African Socialization Values and Nonformal Educational Practices: Child Development, Parental Beliefs, and Educational Innovation in Rural Zambia

Abstract

The authors reflect on lessons learned from a series of research collaborations in Zambia about the potential and sustainability of educational innovations designed to build on indigenous cultural values and practices while promoting progressive social change. A case study in 1996-1997 documented innovation at a government primary school in a small rural town, using the child-to-child approach. A follow-up study assessed the degree to which socially responsible dispositions cultivated in grades 5-7 at the primary school were compatible with the demands of further formal education in grade 9. Longer-term follow-up explored with some of the same cohort in early adulthood how the child-to-child curriculum had influenced their personal development and life-journeys. The African traditional practice of assigning social responsibility to young people from an early age is highly compatible with contemporary goals of education in Africa and elsewhere. At best, it can serve as a context for learning about health and nutrition, as well as fostering the values of cooperation and nurturant support of others, contributing to peaceful coexistence in society. Participation by children in family work is construed in many African societies as priming for social responsibility, an important dimension of intelligence. Work and play are better understood as complementary dimensions of activity than as discrete alternatives. Cooperation with peers can be mobilized as a resource for co-constructive learning. Strategic opportunities for countering systemic bias in educational systems include generative curriculum development, teacher sensitization to psychosocial dimensions of learners' development, and legitimizing local community impact as a criterion of educational success.