The Story of Zahra
Abdullah Binta Suleiman1*, Harrisou Adamu1
1Islamic University of Technology (IUT), Board Bazaar Gazipur-1704, Bangladesh
*Corresponding Author: [email protected] Received: 25 March 2023 | Accepted: 10 May 2023 | Published: 1 June 2023
DOI:https://doi.org/10.55057/ajress.2023.5.2.11
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Abstract: The aim of this paper is to narrates the lived experiences and story of a woman, a philanthropist, an engineer, and an academician who held from a remote part of Northern Nigeria. It is a part of the Biographical Narrative Method of qualitative research (Kutsyuruba
& Mendes, 2023). Listening to and interpreting the narratives of a philanthropist, an engineer, and an academician is a motivational feature of a professional woman. Research methodologies don’t usually consider the psycho-social and biographical dynamics of individuals’ lives considering the dynamics in their geographical settings (Flynn, 2019). The paper draws from the experiences of a woman who hailed from an ethnicity, and shared a common culture, sourcing relevant literature. This is a biographic narrative story and lived experiences that reveal some of the challenges experienced by women dependent upon their psycho-social, socio-economic, and geographical setup. Mainly storytelling. Upon which experiences are driven by the story. A restorying was made and themes were obtained as struggle/challenges, motivation, strengths, and lessons from the experiences were highlighted (Cardenal, 2016). The analytic strategy focuses on the whole life history or story (biography), how it was told (narrative), and the social interpretation (interpretive). The story provides an overview of its potential application for motivation and change of perceptions of people. It said that “when we shift our perception, our experiences change”. The interview provides a useful tool to help with an in-depth qualitative exploration of her life story and experiences.
Keywords: Biographical narrative story and experiences, struggle, philanthropist.
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1. Introduction
Life experiences of individuals are seen to have a profound effect on their future outcomes and could serve also as an inspiration and motivation for younger ones in communities who are probably seen as mentors or hero’s during their lifetime or even in death. Usually, the efforts of our heroes shall never be in vain, that is why in most of our societies work of our heroes is being commemorated in different ways(Squire et al., 2014). In Africa and other regions of the world female gender are sometimes marginalized, and neglected as such their basic human rights are not given to them accordingly for example, in education, politics, professionalism, and leadership, female genders are being suppressed and are not given equal chance like their counterparts to fulfill their full potential and contributes to the national building and development.
Notwithstanding there still are many exceptional cases where the majority of African women excel in their careers and various professions. Those are mostly viewed as role models in the
societies in their vicinities. This narrative aimed to motivate young girls out there to use their talents, skills, and initiatives to reach their potential.
It is a biographical narrative type of qualitative research. “Narrative” is a method of the survey in a qualitative study(CHASE, 2005), which emphasizes the individual’s stories narrated by themselves mostly to share their life experiences(Polkinghorne, 1995). According to Casey, a biographical study is a situation whereby a researcher records the personal experiences of an individual((K. Casey, 1995). The person’s life story (biography), how the person tells it (narrative), and understanding that narratives are based on public understanding (interpretivism)(Kutsyuruba & Mendes, 2023).
A story of an African woman, an electrical engineer, an academician, and a philanthropist who has worked as a Lecturer in an engineering university for decades, shared her lived experiences, challenges, and strengths, which were believed to be the driving force toward her achievements and success and the services she rendered to support women within her vicinity(Bornat, 2008).
It is believed that her story should serve as a motivation to younger women in the engineering and academic sectors in remote areas of Africa(B. Casey, Proudfoot, & Corbally, 2016). The interview has been conducted and Tran scripted(Phoenix, 2008).
2. Methods
It is a biographic narrative study. In this sort of study, the stories were told to serve as the data, and the method by which the data (stories) were obtained was through a semi-structured interview with the participant. Then restorying (analyzing the stories, descriptive coding, and obtaining various themes or focus points from the stories) was carried out. The analysis of those themes or thematic analysis was conducted.
