Prismatic Society Revisited: Theory and Educational Administration in Developing Countries

Author(s): Clive Harber

Source: Oxford Review of Education, Vol. 19, No. 4 (1993), pp. 485-497
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1050567 .
Accessed: 27/01/2015 09:56
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Taylor & Francis, Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Oxford Review of
Education.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 103.231.241.233 on Tue, 27 Jan 2015 09:56:34 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

OxfordReviewofEducation,Vol. 19, No. 4, 1993

485

Prismatic Society Revisited: theory and educational

administration in developing countries

CLIVE HARBER

ABSTRACT Theoriesofeducationalmanagement
and administration
haveforthemost
and
both
educational
institutions
in
Western
industrialised
originated
in,
described,
part
nations.Littleexistsin the way of theoretical
about
the
explanations
ways in which
schoolsand othereducationalinstitutions
in
reallyoperate non-industrialised,
pooreror
Yet
these
two
contexts
are
each
other
and
countries.
'developing'
oftenverydifferent
from
it cannotbe assumedthat modelsand principlesthat apply in 'developed'countries
Thispapersuggests
and discusses
onepossible
necessarily
applyelsewhere.
framework
for
and
educational
administration
in
countries.
It usesthe
analysing
explaining
developing
conceptof the 'prismaticsociety'to examinequalitativeevidenceabout some of the
and issuesfacedbyschoolsand teachersin developing
countries
and arguesfor
problems
the
economic
and
cultural
contexts
in
which
educational
greaterunderstanding
of
and
administration
in
takes
such
countries.
management
actually
place

INTRODUCTION
My friend Chimtali, age 14, moved 10 kilometers from her small village
nestled against the Zomba plateau to just outside the tradingpost of the same
name. She had recentlyentered a governmentboarding school to pursue her
secondary studies. She liked her teachers and her subjects, it was the foreignseeming customs that she found amusing. Chimtali now was required to wear
pyjamas at night.And she was relearninghow to eat. Growingup in the village
she simplyused her hands, but now she was required to use utensilsimported
fromLondon. Nor was she allowed to eat friedngumbi, those plentifuland
tasty African bugs resembling winged roaches. While Chimtali obviously
enjoyed becoming modem, she had not suspected that the secondary school
would require such deep changes in daily habits. (Fuller, 1991, p. 96 writing
on Malawi).
In a recent paper Hughes (1990, p. 9) argues persuasively against assuming that
theories and principles of educational management and administrationare universal,
i.e. that they apply regardless of national and cultural differences.He quotes a
UNESCO study of techniques for the improvement of school management (Van
Gendt, 1976) which was highly critical of 'a tendency to transferin an automatic
manner the application of a management tool from one system to another and
especially from developed to developing countries'. He also quoted John Weeks,
Executive Director of the Commonwealth Council for Education Administration,to

This content downloaded from 103.231.241.233 on Tue, 27 Jan 2015 09:56:34 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

486

OxfordReviewofEducation

the effectthat 'sometimes models urged upon Third World educational administrators
do not fitcomfortablyinto the alien environment'(Weeks, 1988, p. 384).
Thus improving education management in developing countries requires a prior
understanding both of the particular local and national circumstances into which
educational change is to be introduced and, at a wider level, the nature of educational
organisationin developing countries in general. Yet, as one writerfroma developing
countryput it in relationto Africa:'Most theorisingin administrativesciences has been
based on the experiences of European and North American organisations,and almost
nothing has been done in African settings,let alone African organisation' (Lungu,
1983, p. 90).
Yet there are at least three possible, linked levels of theory for exploring
and explaining the nature and operation of educational organisations in developing
countries.
1. Global relationshipsof trade, aid and dependency.
2. The culture(s) of developing societies themselves.
3. Individual actions, roles and meanings.
The impact of levels one and three on school organisationare analysed in Davies and
Harber (forthcoming).This paper uses the theoryof 'prismaticsociety' to explore the
ways in which the functioningof educational institutionsis affectedby theirlocation in
developing societies. It does this by drawing on examples of qualitative research in
developing countrieswhich have increased understandingby providinginsightsinto the
actual operation of educational organisationsin contrastto relyingon abstractdescription stemmingfromWestern-derivedmodels. An additional source of insightis provided by referenceto works of modern literaturestemmingfromdeveloping societies
for,as one writeron qualitative research methods in education put it,
Some of the most acute observersof the human scene have been the realistic
novelistsand playwrights.Althoughtheirworkis fictional,thatis, imaginative,
one of the criteriaforjudgementof theirworkis the degree to which theyhave
captured in their imagination profound elements of the human condition.
(Smith, 1988, p. 45)
PRISMATIC

