Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-1-2004

Abstract

The work describes and probes the relationships between the institutions of elite and non-elite secondary education and selected graduates of these institutions in Jamaica over an approximately fifty-year period. It considers the curricula, pedagogy, and values of the institutions, viewed as independent variables, and the propensity of a selection of their graduates to contribute to the accumulation of social capital, through civic engagement and the display of high levels of trust, and sociability, viewed as dependent variables, The research suggests that the institutions of education are the loci of the incorporation of individual actors' stances towards the dominant society, and have effects on their perceptions of their identity and ways of viewing and playing their social roles. The Inspirational Teacher and the Father-as-Interpreter of the society's norms provide the primary foci through which these internalisations occur, and viewed as mediating variables, predispose individual actors to respond in ways which may or may not demonstrate a capacity and propensity for collaboration, and the building of socially, rather than personally, beneficial networks. The analysis attempts to tease out explanatory patterns and regularities in participants' recounting of their educational experiences over the period of their high school years.

Keywords

education--social aspects--Jamaica

Rights

© The Author(s). Kelvin Smith Library provides access for non-commercial, personal, or research use only. All other use, including but not limited to commercial or scholarly reproductions, redistribution, publication or transmission, whether by electronic means or otherwise, without prior written permission is strictly prohibited.

Department/Center

Design & Innovation

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