Part Five: Education of Youth
18. Educational Duality and Contrasting Attitudes among Youth in Kano, Nigeria
Aminu Mohammed Dukku
Studies about people’s attitudes have been conducted to attempt to reveal individual’s behavior towards particular life events in different societies. Biesheuvel (1958, p. PAGE) defined attitude as “a mental set that motivates an individual’s interests, preferences, values, beliefs, etc.,” implying that that attitudes spell out individual’s behavior towards major aspects of life. This study investigates attitudes of youth in Kano, Nigeria a society characterized by both growing and valued indigenous Islamic and Western educational systems. Growing coexistence of both Islamic and Western educational systems has an entrenched trend in Kano with corresponding value attached to acquisition for both (Morgan & Armer, 1998). Thus, the acquisition of both Islamic and Western education among youth may produce significant influences on particular individual’s interests, values, beliefs, or attitudes towards important aspects of life.
This chapter presents results of an investigation on the existence of influential relationship between the two educational systems and youth attitudes towards honesty and social justice in Kano, based on the assumption that attainment of one or both types will influence attitudes in relation to the amount acquired, revealing contrasting connections. In other words, it is assumed that based on the coexistence of Islamic and Western education there may be contrasting attitudes among youth.
Travis Hirschi’s social bonding theory (1969) focuses on how an individual’s bond to society influences decisions; the “social bond” represents individual’s attitude and positive feelings (Cullen & Agnew, 2006). The theory assumes that controls on individual conduct evolve with and are sustained by the person’s bond to the society. Four major elements serve as the basis upon which behaviors of individuals are determined: attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief. One of the four elements, “belief” refers to the evaluative, valuable cultural dimension of the bond where an individual has more belief in the legitimacy of law or has ideas that support conventional rules. The theory, thus, asserts that control lies in a person’s attachment to society (Cullen & Agnew, 2006, p. 219).
The paper suggests that individuals who have received different amounts of Islamic and Western education may differ in important life values, including attitudes towards honesty and social justice. In Kano society, which is still somewhat more communal and sacred than fully rational and modern, belief in religious sanctions developed by Islamic education may be very important. Unlike a more modern setting where life revolves around formally rational criteria as Weber opined (Appelrouth & Edles, 2008). Societies that are more communal have religious prescriptions alongside traditional ideas and/or customary practices that have great influence on people’s life orientations (Scott & Marshall, 2005).
Research Problem
The structure of a particular society and the existing type and level of education may exert influence on individual’s behavior towards, attitudes about, perceptions of, and interpretations of social life events. Attitudes of youth in Kano cannot be separated from the influence of the indigenous type of education, which plays a maximum role right from the early stage of childhood. Out of the coexistence of the Islamic and Western educational schooling systems in Kano (Morgan & Armer, 1988), it could be argued that different socialization processes towards honesty and social justice could emanate among youth.
Typically, an individual exposed to Islamic education is likely to view honesty and social justice using a perspective that reflects more of his/her religious orientation. On the other hand, youths with a Western education are likely to have more positive attitudes towards social justice than the first mentioned category. Acquisition or training in a traditional Islamic educational system historically predates the British colonial period in northern Nigerian Muslim communities like Kano. The traditional Islamic education itself is a dual system consisting of Makarantar Allo (Qur’anic school) and Makarantar Ilmi (Knowledge school). The first category is the primary stage in Islamic education and focuses on basic Arabic literacy and reading from the Qur’an, which usually begins at childhood and continues through adolescence. While the Makarantar Ilmi stage, or the knowledge school, often spans through one’s entire life (Umar, 2001). However, a shift towards a more formal arrangement of the schooling has taken shape with the instruction patterns echoing the western style.
Islamic knowledge and scholarship of the Qur’an and other Islamic injunctions usually forms the bedrock of the main cultural content and social organization of Islamic societies such as Kano (Morgan & Armer, 1988). Therefore, the moral virtue associated with honesty will likely be related to individual’s level of Islamic educational attainment and orientation. This association exists because traditional values and beliefs of individuals are viewed as highly integrated and stable (Armer, 1970). In the 1910s and 1920s, the introduction of Western education to Nigeria (Umar, 2001) met with suspicion and resistance; it was considered alien and threatening to religion and culture, specifically in the north (Nile, 2001). The Western educational attainment made possible new ways of satisfying aspirations and new attitudes and beliefs.
