Rural Girls in STEM Education: Perceptions, Participation and Future Career

The study aimed at investigating rural girls’ perceptions, participation and future career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The low participation of girls in STEM in many countries in the world, particularly in Africa, has been a cause of concern for many stakeholders in the field. In many STEM classrooms or lecture rooms, the ratio of boys to girls has almost always been skewed toward boys. STEM education in Ghana has already been integrated into the basic school curriculum to enable continuous participation and a smooth progression as learners move up the academic ladder. Research about the participation of girls residing in rural areas in STEM seems to be pointing to the fact that the participation of girls in STEM is hampered in so many ways due to some factors such as gender disparities and wrong beliefs about girls’ participation in STEM. These factors may be considered external as they tend to emanate from societal, psychological, physiological and even pedagogical “hindrances''. However, there seems to be a gap in research about the girl child’s own inherent perception of and participation in STEM as well as intrinsically motivated future career plans in STEM disciplines. This study investigated the perceptions and participation in STEM subjects and future career plans of basic school girls residing and schooling in three rural areas (Osobonpanyin-Atteitu, Atekyedo and Essuekyir) in the Effutu Municipality in the Central Region of Ghana. The study purposely sampled all Junior High school form three (JHS 3) girls totaling 31 students from the three schools. Data was collected using a questionnaire. Findings from the study showed poor participation and negative perceptions towards STEM. However, the students expressed willingness to pursue STEM and related careers in the future. The study recommended that the everyday experiences of learners should be inculcated into the teaching and learning of STEM to contextualise concepts to sustain students’ participation, positive perception and to increasingly motivate them to pursue STEM and related careers.

Keywords: students’ perception, students’ participation, future career, STEM, rural girls