Determinants of Mathematics and Science Career Choices Among Secondary School Female Students in Ilala District Dar es Salaam Region

Chuwa, Mary Joseph (2014) Determinants of Mathematics and Science Career Choices Among Secondary School Female Students in Ilala District Dar es Salaam Region. Masters thesis, The Open University of Tanzania.

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Abstract

This study aimed to assess what determines career choices in mathematics and science among secondary school female students focusing on home environment, the quality of school, and the ways of teaching of mathematics and science related subjects in ten secondary schools in Ilala district, Dar es Salaam Region. The design used was descriptive cross-sectional, whereby data was collected in a single place at a time. Questionnaires, interviews and observation-checklists were used to collect data from 160 respondents. The participants were clustered in the groups of students, teachers and parents, from each cluster, the sample was taken. The major findings revealed that although the majority of parents assist their female students in mathematics and science in doing their homework - thus encouraging them to do science and mathematics subjects, the home environments continue to follow the traditional gender roles that leave household duties to females hence impeding them from concentrating on school work. Furthermore, the findings revealed that quality of schools in promoting science and mathematics related subjects was poor due to lack of laboratories and laboratory supplies and inadequate number of qualified science and mathematics teachers. Conclusion: The desire of the female students to take up science and mathematics subjects and later related carriers has been very low and thus attracting the attention of the learned community to think on what is really going wrong on this and thus the respondents were able to give their views without any hesitation. The study recommended that the government and school managers should invest in constructing and equipping the laboratories to attract more female students to do science subjects.

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