Gendered experiences of female engineering students in selected public universities in Zambia.
Item
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Title
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en
Gendered experiences of female engineering students in selected public universities in Zambia.
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Description
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Article on experiences of female students who pursued engineering careers.
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en
self sponsored
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Creator
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Munachonga, Heather
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Date
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2022-10-11T13:00:04Z
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Date Available
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2022-10-11T13:00:04Z
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Date Issued
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2019
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Abstract
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en
This article is an extract from an ongoing PhD study which was guided by a question that sought to examine the lived experiences of female engineering students at two public universities in Zambia. An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used. The sample which was purposely selected comprised 14 fifth year female engineering students, 7 from each university. Semi structured interviews were used because these are commonly used with IPA. Transcription of each individual interview was done after each interview session and later common themes were clustered. The study found that the female students encountered academic and social experiences which took a gender outlook and others which were not gender specific both in their social and academic environments. The study showed that the academic environment was largely male dominated in terms of lecturers and students; there was positive discrimination in both institutions favouring the female students to major in engineering despite not attaining the required cut off point in the qualifying examination; and there was subtle sarcasm against females, there was negative discrimination and some experiences of vulnerability. In conclusion the paper argues that a female friendly environment would encourage participation and retention of female engineering students.
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Identifier
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2349-0381
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Language
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en
en
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Publisher
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International Journal of Humanities Social Sciences and Education (IJHSSE)
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Subject
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Engineering students--Female.
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Type
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en
Article