Gender Differences in Attitude towards the Learning of Agricultural Science in Senior High Schools in the Assin South District of the Central Region , Ghana

Agriculture has predominantly been observed as the activity of men with little or no interest by women hence this study was conducted in two public senior high schools in the Assin South district of the Central region of Ghana aimed to investigate gender differences in attitude towards the learning of agricultural science. A sample of 198, comprising of 188 students and 10 teachers of agricultural science took part in the survey. The research instrument used for the data collection was questionnaire which was developed by the researchers in two different forms, one for the agricultural science students and the other for the agricultural science teachers. Research findings from the study indicated that gender had no significant influence on students’ attitude towards the learning of agricultural science. Also, the attitude of female students towards agricultural science as a profession is not different from that of the male students. The study again concluded that teachers and parents play a key role influencing students to pursue related science courses. However students should be given the room to express their choice of programme to pursue at the senior high level. It must be reiterated that teachers have a major role to play in increasing and sustaining the interest of students in the study of agricultural science. The study recommends that students especially females should be encouraged, towards building a positive attitude in learning of agricultural science to take up major future roles related to the field.


Introduction
In Ghana the role of agriculture to the economy cannot be overemphasized.According to Awuku (1991), agriculture helps in boosting up of the economy with the provision of food for the people, provision of foreign currency from the export of agricultural products, income for farmers as well as the provision of employment opportunities.Due to the aforementioned importance of agriculture, experts are needed to be trained in this field, thus, the need to involve agriculture in the curriculum of most educational institutions.
According to Lyson (1981) as cited by Kpiebaya (2012), the school agricultural programme aims to:  Promote interest and pleasure in agriculture among students so that they can take agriculture as a career,  Train the students in modern agricultural methods to enable them perform well in their practical examination, Develop skills and attitudes required for productive and profitable agriculture through practice and experiential learning, The aims of the school agricultural programmes are useful because according to Okigbo (1992), "the future of increased food production rests on giving support to the education and training of young generations who are students of agriculture".Recruitment and retention of agricultural students at the tertiary level has been historically important (Tarpley & Miller, 2004).However there is a concern about the substantial decline in agriculture science student numbers (Wildman & Torres, 2001).Colleges of agriculture and universities are being challenged to identify new methods of increasing the diversity in their programmes (Gilmore et al., 2006).As increased diversity continues to be a major challenge for most colleges of agriculture, administrators are continually challenged to seek innovative approaches that appeal to potential students especially students from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds.
Studies completed in the last three decades have shown that girls and boys have different interests and attitudes toward studying science and its related courses including agriculture.These trends are important because, although more females than males enrol in postsecondary institutions and earn higher grades in science and engineering courses, significantly more males than females major in the natural sciences or engineering (Division of Research, Evaluation, and Communication, Directorate for Education and Human Resources, 1996;Keeves, 1991;Kotte, 1992;National Science Board, 1998;Rosser, 1995).
In an examination of data from 19,000 eighth grade students who participated in the National Educational Longitudinal Study, Catsambis (1995) found that males were more likely to look forward to science class and to think science would be useful to their future, and were less afraid to ask questions in science classes than their female peers.Girls' less positive attitudes, according to Catsambis (1995), existed even though they performed as well or better than boys, receiving better grades in science classes.A study published in 1999 by the Female in Mathematics, Science and Technology in Africa (FEMSA) found that Home Economics was for girls and Woodwork, Metalwork and Technical Drawing for boys only.Agriculture was open for both boys and girls, but girls were underrepresented all the time and this imbalanced trend continues to tertiary level.Squire (2003) reviewed strategies for enhancing women's full participation in sustainable agricultural development and environmental conservation in sub-Saharan Africa and concluded that a holistic and integrated approach is needed, including gender equality in access to educational opportunities and training programmes for females.Lots of individuals are of the impression that differences in sex have a lot to do with the study of some subjects and to add more salt to injury, some subjects have consciously or unconsciously been classified as belonging excessively to male or female.It has also been observed that in an agricultural science class, male students perform better than their female counterpart however, it is hoped that if both male and female agricultural science students are trained, they could come up with new technological advances, applicable to the Ghanaian economy gearing towards positive stride on global food safety and food security threats.It is in the light of this that this research was conducted to investigate into gender differences in attitudes toward agriculture in the public senior high schools.

Methodology
A descriptive survey was used to solicit information from students and teachers.A questionnaire was the instrument used for collecting data for the research.Two different sets of questionnaires were designed.One set was for the students and the other was for the agricultural science teachers of the schools concerned.The questionnaires comprised close-ended items where respondents were provided with a four-point Likert-type scale  1 indicates that 107 (56.9%) of the respondents spend their vacation break in the rural area whilst 81 (43.1%) also spend theirs in the urban area.This shows that majority of the students spend their vacations in the rural area which is likely to influence their attitude towards the agricultural science caree.However, a further analysis as shown in Table 2 (cross tabulation) reveals that, most of students who spend their holidays in the rural area (n = 84.44%)and the urban area (n = 69.37%)have positive attitude towards the agricultural profession as both disagreed that 'agricultural science will not be important to me in my life's work".On the other hand, some students, especially those who spend their holiday in rural area (n = 23) agreed to the statement 'Agricultural science will not be important to me in my life's work'.This means that a few of the students do not see the relevance of studying agricultural science in their future career.

