and other
people interested in found out the causes and solutions to the problem.
In addition this study, would also contributed
knowledge to the existed literature review about socio-cultural issues or
practices limited education especially academic performance in Masasi District Council.
1.6Limitations of the study
In conducting this research, the challenges or
problems that may faced to obtain data in those schools were;
Lack of respondent as
they decides to refuse to speak what they know, financial problems as
the respondents request to be paid some money so as to give information. Also
bad or poor attitude towards responding questions concerning social problems.
1.7 scope of the study
The study was conducted in Masasi district council especially to the
students so as to found or explore the existence of factors affected female
students in academic performance in secondary schools. The secondary schools
that would be conducted to found data were Chanikanguo secondary school and
Mpindimbi secondary . All this schools were found in Masasi district council in
Mtwara region.
1.8 Definition of key terms
Academic performance. Refers
to how students deal with their studies and how they achieve in both school
internal and national examinations.
Socio-cultural factors:
Refers to large scale forces and practices within the cultures and societies
that offer more learning opportunities to boys than girl. They were determined
on basis of scores of thoughts, feelings and attitudes of respondents.
Secondary school: Refers to all
government and non government secondary schools which provide education to form
one to form four secondary education.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE
REVIEW
2.0 Introduction
This chapter attempted to gave overview of socio -
cultural factors in Tanzania and empirical studies relevant to the study reviewed. Theoretical framework and
conceptual framework were presented.
2.1The Importance of Educating Girls
The Importance of educating girls had been very much
acknowledged, first education is a basic human right stipulated in
international commitments such as the convention on the rights of the child,
and at regional level, the Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the African
Child (Plan, 2012). Plan (2012) asserts further that girls’ education is one of
the effective means of development not only for girls themselves but for
communities. Better girls’ education contributes to maternal health, reduces
mortality, improves nutrition within home, and increases the potential work
force and opportunities for economic growth. The effects of not attending
school are greater for girls than boys and their impacts transfers to the next
generation of both girls and boys. Whether educated or not, girls are more at
risk than boys from HIV/AIDS, sexual exploitation and child trafficking.
Without the knowledge and life skills that school can provide, the risks are
multiplied. So, if school allows girls and their families participation will
lead into multiple protections, and its absence means multiple problems
(UNICEF, 2003).Studies show that education is a key to preventing child
marriage that is women aged 20-24 years with primary education are less likely
to be married by age 18 years than those who are not. For example 20% of women
who received primary education were married at the age of 18 years compared to
36% of those who did not attend school. Moreover women with secondary education
were less likely to be married by the age of 18 years. In the United Republic
of Tanzania, for example, educated women were 92% less likely to be married by
the age of 18 than women who had not received education (UNESCO, 2005). For
women who received tertiary levels of education, child marriage rates were
almost equivalent to negligible.
2.2 Related Literature Review
Tanzania has an estimated population of 45 million
inhabitants. The mainland is comprised of about 120 tribal groups. Most of
these are small, and as a result, no tribe has succeeded to dominate
politically or culturally (United Planet of Tanzania, 2016). The tribes are
identified by common names and have different languages and more or less
exclusive territories. There is a remarkable number of people of Asia origin
dominating the trade sector. People in each tribe posses the heritage of a
common culture such as historical traditions, laws, customs, values and beliefs
but according to Morgan (2008) the official languages in Tanzania is Kiswahili
and English.
Tanzania has variety of tribes, each having its own
values, beliefs and morals representing a sub culture, which has institutions
and oral traditions for perpetuating its culture. A social group that believes
in righteous acts and decent interactions will hone its individuals to teach
the same to other people. Mbughuni (1974), the young were educated in the
cultural values as well as the customs of their people.
Troike (1978) explained that learning of culture, like
the learning of language, begins with a child's first experiences with the
family into which he is born, the community to which he belongs, and the
environment in which he lives. By the time children begin their formal
education, they have already internalized many of the basic values and beliefs
of their native culture.
Furthermore, Suleiman (January 4, 2011), explained
that among the factors which lead to girls’ poor performance in secondary
schools, socio-cultural and out of school factors play a big role in female
education. Torto (2009) mentioned home and community based – cultural factors
such as traditional beliefs of a woman as a wife and mother, early marriage
among others that exist in Tanzania and affect girls’ performance in secondary
schools.
