(Research Proposal) Globally, nations have bequeathed their trust in
universities as the custodians
of the panacea to their socio-economic problems.
Universities are expected to produce new or apply existing knowledge in offering answers to numerous problems that societies face. In Kenya, one of the major educational challenges that the country has faced is the persistent poor performance of girls in science subjects in
secondary schools. Yet, science is considered fundamental for the socio-economic development of the country, whose population is largely female. In its efforts to apprehend the situation, the government of Kenya through the public universities has come up with gender appropriate strategies meant to achieve gender equity and improve teaching and learning of science in schools. The strategies have however been fruitless. Concerns definitely arise as to whether universities as societal think tanks are doing their best, in terms of teaching, research and community service, to address the plight of secondary schoolgirls as far as learning of science is concerned. Against this background, this study sets out to evaluate the role of public universities in secondary schoolgirls’ learning of science in Kenya. The study will be conducted in the public universities in Kenya. The research design adopted will be a descriptive survey. The target population will comprise all the student teachers, lecturers in the faculties and schools of Education and university administrators in all the six public universities in Kenya. The purposive sampling will be used to select all the six universities to act as research sites. These universities are Kenyatta, Egerton, Maseno, Moi, Jomo Kenyatta and the University of Nairobi. The simple random sampling will be used to select the science students at Jomo Kenyatta University and BEd (Science) students in the other five universities, while the stratified random sampling will be used to select the lecturers. All the Deputy Vice-chancellors in charge of academic, research and extension and all the Deans of Schools and faculties of education in all the five Universities will be purposefully selected. Questionnaires, interviews and observation schedules and document analysis guides will be the gathering devices. Quantitative and qualitative analysis procedures will be used. In quantitative analysis, tally sheets will be used to generate frequency counts out of which percentages will be calculated. The Pearson-product moment correlation coefficient will be used to test the null hypotheses. As regards qualitative data analysis, the data will be transcribed into written texts by combining the notes taken and tape recordings into coherent discourse. Thereafter these data will be organised and analysed as per the research questions. Data presentation will be in form of in tables and written narratives. The findings on curriculum experiences of student teachers, in particular, will be useful to universities in formulating and selecting gender appropriate objectives and content for pre-service education and this will lead to successful implementation of secondary school science syllabus in girls’ schools in Kenya. The data gathered on teaching, community service and research capacities of public universities will be useful in deciding the teaching priorities as far as girls learning of science is concerned. The data on the challenges that universities face in carrying out their roles will be useful to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology in coming up with appropriate reforms meant to make universities more effective in their missions.