EDUCATION FOR SELF-RELIANCE: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF TANZANIAN SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

The secondary school system in Tanzania is based upon the philosophy of education for self-reliance and supports the political ideology of Ujamaa socialism. This study explores the role of the secondary schools in socializing the students to accept the values of Ujamaa socialism. The schools are studied with specific attention to the values of the multi-ethnic, clan oriented society and the expectations of the socialist state.;The study concludes that the secondary schools studied are successful in socializing students to accept the political ideology of Ujamaa socialism. The national philosophy of education for self-reliance, which is implemented in all schools, creates a microcosm of the socialist state the government is attempting to form on a national level. However, through its mandate to change the values of the secondary school students, the educational system also provokes conflict which is often manifested through the students' sense of responsibility toward the lineal family and clan, and sense of loyalty to the political ideology of Ujamaa socialism. The findings indicate that although based on the values of the Tanzanian people, the political ideology of Ujamaa socialism attempts to alter the core of various cultural expressions of life by expecting citizens to transfer loyalty from the lineal family and clan to loyalty to a multi-ethnic socialist state. Although secondary school students understand and accept the values of Ujamaa socialism, like other citizens in the nation, they live Ujamaa socialism primarily as loyalty to the lineal family and clan, and secondly as loyalty to the multi-ethnic socialist state.;The anthroethnographic method of research was used to gather the data. A participant-observation study was conducted by the researcher for a period of three years while living among the Tanzanians and directing a government-mandated religious education program in two government secondary schools in the Mara region of Tanzania. The researcher learned Swahili, collected discussion notes and written classroom assignments from over six hundred students over a period of two and a half years, and administered a values clarification survey to Form I and Form III students in Mara and Musoma Secondary Schools in 1983. In-depth, stream of consciousness interviews were also collected from three students over a period of four months. These oral histories were transcribed and translated by the researcher.