Mushi and Mauki, 2012 and Plan, 2012, 2013), claimed
that home-school distance is a factor for poor performance, where there is such
a long walking distance, girls feel the effects more severely, hence drop out
easily or sometimes fail to concentrate in class due to tiredness, hence poor
performance. Most schools, especially in rural areas are located some distance
from the student's residence, although the average distance of schools from
homes is becoming small with the increase in number of secondary schools. .
Evidence from Africa indicates parents’ reluctance to send girls to schools far
from home because girls are considered to be weaker than boys and hence unable
to burn up the energy required to walk to and from school everyday Plan, 2012
and Mushi and Mauki, 2012). Generally, parents are not willing to send their children,
daughters in particular, to schools which are located very far from their
residence due to their daughters' safety.
Mullen, (1970) and (Plan, 2012) showed that dropout,
truancy and absenteeism in secondary schools, in most cases involve children from
broken families. It has also been reported that broken families, which may
result due to divorce, separation, death or desertion of one or both parents
may affect the schooling of children. Children from families without fathers
are likely to be truant and eventually dropout of school more than children
with fathers. It is the African tradition for fathers to be perceived/regarded
as pillars of the family and mothers are subordinates to them, so, they cannot
manage families competently in the absence of fathers. Therefore children from
broken families are likely to develop truancy or absenteeism and ultimately may
end up dropping out of school (Mullen, 1970). Hence due to this factor female
students fail to concentrate in studies so they fail academically.
UNESCO (2003) argues that the rites of passage affect
girls’ education because they reflect norms and belief about appropriate roles
for adult life. Rites of passage are associated with giving introductory
knowledge on reproduction, marriage, puberty and the sexuality of female
children. This knowledge is linked to the development of sexuality in both
girls and boys, but it mostly restricts the freedom of girls to participate in
education. Also Lulu and Mushi (2009) in a study on the influence of culture in
gender in equality in education conducted in Morogoro region discovered that
the majority of respondents (94.7%) had the opinion that rites of passage
exposes girls to early sexual affairs by stimulating their sexual desire,
consequently resulting into engagement in love affairs and prostitution which
end up limiting girls education.A study conducted by Temu et al (2011) on
critical gender issues in Mtwara region indicated that during rites of passage
girls’ are taught sexual practices despite their young age, and they are
encouraged to practice their newly acquired knowledge with boys and with older
men. These practices ultimately contribute to both early marriage and
pregnancies leading to girls’ pupil dropout from primary schools and under
performance to those continuing with studies due to lack of concentration on
studies and or psychological disturbance.Ayoub (2010) made a similar
observation that, during initiation ceremonies a girl is trained how to satisfy
a husband when in contact with him sexually. Other type of trainings insists on
how to live without depending on parents on essential needs like exercise
books, pens, pocket money and school uniforms. In this regards, Ayoub (2010)
comments that a girl is therefore forced to engage in sexual activities in
order to experience what she was taught during initiation period and for the
sake of getting money to buy school requirements like pen, exercise books, and
also pocket money to sustain during school hours. As she precedes doing sexual
activities the discipline of studying decreases, truancy starts gradually and
decreases the interest of studying hence a girl start under performing
academically and others make decision to drop from studies. In addition
participation in initiation rites ceremonies forces girls to stay away from
schools for a considerable period of time while studies are going on and in
some occasions the school girls refused to come back to school after the
ceremonies (Kimego, 2007 and Ayoub, 2010).
Kimego, (2007) argues that gender inequalities in education are designed
to mould girls into the narrowly conceived roles of wives and mothers.
Participation of female in education is determined by religious belief among
other factors. In some religious affiliations women are expected to be the
bearers and makers of society traditions and religious identity. Therefore as
agent of socialization in the family, their schooling in religious beliefs and
tradition may be considered more important than just promoting their own
educational position. This means that, parents would encourage their daughters
to attend traditional and religious schooling for their proper identity in the
society, which as a result, may discourage formal schooling for girls. Ayoub
(2010) reports that in Islamic laws (‘shariah’) a girl can be married at the
age of 9 years or bellow. Therefore, many school age girls practice sexual
activities at young age because of the influence of Islamic religion wedlock
which allow girls to be married at very young age and ultimately affect their
participation in schooling. Studies conducted in Kenya on girls’ participation
in education report that the problem of teenage mothers is very serious that
demands immediate solutions. The increase in teenage pregnancies in Africa is
attributed to combination of factors such asocial taboo, tradition values,
religious belief and sexual behaviors (Bennars, 1997). He also added that
factors like poverty may push young females in sexual activities for money. In
some societies early pregnancies to young girls is perceived to be normal.
