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Political Socialisation in Kenya and Tanzania—A Comparative Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Extract

Political systems of every description continuously confront a problem crucial to their survival: how to prepare the younger members of the system for the political responsibilities they must one day assume. This problem is quite general; it exists in all societies in every historical epoch, and it embodies a learning process that stretches back to a child's first perceptions of the larger social world. How children learn the values that will guide their future behaviour in politics, and what it is they learn, are questions with answers that vary from society to society.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1967

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References

Page 16 note 1 Although the name Tanzania is used throughout this article, the study has been confined to the mainland portion of the United Republic formerly known as Tanganyika.

The Education and Citizenship Project was initiated by Dr K. Prewitt, and was subsequently designed and administered by D. Koff and G. Von der Muhil in Kenya and Tanzania respectively. The Project has been conducted under the auspices of the Political Science Research Programme of the East African Institute of Social Research at Makerere University College, with the co-operation of the Institute for Development Studies at University College, Nairobi, and the Institute of Public Administration at University College, Dar es Salaam. Those who helped this study are too numerous to mention here by name, but the authors particularly wish to acknowledge the assistance of the Ministries of Education in Kenya and Tanzania; and the work of their field assistants, C. Cerere, J. Kibaki, J. Masare, R. Rwehumbiza—and Audrey Wipper, who also helped in the design of the Project.

Page 16 note 2 To the primary standards VII and VIII, and secondary forms IV and VI, we added a small sample of secondary form II in order to maintain some degree of continuity between the primary and secondary responses. In addition, we selected stratified samples of schools, for control purposes, where only one or a very small number ofschools of a theoretically relevant type appeared in our original sample.

Page 16 note 3 The primary and secondary questionnaires differed principally in that certain questions were left out of the primary questionnaire, while others that were left open in the secondary questionnaire were presented as a choice between several alternatives at the primary level. In Tanzania, a Kiswahili version of the primary-school questionnaire was used, except in a small number of predominantly Asian schools, where English was the more familiar language.

Page 18 note 1 Informed observers estimate that in Tanzania the proportion entering primary school may be less than 50% to 55% of the eligible age group. In Kenya, the proportions by province range from 2% to 100%, with a national average of 58%; secondary admissions in Kenya constitute 3% of the age group. See Kenya Education Commission Report (Nairobi, 1964), vol. I, p. 85, and vol. II, p. 9.Google Scholar But the administrative difficulties in reaching these other groups, in contrast to a definable and ‘captive’ sample of students, are immense. Merely drawing up and locating samples of primary-school leavers, let alone designing a questionnaire for non-literate children, raises immediate problems.

Page 18 note 2 The fact that those in school will have a disproportionate impact on their society in the future is also relevant.

Page 19 note 1 Ibid. vol.I, p. 41.

Page 21 note 1 The above was written before the Arusha Declaration and President Nyerere's subsequent speech on ‘Education for Self-Reliance’.

Page 23 note 1 There were some indications that Kenyan primary pupils occasionally reversed the meaning of the choices; this may account for their consistently lower trust scores when cornpared with Tanzanian pupils.

Page 23 note 2 Prewitt, K., ‘Uganda Extra-mural Students and Political Development’, unpublished manuscript, 1966.Google Scholar

Page 24 note 1 Percentages of secondary responses total more than 100 due to multiple responses. Primary pupils were allowed one choice, secondary two choices.

Page 25 note 1 Teachers are also seen as sources of advice on post-school problems. About two-thirds of both secondary samples mentioned their teachers as the best agents for advice on careers; about a quarter attributed the same ability to their parents. At the primary level, 50% of the Kenyans, and 40% of the Tanzanians, chose teachers over parents as the best people they could talk to about their lives after they left school. The teacher's role is thus expected to be multifaceted; in practice, it may be confined too strictly to formal instruction.

Page 26 note 1 Percentages of secondary responses total more than 100 due to multiple responses. Primary pupils were allowed one choice, secondary two choices.

Page 27 note 1 Respondents ranked the five purposes in order of importance. The index was constructed by tallying five points each time a problem was ranked first, four points for second, and so on. If all respondents ranked a problem first, it would have 1,000 points, the maximum score; 200 is the minimum.

Page 28 note 1 Percentages total more than 100 since respondents could give more than one answer.

Page 35 note 1 In view of the recent prominence of this issue in Tanzania, it is perhaps important to record that the data were collected before the student demonstration in Dar es Salaam in October 1966.

Page 37 note 1 Percentages total more than 100 due to multiple responses.

Page 38 note 1 Percentages total more than 100 due to multiple responses.

Page 42 note 1 Almond, G. and Verba, S., Civic Culture (Boston, 1965), pp. 117–21.Google Scholar

Page 43 note 1 Ibid. p. 54.

Page 43 note 2 Ibid. p. 79.

Page 44 note 1 For an extreme expression of political cynicism by ‘school leavers’ in Ghana, see Duodu, Cameron, The Gab Boys (London, forthcoming).Google Scholar

Page 45 note 1 Indices represent the difference in percentage between choices in the direction of the dominant factor and choices in the other direction.

Page 46 note 1 Kenya Education Commission Report, p. 533.

Page 47 note 1 Sikukuu ya Saba Saba, Holubaya Rais kwa Watoto (Dar es Salaam, 1964), p. 7.Google Scholar

Page 47 note 2 What a KANU Government Offers you (Nairobi, 1963), p. 12.Google Scholar

Page 48 note 1 Respondents ranked the five problems in order of importance; the index was constructed by tallying five points each time a problem was ranked first, four points for second, and so on. If all respondents ranked a problem first, it would have 1000 points, the maximum score; 200 is the minimum.