However, the demand for Western education has continued to increase because of its association with bureaucratic wage employment, upward mobility, and modern life style. Unlike in Islamic society where honesty is more of a religious virtue, in a setting with more Western education the issue of honesty is tied to legal orientation, where the intervention and role of agencies of formal social control assumes specific sanctioning authority.
Honesty reflects a quality mostly identified as an ingredient to reputation building and as a highly desirable element to all, especially youth. Thus, being recognized as dishonest in a society like Kano usually leads to affirmations about one’s connection to deviance and/or delinquency. As one’s record of honesty becomes questionable among members of public, one is at greater risk of being thought of as leaning towards deviance or delinquency. Social justice in a society like Kano relates more to anticipations of governmental or institutional commitment to the provision of services to people, while honesty has much to do with an individual’s conduct. Thus, people usually consider government and its policies as acceptable when the policies concentrate more on actualizing people’s immediate needs and aspirations. This chapter is set to address the following objectives:
- To investigate the existence of relationships between youth attitudes in Kano towards honesty and social justice and the amount of Islamic and Western education received.
- To find out why there is a relationship between attitudes and type of education received.
- To analyze existing differences in attitudes towards honesty and social justice in relation to religiosity.
- To analyze existing differences in attitudes towards social justice in relation to family social composition.
Literature Review
According to Hirschi (1969), the major perspectives on delinquency, strain, and motivation propose that conforming individuals are pushed into deviance because of the failure to satisfy legitimate desires. Specifically, strain theories lean towards responding to a central question in sociological theory of why men obey the rules of society. The assertion that individuals break fewer laws suggests more about conformity depicting man as obeying rules, but strained to deviate due to pressure by legitimate desires.
One of the assumptions of control theories is that delinquent acts are produced when bonds to the society are weak or broken. Thus, the concept of bond is adopted in control theories as central to explaining behavior (Hirschi, 1969, p. 23). One of the elements of the bond belief plays crucial roles such that if a person’s belief in the moral validity of norms weakens, the more likely he or she engages in delinquent acts (1969, p. 26). Therefore, applying the argument of Hirschi’s (2006) social bonding theory that an individual’s relation to the society influences his/her decisions; it could be argued that the type of education acquired in a particular society may influence behavior. Based on Hirschi’s (1969) assertion that beliefs are major variables in most sociological explanations, youths with Islamic education are more likely to hold beliefs that lead to contrasting attitude towards honesty and social justice in comparison to those with Western education.
In the first scenario, it is assumed that the attitudes of youths with Western education are likely to reflect Western value orientations with a sense of estrangement from the roots in traditional society (Armer, 1970). They may also have a view that endorses the interpretation of social justice and its achievement. Whereas the perceptions and attitudes of young persons with Islamic education are more likely to demonstrate attitudes and reasoning that contains views and interpretations of honesty from a traditional or an Islamic point of view (Nile, 2001).
The position here is that “belief” represents the ability to incorporate broad conventional norms and values, especially the internalization that laws and society’s rules are morally correct and should be adhered to (Akers & Sellers, 2004). Therefore, in this context, the type of education received may likely affect one’s attitude towards social justice. Perhaps the higher the amount of education, the more likely the recipient is to endorse attitudes towards conventional norms and value systems. Hirschi assertions are based on the assumption that belief is the obligatory character of rules that will most effectively maintain its efficacy in producing conformity (1969, p. 30).
Furthermore, in an explanation linking an individual’s commitment to a high-status occupation, Hirschi (1969, p. 182) hypothesized that high occupational aspirations, coupled with low occupational expectations, generate pressure resulting in delinquency. Therefore, in relation to the assumption linking family social position to attitudes towards social justice, frustrated occupational status could be a cause of delinquency. In the same vein, citing Cloward and Ohlin, Hirschi (1960) reveals that the individual’s explanation attached to his/her failure in goal attainment determines the subsequent reaction. A blame to self does not challenge the system, but if the individual perceives that the faults lies in social forces beyond his control, such as responsibility of government’s provision of social justice, he then becomes alienated from the system, rejects its normative patterns, and turns to delinquency or develops negative attitudes to social justice that may result into delinquency. Hirschi further asserts that frustrated aspirations provoke delinquency (1969. pp. 183-185).