SOCIETY

The theoryof prismaticsocietywas developed some 30 years ago by Fred Riggs in his
book Administration
in DevelopingCountries(1964) in order to understand the conflict
and relativelyautonomous Western modes of organibetween the highlydifferentiated
sation imposed at the time of colonialism and the less differentiated
indigenous modes
of organisation.However, it has retained its relevance during the post-colonial period
of what Fuller (1991) terms 'fragile states'. During this 30-year period the newly
independent, fragilestates based on Western models have strivento look 'modern' to
enhance their own legitimacyand be seen as 'real' states but they have been only
partiallysuccessful. Their limited economic and organisational resources has meant
that the drive for modernity has been consistentlystalled by the resistance and
persistence of pre-moderneconomic interests,culture and social organisation.
The theoryof prismaticsocietyis based on an analogy of a fused white lightpassing
through a prism and emergingdiffractedas a series of differentcolours. Within the
process startsbut remainsincomplete. Riggs
prismthereis a point where the diffraction

This content downloaded from 103.231.241.233 on Tue, 27 Jan 2015 09:56:34 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

PrismaticSocietyRevisited 487
is suggestingthat developing societies are prismaticin that theycontain elements both
of the traditional,fused type of social organisation and elements of the structurally
differentiatedor 'modem' societies. In prismatic societies therefore'traditional' and
'modern' values and behaviour coexist in the same organisation.
Althoughin some ways Riggs can be classifiedas a modernisationtheorist,he is wary
of the the notion implicit in some modernisation theorythat 'developing' or 'transitional' countries are inevitablyand inexorably developing towards replicas of established Western industrialisednations.
Moreover, the word "transition"suggestsa temporarystage between a particular past and a predictable futurestate. May not some "transitional"conditions turnout to be relativelypermanent?Can we be certain,forexample, that
the presentstage of public administrationin Haiti or Bolivia or Afghanistanis
temporary and transitional rather than permanent and final? Or if these
societies are undergoingchange, cannot the same be said of England, France
and Canada?. (Riggs, 1964, p. 4)
So prismaticsocieties, and the organisationsthat existwithinthem,are a synthesisthough not always a harmonious one-of long lasting indigenous values and practices
and relativelynew imported ones. This is well captured in novels by two Senegalese
writers.The main character in Miriama Ba's So Long a Letteris clearly aware of the
tensions that exist,
We all agreed that much dismantling was needed to introduce modernity
withinour traditions.Tom between the past and the present,we deplored the
hard sweat that would be inevitable.We counted the possible losses. But we
knew that nothing would be as before. We were full of nostalgia but were
resolutelyprogressive.(pp. 18-19)
Such tensions and contradictionsinevitablyaffectindividuals as Sembene Ousmane
illustratesin describing one of the charactersin his novel Xala,
El Hadji Abdou Kader Beye was what one might call a synthesisof two
cultures: business had drawn him into the European middle class after a
feudal African education. Like his peers, he made skilfuluse of his dual
background, for theirfusion was not complete.
So in this sense such individuals and societies are neither'traditional'nor 'modern'.
Moreover, this synthesisof continuityand change itselfmay well be slowlydeveloping
in its own way but not necessarilyalong established Western industrialisedlines.
Riggs was also verycriticalof existingadministrativetheoryand its tendencyto rely
on prescriptionrather than description. In discussing this point he makes parallel
argumentsto those made in the introductionto this paper. Unfortunately,littlehas
changed in 30 years:
Indeed, the emphasis in much administrativeliteratureis rathermore on the
prescriptiveside than on the descriptiveside. The so-called "principles" of
public administrationtake the followingform:"Authorityshould be commensurate with responsibility";"Stafffunctionsshould be clearlyseparated from
line functions"; "The span of control should be ..."; "Communications
should flowupwards as well as downwards"; "Equal pay forequal work". We
need not question the usefulnessof such maxims. I only wish to point out that
prescriptionswhich are valid in one contextmay be harmfulin another ... In
otherwords we need a prettycomplete descriptiveand analyticalunderstand-

