Knowledge production through mentorship of next generation scholars: case study of Universities in Kenya

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.