Abstract:
This article is based on part of the findings of
doctoral study that was completed at the
University of KwaZulu Natal in 2015. The study
investigated knowledge production in Kenyan
universities. It addressed the following research
questions among others: What is the level of
scholarly productivity in universities in Kenya?
What is the relationship between mentorship and
scholarly productivity? What is the nature of ties
between scholars in universities in Kenya? The
study was underpinned by the Social Network
Theory and applied the post-positivist paradigm.
The quantitative and the qualitative approaches
were used along with survey design. The
population of the study consisted of academic
staff and postgraduate students drawn from six
purposively selected universities. Qualitative and
quantitative data collected were analysed and
presented using thematically on one hand and
IBM SPSS Statistics and Gephi Social Network
Analysis software on the other. The results
revealed that a majority of young academic staff
and postgraduate students in universities in
Kenya were not actively involved in knowledge
generation through research and publications,
as only 42% of academic staff and 37% of
postgraduate students produced 1-3 journal
articles in the period 2010 to 2014. The study
recommended institutionalisation of mentorship
programmes to entrench scholarship amongst
academic staff and graduate students, nurturing
of scholarly collaboration to facilitate
knowledge production.