This content downloaded from 103.231.241.233 on Tue, 27 Jan 2015 09:56:34 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

488

OxfordReviewofEducation

ing of what now existsbeforewe can make useful judgements about what we
ought to do, about what changes should be made. The model of administrative behaviour, as of economic, was inspired by the experience of Western
societies in which markets and bureaus existed and corresponded, at least
approximately,to the image conveyed by the model. We are not to assume,
however, that the situation in "transitional" societies can be properly described in these terms,although we may be tempted to do so. (1964, p. 11)
So organisationsin developingsocieties,includingschools, do not necessarilyoperate
as a Western observermightassume because theyretainaspects of the traditionalform
of organisation:
Hence many formallyadministrativestructuresin transitionalsocieties turn
out to be mere facades, while the effectiveadministrativework remains a
latent functionof older, more diffuseinstitutions.(p. 34)
He termed social structuresin prismaticsocieties 'polyfunctional'because the fused
or relativelyundifferentiated
nature of traditionalorganisationwill mean both that its
of
concerns
and
will
roles
be much wider than mightbe expected fromits more
range
specialised equivalent in developed countries and the existence of older values will
mean that the new concerns and roles will be dealt with in differentand unexpected
ways.
Riggs in his book was primarilyconcerned with an analysis of the workingsof the
institutionsof central governmentand public administrationin developing countries.
This paper, however, examines whether Riggs' theory of prismatic society is also a
useful explanatorytool forunderstandingschools as organisationsin developing societies. However, because the aim is to discuss how descriptiverealitycan depart from
prescriptivemodels, the emphasis will inevitablyseem negativein thatit will be on what
are commonly seen as 'problems' in puttingWestern organisation into operation in
non-Western cultural settings.Nevertheless, two importantpoints must be borne in
mind. First, while the contradictionsand conflictsthat do occur are the focus of the
paper, the concept of prismaticsocietyacknowledges thatwithinthe same societyother
aspects of both traditionaland moder organisationwill functionmore consistently.
Thus schools can function both 'normally', smoothly and predictably according to
Western models in some ways while at the same time exhibitinginconsistencies in
others. Second, when staff,parents or pupils behave in what might,forexample, seem
an irresponsible,lazy or venal manner this is not necessarilyor only because this is the
nature of the individualsconcerned. Social pressuresand organisationalstructuresmay
leave littlechoice.
BUREAUCRACY,

AUTHORITY

AND CONTROL

In his book Riggs describes a work by Morroe Berger (1957) in which he attemptedto
apply the Weberian concepts of bureaucracy to a transitionalsociety, Egypt. Berger,
however, ended up by rejectingthe Weberian model because he found only internal
contradictions in the concepts and hypotheses placed at his disposal by Weberian
literature.He concluded that the available theoryof bureaucracy could not cope with
the problems raised by the facts of the Egyptian bureaucracy (Riggs, 1964, p. 72).
Instead Riggs prefersthe term 'sala' to bureaucracy in prismaticsocieties. This term,
according to Riggs, is oftenused for a governmentofficein Latin America and has a
similarmeaning in Arabic speaking countries as well as in Southeast Asia.

