Assessing educational parity of Bahamian students’ formal and informal science experiences by comparing three key demographic factors

ABSTRACT

Background

Among all nations, it is vital that K-12 students understand and perceive the value of science, which requires that students have equitable access to a broad and comprehensive set of science experiences, both inside and outside of the classroom, regardless of demography.

Purpose

Bahamian students were surveyed on their in/formal science experiences to compare adolescent learners’ access to science by three key demographic variables: gender (boy or girl), school location (rural or urban) and school type (public or private).

Sample

One thousand one hundred and five students, 14–16 years of age, from the main island of New Providence and seven of the most inhabited islands in The Bahamas.

Design and Methods

Two batteries of The Relevance of Science Education questionnaire: Section F of ‘My science classes’ (n = 16) and Section H of ‘My out of school experiences’ (n = 61) were analyzed at the construct level (t-test) and the item level (Mann–Whitney U) by each demographic variable.

Results

Analyses indicate students’ formal (in school) experiences varied most by gender, whereas students’ informal (out of school) science experiences varied most by school location.

Conclusion

Findings suggest different science experiences at school based upon students’ gender and reduced access to science among students in rural areas and off the mainland. This research provides an impetus for gender and geographic parity for Bahamian science learners.

KEYWORDS:

• formal education
• informal education
• gender
• socioeconomic status
• The Bahamas

Acknowledgments

Our thanks to Drs. Gina Childers, Jessica Gottlieb, and Jasmine Parker. And with gratitude to Mr Marcellus Taylor, who is Director at the Ministry of Education in The Bahamas.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Author contributions

McDonald collected, entered and curated data; Hite analyzed data and developed findings; both authors contributed to the writing of the manuscript.

Data availability statement

Data sharing is not available due to IRB restrictions.

Ethical approval

Research has been approved as expedited by Texas Tech University’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) as IRB2017–788.

Ethical statement

We have followed the ethical guidelines set by the Journal.