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TRANSITION IN AFRICA
 
 

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Transition into work has changed fairly recently for adolescents in South Africa.  Family life and socialization were the means by
which adolescents learned and made the transition into the work force in the past.  Now because of social and economic
change, education had become the major means for South African adolescents to achieve career opportunities that were
formerly not there.  Even so, family and parenting still play an important role in transitioning adolescents by providing aspiration
for adolescent academic achievement (2).

Three studies will be discussed in order to understand better how these South African adolescents make the transition into
work:

• The first study (1) investigates the meaning of opportunity in Post-apartheid South Africa.
• The second study (2) looks at parental aspiration and how it correlates with academic achievement in Xhosa children.
• The third study (3) again researches the relationship between parental interest and academic achievement of Xhosa children, but it incorporates monogamous and polygynous families.

Study #1

In South Africa, children have been subjected to extreme institutionalized apartheid, expressed by consistently under-funded
schools with few or very poor facilities and little chance for educational advancement and career opportunity (1).  Schools
throughout the 1980s became important sites of struggle against apartheid.  “Whereas schools had been used as instruments of
dispossession by the state, they were ‘repossessed’ by students and became instruments of both political and psychological
empowerment (1).  The purpose of this study was to:
 

•  Examine the achievement beliefs of adolescents who grew up under apartheid.
• Explore the ways in which they negotiate the meaning of opportunity in the new, post-apartheid South Africa.
• Explore student’s beliefs about achievement and schooling and the ways in which they talk about the relationship between education and the future.

•  Education:
• Students did not find their daily educational experiences t be oppressive.  They maintained very powerful beliefs that education was the only way out of poverty and oppression.  They admitted that there were many more educational and job opportunities for them than ever before.
•  Opportunity:
• The experience of adults in their lives motivated them to take full advantage of new opportunities.
•  Future:
• The students held a very positive outlook on their future.  They discussed a variety of goals for their future and make it clear that they rely on one another to make sense of their plans for the future.

Study #2
 

The second study investigated how parental aspiration affected academic achievement of Xhosa children.  Participants included
369 boys and 652 girls ranging from 13-17 years old.  The sample was representative of the population in Transkei, South
Africa.  Aptitude tests were used to choose pupils of average academic ability.  Estimates of parental aspiration were based on
a questionnaire about the educational qualifications these parents wished their children to obtain.  Socioeconomic status of the
parents was also a factor.  The children were also given the Standard 7 examination in order to measure academic achievement
(2).
 Results yielded the following:
 

•  Boys and girls with parents of low socioeconomic status had and increase of academic achievement as the parents aspiration increased.
• The academic achievement of boys and girls from middle socioeconomic status significantly increased as their parent's aspirations increased.
•  The same was found for boys and girls of high socioeconomic status.

Study #3

The third study, which was a follow up on the 2nd study (same sample was used), examined the effects, if any, of polygynous
families versus monogamous families on children’s academic achievement (3).

Results are as follows:
 

• A positive and statistically significant relationship was found between parental interest and children’s academic achievement, regardless of whether the family was monogamous or polygynous.
•  Regardless of socioeconomic and cultural factors, there is a positive correlation between parental aspiration and academic achievement of children.

Education and parental aspiration play important roles in South African adolescent’s transition into the work force.  Not too
long ago education was of little value for career opportunities, and socialization and the family were the main means of
transitioning into the work force.  Now in post-apartheid South Africa, making the transition into the work force has become
less traditional in light of educational changes. Even so, as studies 3 and 4 might infer, the family still plays an important role by
positively correlating with academic achievement in school.  Therefore, parental aspiration, by increasing academic
achievement, might help adolescents ease into the work force better by providing them with more career opportunities.

References:
(1) Bempechat, J., & Abrahams, S.  (1999).  “You Can’t Oppress Yourself“:  Negotiating the Meaning of Opportunity in
Post-Apartheid South Africa.  Teachers College Record, 100(4), 841-859.
(2) Cherian, V. I.  (1991).  Parental Aspiration and Academic Achievement of Xhosa Children.  Psychological Reports, 68,
547-553.
(3) Cherian, V. I.  (1993).  The Relationship Between Parental Interest and Academic Achievement of Xhosa Children from
Monogamous and Polygynous Families.  The Journal of Social Psychology, 133(5), 733-736.

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