A study on forms of social knowledge in Zambia

Roderick Fulata Zimba, Purdue University

Abstract

Forty-three Zambian secondary school teachers and 121 of their students were interviewed to examine distinctions amongst direct moral, earthly-belief-mediated moral (e.g. premarital sex), social-conventional and personal events. Additionally, 17 Zambian villagers and 15 American college students made judgments about earthly-belief-mediated moral events. On the basis of criteria such as rule (custom) relativity and generalizability and justifications such as others' welfare, fairness, social coordination and personal choice, two main predictions were made: (i) that Zambian secondary school teachers and students would make distinctions amongst the four types of events and that (ii) subjects' understanding of earthly-belief-mediated moral and social-conventional transgressions would be patterned by social-cultural orientations. These predictions were confirmed. Particularly, in addition to making distinctions amongst the four types of events, Zambian secondary school teachers and students expressed a localized sense of harm to others' well-being and identity when thinking about breaches of some conventions. Moreover, whereas the wrongness of direct moral transgressions was perceived to be generalizable to similar social contexts, the wrongness of earthly-belief-mediated moral transgressions was thought to be relative to particular social-cultural contexts. Cross-cultural theoretical implications of the results are discussed and recommendations for Zambian values education and classroom management programs are made.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Nicholls, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Educational psychology

COinS