Gender inequalities among Students in Visual Art Education in selected Senior High Schools in Kumasi Metropolis

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Date
2021-06-09
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Abstract
Gender equality has been a topic of interest to many organizations and governments over the years. For example, Millennium Development Goals 2 and 3 underline the significance of ensuring equal access for girls and boys to education, eliminating gender inequalities in main and secondary education, creating equal education programmes and curricula, and offering adequate resources to monitor and implement equitable education reforms. Moreover, several gender-specific projects such as the establishment of the Girls ' Education Unit (GEU) in 1997 and the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs (MOWAC) in 2001, the introduction of food rations and schemes for disadvantaged girls, especially at elementary and secondary level, to attain the MDGs by 2015. All these have been done to bridge the gap between the two genders in the whole educational system in Ghana. However, one may ask that for all these interventions, is the visual art programme affected positively? Therefore this study sought to analysis some gender inequalities among students in visual art education in Ghana with the following objectives; (i) To find out how male and female students of visual art are distributed in the chosen high schools in Kumasi Metropolis, (ii) To identify and discuss the causes of inequalities in the population and distribution of male and female students offering Visual Art education and (iii) To propose appropriate interventions to promote gender equality among the population and distribution of male and female students offering Visual Art in selected Schools. The descriptive research under the qualitative method was employed. Proportionate stratified sampling technique was to choose One Hundred and fifty (150) Visual Art students and Six (6) teachers from two schools participated in the study. The teachers indicated that the programme is not biased towards any of the sexes in relation to accessing Visual Art Education in their respective schools, thus both males and females have equal access. However, data obtained shows that enrollment of female students into the programme for the 2018/2019 academic year was 24.9% as against 75.1% for the male enrollment. Some female students feels they are not motivated enough in that only few of their teachers are females. Some other female students bemoaned that some male colleagues and even some teachers discourage them during practical assignments. The researchers suggested among others that the Education Ministry through the Education Service of Ghana should recruit more female teachers in the art programmes in the country's several senior high schools. Also, Visual Art teachers should encourage their female students by motivating them in order increase enrollment in the subsequent academic years.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Department of Educational Innovations in Science and Technology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Art Education
Keywords
Gender inequalities, Visual Art Education, Senior High Schools, Kumasi Metropolis
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