Term Paper
Reviving a Culture of Post –Secondary Learning among the Modern-day Zimbabweans
By
Ishmael-Muchumayeli Bhebhe, Ph D.
Leading Change II
Professor: Jim Lacey, PhD
Franklin Pierce University, NH, US
February 21, 2013
INTRODUCTION
By the dawn of the 21st century the local job market and various other reasons had made it extremely necessary for Zimbabweans to acquire post-secondary education. As a result, Higher education or College level learning had increasingly become a significant part of the local culture and/ or way of life to the point that it had become a societal obligation which most young and elderly adults would aspire to acquire come what may. However, due to the emerging adverse factors both locally and some surrounding nations, this culture has since started to die. The same parents, relatives, friends and communities that used to motivate and encourage the young and old to stay in school at least until college or university, have lost hope in these institutions.
The most common questions have become: So what will those books give you? Is it really necessary to stay in school? Why not start a business and/ or find something that will give you money right now than invest in an education that may not pay you back? And so on. Moreover, such questions are also fueled by the general view that some of these African people are ‘Pragmatists’ or people mostly concerned with practical and pragmatic results rather than with the theories, ideas and principles. And any meaningful learning especially for the adult population may have to be directly connected to meeting real needs of the people in the here and now.
However, some of the noticeable causes of this gradual death of a culture of life-long learning are a part of what Thomas J. Chermack (2011) referred to as the ‘STEEP forces’. Some that can be discernible in the Zimbabwean situation include the Political
By
Ishmael-Muchumayeli Bhebhe, Ph D.
Leading Change II
Professor: Jim Lacey, PhD
Franklin Pierce University, NH, US
February 21, 2013
INTRODUCTION
By the dawn of the 21st century the local job market and various other reasons had made it extremely necessary for Zimbabweans to acquire post-secondary education. As a result, Higher education or College level learning had increasingly become a significant part of the local culture and/ or way of life to the point that it had become a societal obligation which most young and elderly adults would aspire to acquire come what may. However, due to the emerging adverse factors both locally and some surrounding nations, this culture has since started to die. The same parents, relatives, friends and communities that used to motivate and encourage the young and old to stay in school at least until college or university, have lost hope in these institutions.
The most common questions have become: So what will those books give you? Is it really necessary to stay in school? Why not start a business and/ or find something that will give you money right now than invest in an education that may not pay you back? And so on. Moreover, such questions are also fueled by the general view that some of these African people are ‘Pragmatists’ or people mostly concerned with practical and pragmatic results rather than with the theories, ideas and principles. And any meaningful learning especially for the adult population may have to be directly connected to meeting real needs of the people in the here and now.
However, some of the noticeable causes of this gradual death of a culture of life-long learning are a part of what Thomas J. Chermack (2011) referred to as the ‘STEEP forces’. Some that can be discernible in the Zimbabwean situation include the Political
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