This content downloaded from 103.231.241.233 on Tue, 27 Jan 2015 09:56:34 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

PrismaticSocietyRevisited 489
The sala, because of the coexistence of the values and behaviours of two different
cultures,is characterisedby Riggs as exhibiting'polynormativism':
The sala official,while formallyadhering to one set of specific norms may
secretlyreject them as meaningless or not binding. Hence the overlapping
bifocal nature of power in the sala becomes comprehensible in terms of the
values systemsof the incumbent. For example, an officialcan adhere publicly
to the norm of objective recruitment(equality of status and universalistic
norms), but privatelysubscribe to more subjective, ascription-orientedstandards (a rigid hierarchyof status and particularisticnorms). He can publicly
castigate briberyand corruptionbut secretlyencourage them. He can insist,
one moment, on a strictand literal enforcementof regulationsbut the next
moment wink at their open violation. (p. 277)
Elsewhere the key featuresof the Weberian model of bureaucracy have been contrastedwith the actual operation of schools as 'bureaucratic' organisationsin Nigeria
and other parts of Africa (Harber, 1989, Chapter 7). Riggs' theoryof prismaticsociety
is used to examine and explain furthersome aspects of this,such as bribery,corruption,
cheating and nepotism. Here the concern is with the centralisationof bureaucracy and
the exercise of authorityand responsibility.As Riggs states: 'One of the most widely
noted characteristicsof public administrationin transitionalsocieties is a high degree of
"overcentralisation"' (p. 280). Indeed, Rideout (1987, pp. 27-8) argues in relationto
educational mismanagementin Africathat,
Here children's rights are being very effectivelythwarted by incompetent
overcentralisationin which no one is "to blame" and no one is held
"accountable". The sense of commitmenthas been dulled and the sense of
urgency lost by bureaucracies insulated from local pressures, needs and
demands.
Riggs points out, however, that the term 'over-centralisation'is misleading because
high officialsare unable to exercise substantialcontrol over theirsubordinates.Despite
formal centralisation of authority,effectivebureaucratic power permeates to lower
levels of the sala; it is not concentratedat its apex. A distinctionhas to be made in the
prismaticsala between formaland effectivepower-between authorityand control. In
prismatic societies authority and control often become disengaged resulting in a
situationwhich mightjust as well be described as 'under-centralised'in that there are
few substantialcurbs to the expediencyinterestsof subordinateofficials.In fact,power
in the sala is neithercentralisednor localised but highlyequivocal:
If the highest officialsin a bureaucracy had effectivecontrol theywould not
permitbriberyand nepotism since these practicesunderminethe effectiveness
of their own control ... If subordinates persist in referringmattersto their
superiors in the sala, this may not be because of their inability to make
decisions so much as their unwillingnessto take responsibility.If superiors
refuseto delegate authorityto subordinates,it is not so much because of their
unwillingnessto surrenderpower as it is theirinabilityto impose constraints
on the conduct of their staff,thus to assure rule implementationby others.
They cannot delegate who cannot impose accountability.(p. 282)
This phenomenon also affects the operation of schools. Elsewhere I quoted one
participant observer teaching in a school in Kano State, northernNigeria as saying,
There seemed to be no mechanism of accountability: in many instances

This content downloaded from 103.231.241.233 on Tue, 27 Jan 2015 09:56:34 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

490

OxfordReviewofEducation

individuals failed to take responsibilityfor doing thingsbut did not seem to

have been taken to task for theiromission. (Harber, 1989, p. 123-124).
Disciplinaryaction would have to come fromthe Ministryof Education itselfbut there
was a general feelingin the school thatthis was ineffectual.The teacher responsiblefor
examinationsat the school complained at a staffmeetingthatmany teachersdidn't turn
up forinvigilationwhen theywere supposed to. When it was suggested that he should
report this to the Ministry,the teacher in question laughed and said that he'd never
known of 'disciplinaryaction' as regards teachers in Kano State and that he'd believe
it when he saw it.
The Ministry of Education's lack of effectiveauthorityand control over schools
stemmed froma number of factorssuch as a shortageof inspectorsand poor communications and large distances between schools but,
Possibly most important,however, is that the Ministryof Education itself
suffersfromthe same sort of problems of "indiscipline"-delay, inefficiency,
lack of diligence, corruption-that are a key features of the rest of the
'modern' organisational sector of Nigerian society. On one occasion, for
example, four education officers were dismissed in Kano State for
"drunkeness, absenteeism and gross inefficiency".Hence, school Principals
cannot relyon the Ministrytoo much for support in any attemptto improve
the efficiencyof school organisation. (Harber, 1989, p. 124)
CORRUPTION,