Flora et al (2013) argued that ; most students drop
from schools due to food insecurity which lead malnutrition. Lack of food
affects learners physically and mentally development to concentrate in studies
hence poor performance academically.
Kinra (2008) argued that; students are faced with
challenges during adolescent period. In this stage is upstage in a student's
friendship and relationship. In this stage both girl and boy builds a bad
behavior that lead to dropout or falling concentration academically and even
pregnancy. He suggest that at this stage a student should be encouraged to
study on his own in order to inculcate self confidence and ability to find out
and evaluate ways of studying according to her own genus.
2.3 Theoretical Literature Review
For the purpose of this study, the following are the
theories to use:
2.3.1 Goal Setting Theory
The main proponents of this theory were Edwin A. Locke
and Gary P. Latham, this theory shows how the field of organizational behavior
should progress from a sound theoretical foundation to sophiscated research and
to actual application of more effective management practice. It lies at the
centre of performance-based motivation programmes which are effectively applied
in human resources management in the form of management objectives.
Goal setting theory is widely applied in education
since education is a highly result oriented discipline. At the outset,
education managers must set general aims of education which are in the line
with the education policies of the country. Therefore the government should
implement the education general aims set by finding out the solutions for the
socio-cultural issues in limiting girls secondary education in societies in
Masasi district and Tanzania in general. More over, education managers (head
teachers, education officers, and ward education coordinators) need to tailor
the goals of education institutions to the needs of the students and teachers.
In 1968 Edwin A. Locke presented a seminar paper which
has been considered as the pioneering work on goal-setting theory. According to
him goal setting performs four important functions for employees in education
institutions, helps employees(teachers and non teaching staff) to focus his or
her attention on a particular task/objective, it regulate or increase employees
(teachers and non teaching staff) efforts, goals also remind workers (teachers
and non teaching staff) of where they are moving to and how they are moving,
and they make workers (teachers and non teaching staff) become more creative in
charting out new strategies and action plans for achieving the agreed upon
results Okumbe (1998).
2.3.2 The System Theory Approach
The systems theory was first developed by L. Von
Bentalaffy (1950), the system approach is a theory that is concerned with
developing a systematic framework for describing general relationship of the
work particularly the components within it. The approach tries to analyze the
interrelationship and interdependence of various components of a system. The
word system originated from a Greek word ‘systema’ which means a relationship
among functioning parts or components of a whole. Any system must have
objectives. It should always be remembered that each system has some parts
which when put together do make a whole. For the purpose of this study, the government
of Tanzania is a system which is made up of subsystems (education institutions
in education sector) which are responsible to ensure education development
especially for girls by solving the socio-cultural issues in limiting girls
secondary education in societies in Masasi
district and Tanzania at large.
2.4 Research gap
Different scholars identified the socio-cultural
factors affecting female students in academic performance in secondary schools.
The reviewed studies have shown the existence of some socio-cultural factors in
communities, their effects on girls’ academic performance and challenges facing
them in their struggle to get education and to perform well academically in
secondary school for example Kimego, (2007) argues that gender inequalities in education are designed
to mould girls into the narrowly conceived roles of wives and mothers.
Participation of female in education is determined by religious belief among
other factors. In some religious affiliations women are expected to be the bearers
and makers of society traditions and religious identity. Also UNESCO (2003)
argues that the rites of passage affect girls’ education because they reflect
norms and belief about appropriate roles for adult life. Rites of passage are
associated with giving introductory knowledge on reproduction, marriage,
puberty and the sexuality of female children. This knowledge is linked to the
development of sexuality in both girls and boys, but it mostly restricts the
freedom of girls to participate in education. However, none of the reviewed
studies addressed the same issues in Mtwara region particularly in Masasi
District whose socio-cultural context could be different from reviewed study.