Finally, young people still enrolled in school who are preparing for public sector jobs may be less concerned about social justice than those who left school and are already working and struggling in the informal economy. General strain theory asserts that work in the secondary labor market involving “poor” jobs that pay little, have low benefits, little opportunity for advancement, and unpleasant working conditions around streets, traffic joints, or motor parks are likely to be causes of deviance.
Other alternative explanatory variables linked to youth’s attitudes towards social justice could be explained using Agnew’s general strain theory, which is centered on how monetary strain and blocked opportunity has an impact on individual’s reasoning, thinking, and decisions. General strain theory, as a micro-level approach to the concept of strain, goes beyond the discrepancy between aspirations and expectations and broadly accommodates several sources of strain or stress (Akers & Sellers, 2004). Central to the theory is the explanation of crime and delinquency as adaptations to strain through three major sources: failure to achieve positively valued goals, removal of positively valued stimuli, and confrontation with negative stimuli. Specifically, the theory assumes that strain makes people feel bad and angry and creates negative feelings such as anger, frustration, and depression.
General strain theory proposes crime and delinquency as only one of other adaptations to strain. Individual’s adaptation to conformity or deviant modes depends on a range of internal and external constraints on the individual such as peer association, beliefs, attributions of causes, self-control, and self-efficacy, which in one way or another affect individuals’ positioning to choose a delinquent response to strain (Akers & Sellers, 2004). In view of that, therefore, the beliefs about social justice as unfair or as a strain that are seen as unjust and high in magnitude possibly lead individuals to crime and delinquency. Individuals with such beliefs and strain may subsequently develop negative attitudes and emotions towards social justice that leads to delinquency.
Methods
The design for this research used the 1979 Kano Youth Survey data, with a sample of 632 individuals, and looked at correlations between the following selected independent variables: amount of Islamic education, amount of Western education, religiosity, family social composition, and enrollment status. Dependent variables measured were honesty (personal honesty and societal honesty) and social justice. The dependent variables are presented in Table 1.
Dependent Variables
| Variable Name | Mean | Standard Deviation |
|---|---|---|
| Personal Honesty 1 | 2.89 | 1.26 |
| Personal Honesty 2 | 4.59 | .913 |
| Societal Honesty 1 | 1.57 | .963 |
| Societal Honesty 2 | 3.09 | 1.19 |
| Social Justice views 1 | 2.73 | 1.30 |
| Social Justice views 2 | 2.84 | 1.31 |
Attitudes towards Honesty
The first dependent variable, attitude towards Honesty, assessed respondents’ disagreement with a statement on admiration of law breaking to get what one wants. The second item asked respondents’ thoughts on whether it is “all right to be dishonest even if it is necessary to get what you want.” These two items measured percentages of societal honesty. Respondents agreed or disagreed that “most people are honest chiefly through fear of being caught.” Secondly, they responded to statement that “all, most, some, or only a few people are being deceptive and dishonest.” Young persons who value personal honesty are more likely to perceive and be troubled by societal corruption, particularly among their governmental leaders. Indirectly they may also be more concerned about social justice, believing it to be tainted by corrupt governmental leaders. Thus, religiosity is negatively related to perception of societal honesty and, therefore, may be partially related to social justice.
Attitudes towards Social Justice
The dependent variable attitude towards social justice was estimated with two items. Respondents answered whether “it’s fair that rich people who can pay their fines can stay out of jail while poor people may have to go to jail for the same crime.” For the second item, they answered whether “It would be more fair if people in Nigeria were paid by how much they need to live decently rather than by the jobs they do.”
Independent Variables
The first independent variable, the amount of Islamic education, was measured by asking respondents to give the total years of Qur’anic schooling they attended and their levels of Qur’anic learning by stating particular chapters of Qur’an learned. A third measure was the level of Ilmi scholarship or scholarship in Islamic writings. Secondly, three items measured Western education. Secondary educational level was the reported number of years spent in secondary school or teacher training college. English reading and speaking literacy asked whether respondents could “read and speak English separately.” Thirdly, three items measured religiosity. First was a question the respondent felt “about praying daily at the mosque.” Then respondents reported their “concern about religion” and, finally, their perception of the religiosity of society was measured. The last independent variable, family social position, was measured by subjective family wealth and fathers’ earnings. Respondents were asked compared with the financial status of families in their community and were asked if they would say their family is very wealthy or very poor.
