Off-campus UMass Amherst users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your UMass Amherst user name and password.
Non-UMass Amherst users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.
Dissertations that have an embargo placed on them will not be available to anyone until the embargo expires.
Author ORCID Identifier
0000-0002-3450-7999
AccessType
Campus-Only Access for Five (5) Years
Document Type
dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Degree Program
Education
Year Degree Awarded
2021
Month Degree Awarded
February
First Advisor
Jacqueline Mosselson
Subject Categories
International and Comparative Education | International Public Health | Public Health Education and Promotion | Vocational Education | Women's Health
Abstract
This dissertation examines young women’s school-based sexual and reproductive health (SRH) experiences in relation to a peer-led education program at a vocational school in Machakos, Kenya. The phenomenological study centers their voices to understand their SRH challenges and the program designed to meet them. Studies have noted the importance of school-based peer education programs in improving young people’s health behaviors. However, there is a dearth of evidence on how SRH peer-led education programs address SRH challenges in developing countries from young women’s perspectives. Additionally, while certain gender and cultural norms contribute to some of the unique SRH challenges that young women face, they are not the only contributing factors. Yet research about young women’s situations in Africa often reduces the challenges that young women face to “harmful” cultural and traditional practices. Guided by a Postcolonial feminist theoretical lens, this study recognizes that forces influencing women’s education and health operate at many levels; “the body, home, communities, nations, international political economies” (Stahaeli & Lawson, 1994, pp.98).
In the study, participants revealed that their experiences are influenced by a range of factors related to contemporary and historical social, political, religious and cultural structures in their contexts. At the macro level, poverty is a daily reality for young women and profoundly shapes their lives, including the choices they make to combat its effects. The SRH challenges that young women face include school dropouts, early pregnancies, lack of income opportunities, menstruation management problems, abortions and limited access to comprehensive SRH education and services. Additionally, teachers and parents experience discomfort in providing young women with holistic and comprehensive sex education due to religious, moral and cultural reservations. Through participants’ narratives, the study shows that when seeking to address SRH issues through peer education programs, there many cross-cutting issues emerge. These include poverty, gender dynamics, cultural and religious practices. Overall, the intersections of young women’s experiences underscore the need to have SRH education approaches that are participatory and inclusive of their voices to mitigate the impact of poverty on SRH.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/20688687
Recommended Citation
Changamire, Nyaradzai, "THE SCHOOL AND MY HEALTH: (RE)CENTERING YOUNG WOMEN’S VOICES IN PEER-LED SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH (SRH) EDUCATION IN MACHAKOS, KENYA" (2021). Doctoral Dissertations. 2097.
https://doi.org/10.7275/20688687
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/2097
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License