Therefore, from this point of view the study establish socio-cultural factors
affecting academic performance of girls in secondary schools in Masasi
District.
CHAPTER
THREE
RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY
3.0 Introduction
This chapter presented the methodology that would used
to carry out this study. It consisted of research design, area of study, target
population, sample and sampling techniques, data collection techniques,
validity control procedures and data analysis technique.
3.1 Research Design
Kothari (2004) defines research design as a logical
structure in which the researcher conduct and carry out during the data
collection process, measuring and analysis of data. Research design regard on
what, where, when, how much and by what means concerning an inquiry or a
research study.It specified the sources from which the research intended to
collect data and time employed. This study would employed the descriptive
design (descriptive survey design), on which the researcher selected this type
of design for the purpose of describing an issue at hand. Rodeo as cited in
Kimondo (2013) described descriptive survey as a method of collecting
information by interviewing or administering questionnaires to a sample of
individuals. This design would appropriated to the study because it helped the
researcher to gather information regarded people’s behavior, feelings and
opinion about educational issues (Kombo as cited in Duba, 2010.
.3.2 Research Approach
For the purpose of this study mixed methods approaches
(qualitative and quantitative approaches) had to be employed in data collection
and analysis. Mixing of the two approaches would done in data collection, where
the researcher would collected both qualitative and quantitative data
concurrently. Also the researcher would used variety of instruments to collect
data. The instruments were questionnaire, and interview. Further to this,
mixing would also done in data analysis and interpretation, where qualitative
data had to be subjected to content analysis and presented in themes or sub
headings while some of quantitative data would be analyzed used simple
mathematical calculations and presented in tabular forms.
The decision of the researcher to employed mixed
methods approaches was on the merit that the design would helped in collection of data about
people’s views and opinions about socio-cultural issues. It also would helped
to provide a complete picture of the research problem by triangulating
quantitative and qualitative data, it increased accuracy by triangulated
sources of data and research instruments. The design also would helped the
researcher to control the weaknesses and biased of single approach (Cresswell,
2009; Cohen et al., 2011).
The researcher would used case study method of inquiry
in data collection. This method would helped the researcher to got detailed
information about the problem and also helped the researcher in interpreting
collected data as the presence of the researcher in the field (context)and helped
to explained how and why things happened (Lunenburg & Irby 2008; Simons,
2009).
3.4 Description of the Study Area
The study was conducted in Masasi District, one of the districts found in
Mtwara region. The decision of the researcher to choose Masasi was due to its
relative low rates of female students participation and performance in
education, high rates of pregnancies, dropouts among school girls and the
persistent of poor performance in the secondary school leaving examinations.
3.4.0 Description of Population and Sample
3.4.1 Target Population
Population is the group of individuals or items from
which samples are taken for measurement (Frainkel & Wallen, 2000). The
population of this study would comprised of 80 peoples which were students,
teachers and head teachers of secondary
schools in Masasi District especially in
Chanikanguo secondary school as well as parents and societies of girls in those
school.
3.4.2
Sample and Sampling Procedures
Kothari (2000) explained a sample as a group of
respondents or elements drawn from a population with individuals who have one
thing in common that provides representative characteristics of the entire
population from which a researcher is interested to gather information and draw
conclusions. The study would employed stratified random sampling technique for
the sampling of teachers and students, simple random sampling technique to
select female's parents and community members. The decision of the researcher
to wanted these sample from the population
was in order for the researcher to efficiently produce accurate
information, reduce a period of data collection and cost of the study
(Lunenburg & Irby, 2008).
3.4.3 Sampling
techniques
Sampling can be used
to make inference about a population or to make generalization in relation to
existing theory. In essence, this depended on choice of sampling technique. In
general, sampling techniques can be divided into two types:I) Probability or
random samplingII) Non- probability or non- random sampling
1. Probability
Sampling Probability sampling means that every item in the population has
an equal chance of being included in sample. One way to undertook random
sampling would be if researcher was to construct a sampling frame first and
then used a random number generation computer program to pick a sample from the
sampling frame (Zikmund, 2002). Probability or random sampling has the greatest
freedom from bias but may represent the most costly sample in terms of time and
energy for a given level of sampling error (Brown, 1947).