Results
Descriptive statistics for the independent and dependent variables are utilized, while regression coefficients for the effects of the selected independent variables on attitudes towards honesty and social justice are specifically discussed. Broadly, correlations were found between Islamic education and attitudes on honesty and between Western education and attitudes on social justice. The overall results could be viewed as providing an explanation that the determinants of attitudes towards honesty are somewhat different from attitudes towards social justice. The first correlation explains that attitudes towards honesty are more associated with exposure to Islamic education and level of religiosity, while the second relationship suggests that attitudes towards social justice relates more to Western education.
| (1) Personal Honesty 1 | (2) Personal Honesty 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Variable | Coefficient t | Coefficient t |
| Years of Qur’anic schooling | .033* 2.18 | .019 1.77 |
| English speaking literacy | .099 1.68 | .026 0.60 |
| Daily prayers at mosque | .380* 3.18 | .249* 2.83 |
| Secondary level of education | .006 0.14 | .002 0.07 |
| Religiosity of society | -.084 -1.56 | -.025 -0.63 |
| Constant | 1.16 2.43 | 3.49 9.89 |
| R square | 0.0382 | 0.0204 |
*P< .05
Specifically, the regression coefficients from the results on Table 2 show that more years of Islamic schooling and the value attached to daily prayers at the mosque considered as part of religiosity is linked to personal honesty. This relationship tends to be in support of the earlier stated assumption that amount of Islamic education and religiosity is positively related to attitudes towards personal honesty. Consistently, the results also indicate support for the effects of level of Qur’anic learning and attitudes towards honesty. One of the two Western education items is weakly and positively related to personal honesty attitudes. Level of Qur’anic learning is also positively related to perceptions of societal honesty.
| (1) Societal Honesty 1 | (2) Societal Honesty 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Variable | Coefficient t | Coefficient t |
| Level of Qur’anic learning | .051* 2.64 | -.049* -2.15 |
| Daily prayers at mosque | -.131 -1.45 | .020 0.19 |
| Students enrollment status | .207* 2.13 | .248 * 2.15 |
| English reading literacy | -.084* -2.38 | -.133* -3.17 |
| Concern about religion | -.275* -3.14 | .257* 2.49 |
| Constant | 2.82 6.35 | 2.48 4.68 |
| R square | 0.0440 | 0.0498 |
*P< .05
Respondents’ level of Ilmi scholarship is reported with a negative correlation on social justice views, though support was found on effects of Ilmi scholarship on the second dependent variable of social equity. In contrast, respondents with secondary level of education tend to have more views that disagree with the idea of paying people by how much they need to live, but supports the views on the mode of social equity concerning the jobs people do. Thus, as proposed, individuals with a Western education in the form of English reading literacy and secondary level of education are more likely to exhibit positive attitudes on social justice.
| (1) Social Justice views 1 | (2) Social Justice Views 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Variable | Coefficient t | Coefficient t |
| Level of Ilmi scholarship | -.076* -2.11 | .078* 2.21 |
| English speaking literacy | .126+ 1.69 | -.097 -1.32 |
| Secondary level of education | .013 0.24 | -.104* -1.98 |
| Daily prayers at mosque | .035 0.25 | .182 1.31 |
| Subjective family wealth | .0136 0.21 | .084 1.34 |
| Father’s Income | .010 0.20 | .026 0.49 |
| Constant | 2.29 3.88 | 2.00 3.53 |
| R square | 0.0257 | 0.0519 |
*P< .05, +P> .10
The results on Table 4 report the relationships of the social justice attitudes. Somewhat surprising, the factors that promote positive attitudes towards government redistribution are negatively related to legal justice for the poor. Youth with more advanced Islamic scholarship favor governmental redistribution, but not legal justice for the poor. Youths with more Western education oppose government redistribution but show a weak positive relationship to legal justice for the poor. The propositions on social justice, at best, show a partial relationship.
