Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity in Academic Research among Business Educators in Public Tertiary Institutions in Ogun State, Nigeria

The dynamism and expediency of academic research in the 21st century informed thedecisions of the researcher to examine equity, diversity, and inclusivity in academic researchamong business educators in public tertiary institutions in Ogun State, Nigeria. Three purposes,three research questions, and three hypotheses guided the study. The researcher adopted mixedmethods. Research design that combined quantitative and qualitative approaches in data collection.The population of the study comprised40 business educators teaching in four public tertiaryinstitutions offering business education programme in Ogun State. Census sampling technique wasused select the entire 40 business educators since the population was manageable. Two instrumentswere used to gather data for the study. A structured questionnaire was used to collect quantitativedata, while an interview guide with seven open-ended questions was used to collect qualitativedata. The research instruments were validated by three experts in Business Education and ResearchMethods from the Kwara State University, Malete, Nigeria. The two instruments yielded reliabilitycoefficients of 0.78 and 0.77 respectively. The instruments were administered personally to therespondent and there was hundred percent retrieval rate. Demographic data were analysed usingpercentages research questions were answered using frequency table, mean and standard deviation,while the null hypotheses were tested using t-test statistics. Findings of the study revealed that thebenefits of equity, diversity, and inclusivity in academic research by business educators includediscovery of suitable pedagogical method for teaching and learning Business Education courses,advancing the frontiers of knowledge in Business Education among others. Findings also revealedthat inaccurate data and underfunding are some of the challenges to equity, diversity, andinclusivity in research among business education in public tertiary institutions in Ogun State. Thestudy also discovered that industry- institution collaboration is a veritable strategy for promotingequity, diversity and inclusivity in academic research by business educators in public tertiaryinstitutions in Ogun State, Nigeria. Finally, the study recommended that business educators inOgun State should engage in academic research by collaborating on inter-institution basis and withstakeholders in relevant industries.