McKay School of Education > News > Uganda Research Allows Undergraduates a Unique Experience
Uganda Research Allows Undergraduates a Unique Experience
Few undergraduate students get the opportunity to conduct field research. Far fewer have their work published. However, Steve and Julie Hite from the McKay School’s Department of Educational Leadership and Foundations are offering undergraduate and graduate students opportunities to participate in both academic experiences.
Each year the Hites take a group of students to Uganda, Africa, to participate in group and individual research projects. Five of the nine undergraduate students who went to Uganda in 2008 were able to present their research at the recent Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) conference in Charleston, South Carolina. Additionally, their research is expected to move toward publication.
Only students with strong interest in conducting publishable research are encouraged to apply for the program. Once selected, the students are prepared during winter semester for the research experience, designing their own research studies and preparing the documentation and materials necessary to gain approval from the Institutional Review Board to work with human subjects.
The experience allows students to help participating faculty with their research for one month, after which they conduct their own research for the second month. From such research comes rather impressive work, according to Hite. “We would put these BYU undergraduate students up against master’s students from just about anywhere else,” he said. “I am involved with universities throughout Europe, South Asia, and Africa, and I have never seen anything like BYU’s mentored undergraduate research programs anywhere.”
Caleb Baldwin researched ways in which sleep deprivation impairs boarding students’ academic performance. He presented his paper, “Sleep Habits and Academic Performance in Secondary Schools in Mukono, Uganda,” at the CIES conference.
Cortney Evans studied political socialization while in Uganda, concentrating on how political socialization occurs among Uganda’s rising generation of citizens. She also presented her work, “Agents of Political Socialization of Youth in Mukono, Uganda” at the conference.
Martha Howard and Bethany Lowe presented their research on gender equity at the conference as well. Their study, titled “Gender Equality in Ugandan Secondary Schools,” addressed the challenges that female students experience in exercising their right to non-discriminatory education.
Landon S. Newby, now pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Oxford, explored the use of information communication technologies (ICT) in schools. His work, titled “ICT in Secondary Schools in Mukono, Uganda: A Case Study,” reports his findings that heavy investment is put into ICT in Uganda, but due to faulty infrastructure and lack of teacher training, the use of ICT is limited.
The CIES is the largest and oldest international education society in the world, and half of those in attendance at the conference were from outside the United States. “It is very unusual for undergraduate students to present papers at that conference, but all of our students who applied were accepted,” Hite explained. “The quality of their work is that good. We anticipate that all four of them will eventually publish.”
22 June 2009