Susan Kiragu

Position/Status
E-mail Address

swk22@cam.ac.uk

Phone

+44 (0) 1223 767584

Qualifications
Membership of Professional Bodies/Associations

Back to top

Profile

Prior to joining the Faculty of Education as a PhD student in 2005, I worked as a research officer in Nairobi, in a project that aimed to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS among in-and-out of school youth in Kenya by use of participatory methods. For my PhD, I situated in an ecological (Urie Bronfenbrenner) and emancipatory (Paulo Freire) framework to explore the socio-ecological factors that impinged on sexuality in a poor community in Kenya. I am currently involved in the African sexual knowledges on AIDS (ASKAIDS) project and the Gender and girls entitlement to education project within The Centre for Commonwealth Education. These projects are in East Africa. I am keenly interested in HIV/AIDS prevention and behaviour change in Africa, Participation and retention in education for children in Africa, Participatory research, research and education for social justice, and the use of indigenous knowledges for teacher training and curriculum development.

Back to top

Research Topics

Current Research Project(s)

Back to top

Publications

Journal articles

Warrington M. and Kiragu S. (2011). "It makes more sense to educate a boy": girls 'against the odds' in Kajiado, Kenya. International Journal of Educational Development 32(2). Elsevier, pp 301-309.

Kiragu S. and McLaughlin C. (2011). Unveiling their worlds: The use of dialogue as a health promotion tool for HIV/AIDS education in a poor community in Kenya. Sex Education 11(4). Oxford, Routledge, pp 419-430.

Oluga M., Kiragu S., Mohamed M. and Walli S. (2010), 'Deceptive' cultural practices that sabotage HIV/AIDS education in Tanzania and Kenya. Journal of Moral Education 39 (3). Oxford, Routledge, pp 365 - 380.

Kiragu S.W. (2007). Exploring sexuality education and the burdened teacher: A participatory approach in a rural primary school in Kenya. In Pastoral Care in Education 25 (3). Oxford, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, pp 5-15.

Book chapters

Kiragu S., Swartz S., Chikovore J., Lukalo F. and Oduro G. (2012). Agency, access, silence and ethics: How young people’s voices from Africa can contribute to social and educational change in adult-dominated societies. In C. Day (Ed), Routledge International Handbook of Teacher and School Development. Oxon, Routledge, pp 254 - 263.

McLaughlin C. and Kiragu S. (2011) Voices for change: Student voices on sexuality and HIV/AIDS education. In W. Kidd and G. Czerniawski (Eds),The student voice handbook: Bridging the academic/practitioner divide. Bingley, Emerald group publishing Ltd, pp 379-388.

Kiragu S.W., Muli A., Mugambi J. and Odongo R. (2006). Myths, misconceptions and sexual practices among school youth in Kenya: a barrier to HIV/AIDS prevention and reduction. In A. Pertet (Ed), Re-thinking research and intervention approaches that aim at preventing Kenya infection among the youth. Nairobi, The Regal Press Kenya Ltd, pp 23-32.

Njue C. and Kiragu S.W. (2006). Gender differences in communication regarding sexual matters: burdened girls and neglected boys. In A. Pertet (Ed), Re-thinking research and intervention approaches that aim at preventing Kenya infection among the youth. Nairobi, The Regal Press Kenya Ltd, pp 33-42.

In press

Kiragu S. and Warrington M. (2011). How we used moral imagination to address ethical and methodological complexities while conducting research with girls in school against the odds in Kenya. Qualitative Research.

McLaughlin C., Swartz S., Kiragu S., Walli S. and Mohammed M. (2011). Old enough to know: Consulting children about sex education. Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa.

Kiragu, S., McLaughlin, C. and Swartz, S. (2011). Learning about HIV/AIDS education for children through consultation and dialogue with school stakeholders. In In Millennium Goals Revisited: A Common Wealth of Learning, J. MacBeath, M. Younger & C. Sugrue (Eds). Routledge

Warrington M., Kiragu S. and Fentiman A.(2011). Factors influencing retention in Kenya and Uganda. In Millennium Goals Revisited: A Common Wealth of Learning, J. MacBeath, M. Younger & C. Sugrue (Eds). Routledge

Forthcoming

Kiragu S. (2011). Inter-positionality. Reflections of working with five multi-national female researchers in a qualitative research project in Kenya. International journal of social research methodology.