a) Restorying
Word and ideas that are obtained from the interview as narrated by the participant shared her experiences, strength, and challenge(Megías, García, & Arcos, 2017). Restorying is a way of rearranging the interview narrated in a logical framework that makes more sense(Ollerenshaw
& Creswell, 2002). In this process, a causal link between the ideas is provided. The chronology of the narrative study here emphasized the sequence(Cortazzi, 1994) as the beginning of the story( biography of early studies from nursery to secondary level of education successfully with flying colors) the middle of the story( financial constraints to continue to the post- secondary level of education, supports from a foreign individual who was working in her country at that time, completing education up to Higher national diploma in engineering with best results in one of the best technical institute of that country at that time) the end ( struggling to get employment despite her grade, gender discrimination issues regarding her employment from opposite sex, self-development, and training on her own, finally offered a lecturing job in the institute she completed her studies, challenges at the start of a career as a lecturer, and continues studies and job and life )(Spector-Mersel, 2010)
b) Analysis
Table: Showing coding and derived themes
Descriptive Coding Themes
Motivation Strength Challenge
1 “Successfully gone through primary education and junior and senior. I graduated from my senior school first”
Wanted to
become a nurse
Completed high school.
Financial problems to continue high studies
2 “I wanted to become a nurse. That was the first profession that I love most to the extent that when I see people in the uniform of nurse, I feel like I wanted to be like this”
Financial support from an expatriate woman
Enrolled in the best technical institution in that country at that time
Concern with the challenge of not having a job after graduating with a good grade.
3 “My family could not afford to see me through university/higher institution, it was too expensive”
Had to learn on her own to meet up and compete at the same level as her mate.
Graduated
successfully with good grades despite the difficulty and financial issues
The first challenge came when started the lecturing job
4 “ Getting help from an expatriate woman who was working in one of the institutions in my locality, after discussing and getting familiarized with each other, she was a God sent”
Skills development through training
Finally, get a good job at her institution where she completed her engineering diploma and higher diploma
Highlights the results of not proper talent nurturing at the young age
5 “How I get into engineering. As I said before due to financial constraints, I had to go through a Government technical institute, one of the best technical institutes in the country at that time, had a certificate, did my diploma there in electrical engineering, and Later did a bachelor in electrical engineering from the university of technology”.
Support from her teachers and Qualiques at early carrier start-up
Happily working as a lecturer
Gender
discrimination and biases from the opposite sex
6 “I got highly frustrated trying to get a job to the extent that I can’t say I gave up but highly stressed because I was among the people with the best results at that time in my country, yet I could not get a job, Since I could not get a job then I started a 2-month training on my career engineering”
Passionate about her lecturing job, ready to deliver
to the
expectations.
Her strength to overcome the first challenge she faced
7 “While training they called me from my school for a lecturing job interview. I told them am in training and I did not finish, the registrar had to come and pick me up to join the GTTI (my school) as a lecturer. I started my first official appointment on the 16 October 2001 as a full-time job”
Nurturing talent at a young age could fave a way towards
fulfilling one’s potential to the fullest if given chance
Her strength and confidence as a person and a woman came from the first day she started lecturing.
8 “Even though my lecturers particularly one of them who helped me and trained me, he was so happy when I joined as a lecturer there. I am very grateful to him.
I can remember when I first entered, I heard one boy say how to say these small girls be our teacher? So, I said to myself the only way to scale is to deliver to the expectations of the students.
People look at me with high expectations by giving the best that I could”
Development of self-competency
Believing in herself.
9 “At any stage of your life be prepared to have challenges and don’t blame others. Put a lot of effort towards achieving what you want to achieve”
Motivate and support young girls.
Strength and courage of a woman
“I gave an example of an interview that I attend it went successful but in the end, the person looks at me and said I prefer a man to do this job for me. After wasting my time and effort. So, I feel discriminated against and sad.
(Emotional). There are women out there who are doing fine, do not feel relaxed, and don’t give off. Look I have siblings being the first from my mum I had to set an example for my siblings.
In our projects, we normally trained and motivate young girls to realize their talents and develop an interest in a particular discipline. Skill training is also provided, financial and moral support, and various campaign for gender inclusion”
Supportive to young women, financially, and morally through training,
workshops in girls’ secondary schools,
polytechnics, Universities, and other higher institutions of learning, and campaigns for gender inclusions.
(c) Ensuring Reliability
The accuracy with which a technique measures what it is envisioned to measure(Adriani et al., 1993) and produces statistics that represent it (Godwin, 1987).