NEPOTISM

AND CHEATING

While corruptionis a featureof all countries,includingWestern industrialisednations,

corruptpractices in contemporarydeveloping societies are much more pervasive, much more an everydaypatternof life,and theydisrupteconomic lifeto
a fargreaterdegree than is the case in the advanced countries ... Corruption
sweeps across everysphere of life and affectseveryone:with patients offering
bribes to nurses in hospital to persuade them to pass on a bed-pan; traffic
offendersbribingpolice officersto waive the fine; tax collectors adding their
personal increment to the inland-revenue exactions; councillors awarding
contractsto firmsin which they (or their kin) have a financial stake; educational officersgivinggovernmentscholarships to their cousins ... (Hoogvelt,
1978, pp. 127, 128-129)
Such corruptioninevitablyaffectsschools as the followingtwo extractsfroma novel set
in Nkrumah's Ghana illustrate:
It is well known that the supervisorwas once, before coming to the Railway
Administration,a bursar at one of the Ghana national secondary schools. As
is the custom in this country,he had regarded the job as an opportunityhe
had won formaking as much money as he could as quickly as he could, and
his handling of the school's financeshad soon made his intentionsclear. The
students complained to the Ministryof Education. The Ministry,as is usual
in thiscountry,had searched forthe studentsmost responsibleforthe drafting
of the letterof complaint and dismissed them forgross insubordination.The
remaining students had rioted. The Ministry,looking for more students to
dismiss, had closed the school down. There had been no financialprobe, of
course, but none would have been possible, anyway,since a firehad guttedthe

This content downloaded from 103.231.241.233 on Tue, 27 Jan 2015 09:56:34 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

PrismaticSocietyRevisited 491
bursar's entire officeduring the rioting.Very shortlyafterthat the Railway
Administrationwas advised fromabove to appoint the bursar to this new job.
He had broughtthe allocations clerkwithhim, and therewas a likelihood that
it was he who let it be known that the firein the bursar's officewas not the
work of students.
The woman put her hand to her throatin a swiftmovement of disgust, then
smiled. "No", she said, "I don't like made-in-Ghana spirits. But there are
good drinksin the countrystill"."Only in the homes of big shots and Party
socialists"."They must get them fromsomewhere ... You must know people
who could get you these things. After all, people don't go to school for
nothing." (Armah, 1969)
Outside novels there is evidence that teachers have sold examination questions to
pupils in India and Tanzania (Davies, 1990, p. 170); teachers have charged to teach
extra classes while theyneglect theirnormal ones in Ghana (Dadey & Harber, 1991, p.
7) and teachers have embezzled funds in Nigeria (Harber, 1989, pp. 112, 117). An
exercise on teacher deviance during a class held by the writerinvolved international
students anonymously giving examples of corruption in education from their own
countries;in Pakistan, as in Ghana above, teachershave charged forprivateclasses and
neglected their own classes in order to encourage their private business; in Brunei a
headteacher was jailed afterfalsifyingbills for food to be paid by the Ministry; in
Uganda a headteacher was sacked afterembezzling funds from a communityschool.
The followingdescribes Cameroon,
It was the same at the schools. They are all weighed down with an incredible
bureaucraticapparatus forstrictlydeterminingwhich pupils shall be expelled,
which promoted and which obliged to take a year again. The amount of time
spent in the abstruse calculation of 'averages' with arcane formulaeis at least
equal to that spent in the classroom. And at the end of this, the headmaster
arbitrarilydecides that the marks look too low and adds twentyacross the
board, or he accepts bribes froma parent and simplychanges marks, or the
governmentdecides thatit has no need of so many studentsand invalidatesits
own examinations.At times it becomes bad farce. It is impossible not to smile
at the sightof question papers being guarded by gendarmeswith sub-machine
guns when the envelope they are in has been opened by a man who sold the
contents to the highestbidder several days before. (Barley, 1986).
However, corruptionmay not be caused simplyor only by greed but may arise out
of the very nature of prismatic society. The followingexplanation of corruption,for
example, is provided by Riggs. In traditionalsystemsofficialswould not be paid from
a central treasuryfund but would get a prebendaryincome by takinga portion of the
tributes,rents, etc. collected before passing the remainder on up the chain of command. As Riggs notes,
The general public, long accustomed to paying officialsdirectlyfor services
rendered, cannot be expected to abandon this practice suddenly. Thus the
opportunities and temptations for officialsto augment their incomes on a
prebendarybasis remain overwhelming,unless very sharplycurtailed by the
ruler or by new political and judicial control systems.
Furthermorethe customaryexchange of giftswas oftena normal and integratedpart
of social behaviour, but with the change to a moder bureaucracy 'legitimate gifts'

