What Tanzanian Secondary School Students Plan to Teach Their Children

Abstract

The responses of 3,457 Tanzanian secondary school students to the question "If you become a parent, what two things will you try to teach your children?" were analyzed. While the overall distribution of responses was related to the sex and ethnic group membership (Asian or African) of the respondent, the sub-groups did not differ in the striking frequency with which they named obedience or manners as the first goal. The paper attempts to account for the heavy stress placed on this important traditional African element of child rearing by these elite groups and tries to explain the unexpectedly close agreement in the frequency with which the different sex-ethnic sub-groups mention obedience as a primary goal of child training.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Berry, J. W. Independence and conformity in subsistence-level societies , Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1967, 7, 415-418.

Bharati, A. The Indians in East Africa: A survey of problems of transition and adaptation . Sociologus, 1964, 14, 169-176.

Bharati, A. Patterns of identification among East African Asians . Sociologus, 1965, 15, 128-142.

Carlebach, J. Asian teenagers in Nairobi , Child Care, 1966, 20, 67-72.

Doob, L. W. Psychology. In R. Lystad (Ed.) The African world. London: Pall Mall Press, 1965, Pp. 373-415; 542-549.

Doob, L. W. Scales for assaying psychological modernizations in Africa . Public Opinion Quarterly, 1967, 31, 414-421.

Gillespie, J. M. , & Allport, G. W. Youth's outlook on the future. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1955.

Jahoda, G. Social aspirations, magic and witchcraft in Ghana. In P. C. Lloyd (Ed.). The new elites of tropical Africa. London: Oxford University Press, 1966. Pp. 199-213.

LeVine, R. Child-rearing in sub-Saharan Africa: An interim report . Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 1963, 27, 245-256.

10.

Lloyd, Barbara B. Education and family life in the development of class identification among the Yoruba. In P. C. Lloyd (Ed.). The new elites of tropical Africa. London: Oxford University Press, 1966, Pp. 163-183.

11.

Lloyd, P. C. Introduction. In P. C. Lloyd (Ed.). The new elites of tropical Africa. London: Oxford University Press, 1966, Pp. 1-85.

12.

Marris, P. Family and social change in an African city. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1961.

13.

Mphahlele, E. The African image. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1962.

14.

Read, M. Children of their fathers. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1962.