Validation entails a continuous process of checking and ensuring reliability during the study (Corbally & O’Neill, 2014). This study wants to understand the life experience, strengths, and challenges of a middle-aged woman who studied engineering and worked in a renowned technical institution in West Africa. The procedure used was to confine the extent of data from the participant to ensure that the study was non-biased with prejudiced designs(Corsten, Schimpf, Konradi, Keilmann, & Hardering, 2015). These facilitated forming the rationality of the outcomes, attesting precision of the qualitative study(Flynn, 2019).
Reliability: The uniformity of the study outcomes (Kvale, 1996). Confirming reliability necessitates meticulous labor and Oban ligation to reliability during interviewing, recording, and evaluating the results(Corsten, Konradi, Schimpf, Hardering, & Keilmann, 2014). To obtain reliability, the researcher accompanied the restorying of the narrative story told to a sequential chronological framework that highlighted the themes that addressed the research question, the lived experiences, challenges, and strengths of the participant are clearly stated, so also the motivational words and encouragements given by the participants through her story were all mentioned(Creswell & Miller, 2000).
The story also narrates an epiphany of her story in line with her personal, societal, and historical perspectives as well as the vital themes in individuals’ survived practices(Clendenin, 2006). As both the researcher and participants share common ethnicity, gender, profession, and age, the researcher further relates to my own life experiences with the narrative story of the participant in this research(Whelan, Huber, Rose, Davies, & Clandinin, 2001).
3. Discussion
Challenges
The challenges encountered were many, some of which could not be mentioned for ethical reasons. However, some of these challenges range from the ones faced during studies and while
in employment. Financial constraints, lack of proper guidance in the choice of career from a young age, and demotivation are dominantly among the challenges faced during studies. While, gender discrimination and societal stigma placed on women in a certain profession e.g.
Engineering, forces like the Army, Air Force, polices, lawyers, pilots, Banking, etc. which are merely subjective to the religious and cultural beliefs of individual societies, are few of the challenge’s faced during employment(Ligon, Hunter, & Mumford, 2008).
Strength and motivations
The strength noticed includes; the ability to complete higher secondary school with good results, and enrolled in one of the best technical institutes in the country at that time and even today(Greenhalgh, 2016). Even though this was made possible with the support of teachers and good individuals in the community upon which she successfully graduated with flying colors as a young female engineer. Self and competence development through various leadership and communication skills were acquired through different training, projects, and workshops programs(Bruce, Beuthin, Sheilds, Molzahn, & Schick-Makaroff, 2016). Ability to overcome the employment and societal stigma and challenges while turning them to her advantage and prioritizing it for the benefit of society(Taylor & Littleton, 2006). Very zealous and passionate about extra-curricular activities, love for humanity, and capitalizing on challenges faced to motivate upcoming young female African in engineering professions and academia. Her story would motivate young girls who are willing to become engineers and teachers in the future.
Even though both the participants and the researcher are friends from the same profession and ethnicity and gender and similar in terms of their ages too(Peta, Wengraf, & McKenzie, 2019). This ensures a good relationship, and a smooth transition, and provides useful insights(Clendenin, 2006).
Recommendations
The following recommendations were made based on the above challenges and strengths, these are-:
i. Need for early nurturing and self-development from a young age, starting from elementary education stages
ii. Turning our challenges to their advantage and upcoming generations to learn and also do the same.
iii. Women generally are supposed to develop, self-respect, competence, and confidence wherever they found themselves.
4. Conclusion
Biographic Narrative research methods allow participants to articulate their life and experiences while also providing the researcher with data for the researcher to analyze and interpret to give meaning to individuals’ life stories(Jones, 2003). Considering the time constraint of both the researcher and the participant’s information even though are depth but could not have been sufficient enough to make conclusions, though the researcher and participant share a mutual personal and professional relationship, this helps this research extensively as lots information about the participant were known by the researcher(Roseneil, 2012). Edel (1984) mentioned that it is imperative to reveal the “figure under the carpet” The researcher is also a beginner in the study methods of this kind therefore some minor issues arose while collecting and analyzing the overall data(Wengraf, 2004).
Ethical Statement
The interview was conducted by the IUT research policies as directed by the Department of Research, Extension, Advisory, Services, and Publications (REASP). Consent for collecting the data was approved by the Research coordinator in the Department of Technical and vocational education (TVE).
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Contribution of Author
The study was a collective effort of the authors.
Funding
We received no funding for this study
Acknowledgment
My sincere gratitude to the participant for sharing her biography, and for the time to have participated in the long interviews that took place multiple times. The article would not have been possible without her.
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