Discussion and Conclusion
The central proposition of this study is that the amount of Islamic and Western education acquired by youths has an influence on their attitudes towards honesty and social justice. The findings are mixed, indicating that Islamic education jointly with religiosity are positively related to attitudes towards honesty while Western education is related more to attitudes on social justice and egalitarianism.
In addition, the summary and implications of the key overall findings are two-fold and suggest separate bearings of Islamic education and religiosity on attitudes towards honesty and that of western schooling on attitudes towards social justice respectively. First, the findings broadly show the overall positive effects of some of the following independent variables’ items: years of Qur’anic schooling, levels of Qur’anic learning, feelings about daily prayers, and students’ enrollment status on attitudes towards personal honesty, societal honesty, and social justice.
That the mixed results are in line with the propositions and/or objectives suggests that interpreting the puzzling findings and explaining the complexity in greater detail are not straightforward. The results are summarized as follows:
- The amount of Islamic education is more positively related to youth attitudes towards honesty than the amount of Western education.
- The amount of Western education is more positively related to youth attitudes towards social justice than the amount of Islamic education.
- Levels of religiosity among youths increase their attitudes towards honesty.
- Family social position of youth in Kano is negatively related to their attitudes towards social justice.
First, the following conclusions emerged from the analysis: respondents’ years of Qur’anic schooling, levels of Qur’anic learning, and value attached to daily prayers are found to be associated with attitudes about personal honesty. Further, students’ enrollment status, concern about religion, and levels of Ilmi scholarship are found to be related to attitudes about societal honesty and social justice among youth in Kano. However, the results also indicate negative effects of the following independent variables lumped together: amount of Islamic education, Western education, and religiosity on attitudes about social justice among youths respectively.
The first assumption, which states that the amount of Islamic or Western education increases youth attitudes towards honesty, was supported. The results show that the independent variables of years of Qur’anic schooling and level of Qur’anic learning are positively related to attitudes towards personal and societal honesty. Youths with more years of Qur’anic schooling and more levels of Qur’anic learning appear to have positive attitudes about honesty, as evidenced by their disapproval of law violation and their placing a higher value on honesty. This relationship between Islamic education and honesty is consistent with Hirschi’s (1969) social bonding theory, although he is predicting delinquency while this research is predicting attitudes about honesty and social justice. Also, as proposed, Western education is very partially, weakly, and variably related to increased perceptions of honesty. Consistent with the Messner and Rosenfeld (1994) and others, the individual achievement goal of Western education placed in many societies has been interpreted as achievement at all costs irrespective of the means. In such cases, if more schooling increases concerns for educational achievement as a means to material success, this may de-emphasize the value of personal honesty.
Also, the weak existing relationship suggests that the amount of Islamic and Western education is positively related to attitudes towards social justice. For the social justice variable (treating the rich and the poor the same in the legal system) there were two puzzling findings. The social justice attitude was positively related to English speaking literacy, but, surprisingly, it was negatively related to level of Islamic studies. As such, the two positions together suggest a relationship that varies based on amount of education received among youth.
An additional proposition states that youth higher in religiosity will have stronger attitudes towards honesty and social justice. However, youths who valued daily prayers were higher in personal honesty but were not different than other boys in their attitudes about societal honesty and social justice. Thus, youth who are more concerned about religion are more likely to think people are honest out of fear and to believe that few people are dishonest. The overall finding regarding this proposition seem to go along with Morgan and Armer’s (1991) conclusion about the role of continued reverence of Islamic tradition in northern Nigeria in precipitating more aspirations for Islamic training.
However, the fourth proposition was not supported by this research; boys’ family social position did not affect their attitudes about social justice. Therefore, family social composition is not a factor in influencing attitudes towards social justice. In line with Morgan and Armer’s (1988) argument on the social structure of northern Nigeria, the absence of a social class effect in this finding reflects the fact that in 1979 Kano was still a more communal society than a class-based society.
Although this research has yielded some mixed findings and, except for the fourth which was not supported, it has generally found that components of Islamic education and levels of religiosity more likely account for attitudes on honesty, while those of Western education show some relation to attitudes on social justice. In that respect, the findings may suggest that attitudes about honesty are learned by youths early in life while attitudes about social justice are learned somewhat later in life. Thus, this study will still be a topic of interest for future research investigating the effects of Islamic and Western education among youth for other variables.
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