This content downloaded from 103.231.241.233 on Tue, 27 Jan 2015 09:56:34 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

492

OxfordReview ofEducation

become 'disguised bribes' and expected by officialsbefore a service will be performed

(Hoogvelt, 1978, p. 135). Moreover, the need for extra money on the official'sbehalf
is equally understandablein termsof the demands of prismaticsociety.Often a post in
the modem sector bringswith it obligations to, and demands from,a large extended
family network more typical of a traditional, agrarian society. The income is not
commensuratewith the expectations and the result can be corruption.
Similarlyin Thailand rural teachers are expected to pay 'social taxes' which are high
in comparison with their income. One study found that every month teachers were
asked to make donations to educational, officialand social organisationsto which they
belonged. In addition, therewere numerous officialoccasions throughoutthe year for
which they were expected to make donations and, because teachers were considered
among the most respectable people in the community,donations were expected from
them for social functionssuch as weddings, ordination ceremonies and funerals.As a
result teachers were oftenin debt (Chantavanich, et al., 1990, p. 133).
As a resultof financialpressuresteachers in developing countries,includingthose in
the Thailand study referredto above, oftenhave to have more than one job, thereby
inevitablycasting doubt on the efficiencywith which teaching is done. The cause of
teachers having a second job is not always financial,however. Davies (1990, p. 26)
quotes an example fromChina where thereis a widespread attitudethatifpeasants pay
the salaries of teachers then teachers must work and this means work in the fields.
Brigades and villages have withheldsalaries fromteachers until theyperformassigned
fieldwork.
On the otherhand, the persistenceof traditionalobligationsin a prismaticsocietycan
sometimes benefita school. In Kenya the officialpolicy of 'Harambee' (literally'pull
together')means that Kenyans should help one another and possess a sense of service.
This particularlyapplies to those who have done well out of Kenyan economic
development. An importantaspect of Harambee, therefore,is the regularfund-raising
drives where rich and powerful Kenyans publicly donate large sums of money to
communitydevelopment, oftenin the formof a local school. In this way the rich are
seen openly to share theirwealth in a poor society,a benevolent image is maintained
and the relativelynew wealth and power of the Kenyan elite is legitimated.A rich
businessman in Ngugi Wa Thiongo's Petals ofBlood says to a teacher fromthe mythical
Kenyan town of Ilmorog that had his friend,the MP for the town, known of its
problems
I am sure he would have organised a Harambee there-you know, self-helphe has many friendsand theyall would have contributedsomething.Charity
begins at home, ha! ha! ha! (1986, p. 153).
For Riggs the persistence of the strong ties and pressures of extended familyin
prismatic society and the need for sala officialsto reinforcetheir power position by
recruitingstaffon whom theycan rely,are factorswhich can also resultin nepotism in
public appointmentsand the behaviour of public officials.One character,a university
student,in the Senegalese writerMiriama Ba's novel ScarletSong says,
The available accommodation in this universityis ludicrous, compared to the
number of students.I foughtlike mad to get digs here, it didn't help. But one
telephone call from my cousin, who is principal private secretaryto the
Ministryfor Education and Culture, and I immediatelygot what I wanted.
(1986, p. 48)

This content downloaded from 103.231.241.233 on Tue, 27 Jan 2015 09:56:34 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