A.Simple random
sampling The simple random sample means that every member of the population
has an equal probability of inclusion in sample.
Advantage of simple
random sampling
The reason to use this technique was because each member of
the population had an equal chance to being selected as subject or respondent.
Disadvantage of
simple random sampling
When there were very large populations, it was often
difficult to identify every member of the population and the pool of subjects
became biased.
2.Non probability
Sampling
Non probability sampling was often
associated with qualitative research. With regarded to the latter, case studies
tended to focus on small samples and are intended to examine a real life
phenomenon, not to make statistical inferences in relation to the wider
population (Yin, 2003). A sample of participants or cases does not needed to be
representative, or random, but a clear rationale was needed for the inclusion
of some cases or individuals rather than others. In this technique i prepared 20 piece of papers in the box, those
students and teachers who catched the papers
would provided the information.
A.Purposive or
judgmental sampling
Purposive or judgmental sampling is a strategy in which
particular settings persons or events are selected deliberately in order to
provide important information that cannot be obtained from other choices
(Maxwell, 1996). It was where the researcher included cases or participants in
the sample because they believed that they warrant inclusion. In this purposive
sampling I used interview method to collect the important information from the
head of schools.
Advantage of
purposive or judgemental sampling
The reason to use this technique was because the technique
does not required high cost in term of financial, convenient and not time
consumed.
Table 2:Composition of
respondents.
|
Respondent |
Population size |
Sample size |
Sampling technique |
|
|
Heads of schools |
2 |
2 |
Purposively or judgemental |
|
|
Teachers |
18 |
8 |
Simple random |
|
|
Students |
100 |
40 |
Simple random |
|
|
Parent and societies |
80 |
30 |
Simple random |
|
3.5
Data Collection Methods
These are the tools in research that are used to
collect data from the selected respondents (Kothari, 2004).In this study,
methods named questionnaire and interview schedule used to collect data from
respondents. Questionnaires used for
teachers and students while interview schedule
for heads of schools and parents.Ary et al (1996) comment that exclusive
reliance on one method may bias or distort the researcher’s picture of reality
he/she is investigating. The use of multiplicity of techniques serves as means
of cross checking the authenticity of information/data, hence enhancing their
validity and reliability.
3.5.1 Questionnaire
A self-administered questionnaire was the main
research instrument for this study. Questionnaire refers to the set of
questions printed or typed in a definite order on a form or set of forms
(Kothari, 2004).Questionnaires had often been used to gather data from large
populations in educational research (Cohen & Manion, 2000). In this study,
it was used to collect data from teachers and students in public secondary
schools in Masasi District.
3.5.2 Interview
Interview refers to the process of asking somebody
questions about their life, opinions and other related matters (Hornby, 2006).
Interview schedule was used to collect data from head
of schools and parents with girls studied in secondary schools and it contained
two parts. The first part would used to collect data for interviewee background
information. The second part would included questions asked socio-cultural
factors affected academic performance of girls, challenges schools faced in
attempted to eliminate socio-cultural factors that negatively affected academic
performance of female students and the possible solution.
3.6 Validity Control Procedures
To control validity in this study the researcher employed the following procedures:First, in
collecting data the study used
triangulation of methods. This study not
relied on a single method in data collection in order to avoid insufficient of
one instrument. The study used more than one data collection techniques namely;
Interview and Questionnaire. The use of multiple methods enabled the researcher
to control instrumentation error and able to crossed check data. Second, there
was triangulation of data sources, where data was delivered from teachers, head
teachers, female students and other members. This also helped the researcher to
cross check data. Third, before went to the field the researcher was seek
advice from the supervisor and other postgraduate students on how data collected
tools would set and made some improvement where necessary.
3.7 Data Analysis Procedure
Kothari (2004) defines the term analysis as
computation of a certain measures along with searching for patterns of
relationship that exist data group.The analysis of data in this study included;
those which collected through interview
and questionnaires. The analysis of qualitative data went concurrently with
data gathered, interpretations and report writing. Content analysis procedures used
to identify coherence and organized important themes related to study
objectives and a few quantitative data which was collected would subjected into
and present in tables, graphs and texts.
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