Gender
The gender of teachers who took part in the study has also been represented in Table 3.
It showed that majority of the teachers 9 (90%) are males as against only one female agricultural teacher among the sampled SHS indicating that number of female teachers in agricultural science is very low as compared to their male counterparts.This is likely to influence female students' appreciation of the agricultural programme as there are few female teachers to motivate them or serve as role models.

Gender Attitude of Students towards the Learning of Agricultural Sciences
It is evident from the results (Table 4) that both male and female agricultural science students generally have a positive attitude towards the learning of agricultural science in senior high schools in the Assin South District.As an indication, students agreed to statements such as: I like agricultural science, I will pursue an agriculture related programme after leaving school and Girls can perform just as boys in agriculture science.In the same vein, the students also disagreed to statements such as: Agriculture science has been my worst subject, agriculture science is difficult for me, agriculture science is not important for my life and Studying agriculture science is a waste of time.Note.* m=mean (Standard mean = 2.5).
The relationship between the attitudinal disposition of male and female agricultural science students towards the learning of the subject as a subject in the sampled schools was determined through an independent T-Test analysis and the result is shown in Tables 5 and 6.The result indicates that the Sig.value (0.18) is greater than the alpha value (0.05), it is therefore apparent that there is no statistically significant difference between male and female attitudes towards the learning of agricultural science.In other words, the attitude of female students (M = 36.98,SD = 4.085) towards the learning of agricultural science is not different from that of the male students (M = 36.92,SD = 5.694; t(186) = 0.061, p = 0.951).The implication of this result is that interest and performance in the subject does not necessarily depend on gender as both male and female are favourably disposed to the subject.
This study has revealed that gender had no significant influence on students' attitude towards the learning of agricultural science.Though gender influences attitudes to some subjects especially science subjects is still controversial (Weimburg, 1995), there is reasonable consensus that boys appear to perform better than girls in certain subject areas especially the science related ones (Falaye & Ayoola, 2006).Note.* m = mean (Standard mean = 2.5).
Table 7 shows the attitude of agricultural science students (ie.male and female) towards the agricultural science Profession.The result indicates that students have generally a positive attitude towards the agricultural science.Besides, the positive attitude towards the profession, they also acknowledged that the nation is dependent on people whose works are related to agricultural science.It can also be inferred from the results (Table 5) that the attitude of the male students to the subject of agricultural science does not differ significantly from their female counterparts as the mean difference between the two sexes did not differ much.However, a wider mean difference (0.7) was recorded for the statement 'I will need agricultural science for my future work'.This means that most of the male students are of the view that they need agricultural science for their future work than the females students.
The relationship between the attitudinal disposition of male and female agricultural science students towards agricultural science as a [future] profession among the sampled students was determined through an independent T-Test analysis and the result is presented in Tables 8 and 9.The implication of this result is that interest in furthering their career/profession in agricultural science does not depend on gender as both male and female agreed that the subject is important in future life and a useful subject that is worth pursuing.
Table 10 depicts the motivation behind respondents' choice of agricultural science as a programme of study in the senior high school.Majority 133 (70%) of the respondents indicated that their choice to pursue agricultural science was a personally motivated.A few as 34 (18%) also indicated that they were motivated by the economic gains in studying agricultural science.Other reasons for studying agricultural science as indicated by the respondents include: School (6%), Social (4%) and Family (2%).However, none of the females sampled in the study mentioned that their motive for studying agricultural science was motivated by the family.
This means that greatest motivation of students to study agricultural science in the senior high schools comes from the students themselves.In other words, it was a personal decision to study agricultural science.


Recognise agriculture as a business and a viable livelihood option,  Develop positive attitudes, interests, habits and good practices in agriculture  Be aware of the roles of extension service in the agricultural value chain,  Recognise job opportunities in agriculture,  Acquire techniques for efficient management of agribusinesses,  Acquire requisite knowledge and skills needed for further training in agriculture.

Table 2 .
Cross tabulation of place of stay during vacation against attitude to towards agricultural science profession Agricultural science will not be important to me in my life's work.
% within agricultural science will not be important to me in my life's work.%withinagricultural science will not be important to me in my life's work.%within agricultural science will not be important to me in my life's work.

Table 3 .
Gender of teachers

Table 4 .
Gender attitude of students towards the learning of agricultural science

Table 5 .
Group statistics

Table 7 .
Gender attitudes of students towards agricultural science profession

Table 8 .
Group statistics

Table 9 .
Independent T-Test analysis of attitudinal difference between male and female students towards agricultural science as a profession

Table 10 .
Reasons for enrolling in agricultural science education