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Broadening Participation in the Sciences within and from Africa: Purpose, Challenges, and Prospects

Many of Africa’s challenges have scientific solutions, but there are fewer individuals engaged in scientific activity per capita on this continent than on any other. Only a handful of African scientists use their skills to capacity or are leaders in their disciplines. Underrepresentation of Africans...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Okeke, Iruka N., Babalola, Chinedum P., Byarugaba, Denis K., Djimde, Abdoulaye, Osoniyi, Omolaja R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Society for Cell Biology 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5459259/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28408409
http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.15-12-0265
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author Okeke, Iruka N.
Babalola, Chinedum P.
Byarugaba, Denis K.
Djimde, Abdoulaye
Osoniyi, Omolaja R.
author_facet Okeke, Iruka N.
Babalola, Chinedum P.
Byarugaba, Denis K.
Djimde, Abdoulaye
Osoniyi, Omolaja R.
author_sort Okeke, Iruka N.
collection PubMed
description Many of Africa’s challenges have scientific solutions, but there are fewer individuals engaged in scientific activity per capita on this continent than on any other. Only a handful of African scientists use their skills to capacity or are leaders in their disciplines. Underrepresentation of Africans in scientific practice, discourse, and decision making reduces the richness of intellectual contributions toward hard problems worldwide. This essay outlines challenges faced by teacher-scholars from sub-Saharan Africa as we build scientific expertise. Access to tertiary-level science is difficult and uneven across Africa, and the quality of training available varies from top-range to inadequate. Access to science higher education needs to increase, particularly for female students, first-generation literates, and rural populations. We make suggestions for collaborative initiatives involving stakeholders outside Africa and/or outside academia that could extend educational opportunities available to African students and increase the chance that Africa-based expertise is globally available.
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spelling pubmed-54592592017-06-12 Broadening Participation in the Sciences within and from Africa: Purpose, Challenges, and Prospects Okeke, Iruka N. Babalola, Chinedum P. Byarugaba, Denis K. Djimde, Abdoulaye Osoniyi, Omolaja R. CBE Life Sci Educ Essay Many of Africa’s challenges have scientific solutions, but there are fewer individuals engaged in scientific activity per capita on this continent than on any other. Only a handful of African scientists use their skills to capacity or are leaders in their disciplines. Underrepresentation of Africans in scientific practice, discourse, and decision making reduces the richness of intellectual contributions toward hard problems worldwide. This essay outlines challenges faced by teacher-scholars from sub-Saharan Africa as we build scientific expertise. Access to tertiary-level science is difficult and uneven across Africa, and the quality of training available varies from top-range to inadequate. Access to science higher education needs to increase, particularly for female students, first-generation literates, and rural populations. We make suggestions for collaborative initiatives involving stakeholders outside Africa and/or outside academia that could extend educational opportunities available to African students and increase the chance that Africa-based expertise is globally available. American Society for Cell Biology 2017 /pmc/articles/PMC5459259/ /pubmed/28408409 http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.15-12-0265 Text en © 2017 I. N. Okeke et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2017 The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0). “ASCB®” and “The American Society for Cell Biology®” are registered trademarks of The American Society for Cell Biology.
spellingShingle Essay
Okeke, Iruka N.
Babalola, Chinedum P.
Byarugaba, Denis K.
Djimde, Abdoulaye
Osoniyi, Omolaja R.
Broadening Participation in the Sciences within and from Africa: Purpose, Challenges, and Prospects
title Broadening Participation in the Sciences within and from Africa: Purpose, Challenges, and Prospects
title_full Broadening Participation in the Sciences within and from Africa: Purpose, Challenges, and Prospects
title_fullStr Broadening Participation in the Sciences within and from Africa: Purpose, Challenges, and Prospects
title_full_unstemmed Broadening Participation in the Sciences within and from Africa: Purpose, Challenges, and Prospects
title_short Broadening Participation in the Sciences within and from Africa: Purpose, Challenges, and Prospects
title_sort broadening participation in the sciences within and from africa: purpose, challenges, and prospects
topic Essay
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5459259/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28408409
http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.15-12-0265
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