PrismaticSocietyRevisited 493
In Papua New Guinea one attributeof the 'ideal' headteacher is thathe or she should
be free of 'wantokism', that is favouringmembers of their own language group or
region, therebysuggestingthat many are not (Vulliamy, 1987, p. 216).
Social pressuresalso existto get school places and forpupils to succeed educationally
in order to gain the paper qualificationsnecessary to provide a white collar job in the
urban bureaucracyto be able to provide forthe wider family.In anothernovel, So Long
a Letter,Miriama Ba asks,
What will the unsuccessful do? Apprenticeship to traditional crafts seems
degradingto whoeverhas the slightestbook learning.The dream is to become
a clerk. The trowel is spured. (1987, p. 18)
But perhaps this is not altogethersurprising.Van Rensburg commented in regardto
the people of Serowe in Botswana that the general atmosphere and traditionalexperience were not conducive to a greatdeal of hard work. Historically,wealth is not, in any
obvious way, the functionof harder work and effort,but of social origin,of how many
cattle a man inherited.There was littlein the colonial experience to suggestthat hard,
manual work was the key to wealth, and those who went to the mines discovered that
the hardest manual work was the least rewarded (1978).
Officiallyeligibilityforwell-paid, white collar jobs is usually determinedby levels of
paper qualifications, though in practice this might be the bottom line after which
influence and nepotism come into play. Nevertheless, the need to attain minimum
paper qualifications(what Riggs terms'strategiclearning') not only causes qualification
inflationand a pool of 'overqualified' labour as described by Dore in The Diploma
Disease (1976), it also puts pressure on pupils and students to succeed at all costs.
Cheating in examinations can be the result:
Bangladesh: Students enraged at attempts to stop them cheating attacked
police and teachers with homemade bombs, knives and rocks at the startof
month-longsecondary school examinationsin Bangladesh, police said yesterday ... Police opened fireto disperse crowds at Baidyerbazar, 40 miles from
Dhaka, afterstudentsand theirfriendsand relativesrampaged throughexamination halls ... During certificateexaminations last year students chanted
"We seek the rightto copy" and "Expel unsympatheticinvigilators".Cheating
is a regular featureof secondary school and universityexaminations,despite
frequentattemptsto stamp it out. (The Guardian, 18 March 1989).
Egypt: Teachers are beaten up, examination papers are stolen, outside loudspeakers broadcast answers to students sittingexams-all part of cheating
scandals that have been exposed in some Egyptian schools. So serious is the
problem thatpolice are formingtemporaryanti-cheatingsquads in parts of the
country as high school students prepare for year-end exams next month.
(WeekendObserver,Swaziland, 30 May 1987)
Nigeria: the West African Examinations Council announced that it was
withholding33,000 Nigerian resultsbecause of malpractice such as cheating,
having fore-knowledgeof the questions and collusion. (Harber, 1989, p. 118).
In circumstanceswhere pupil success is used as an indicator of the school's educational quality and teachers and headteachers benefitin terms of promotion,then staff
can also be involved in cheating. In rural Thailand, for example, four steps were
followed to ensure that pupils passed:
1. Giving more weight to pupils' pre-examinationperformance.

This content downloaded from 103.231.241.233 on Tue, 27 Jan 2015 09:56:34 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

494

OxfordReviewofEducation

2. Giving extra marks when markingfinalpapers.

3. Providingpupils with answers during the examination session.
4. Raising the final examination score (Chantavanich et al., 1990, p. 145).
ABSENTEEISM,

LATENESS

AND DELAY

These are problems oftenreferredto in relationto schools in developingcountries.One

obvious reason for staffabsenteeism referredto above is that they may well have a
second job in order to survive.These may not always be outside teaching,however. In
Columbia in 1975 when state and national financialsystemswere fused it was found
that large numbers of teachers had been holding full-timeteaching positions in both
state and national schools, and sometimes in municipal schools as well. Although this
was strictlyillegal, the lack of coordinationbetween the national and state systemshad
permittedit and the low salary scales encouraged it (Hanson, 1986, p. 99).
The need for money can also cause periods of absenteeism among pupils as is
illustratedin Nigel Barley's descriptionof an encounterin Indonesia in his book Not a
Hazardous Sport,
As I passed later that evening,a lone figurein the flimsyshirtof a high-school
student detached itselffroma group and hailed me.
"Hallo, boss. Where you go?"
"Johannis!Why are you in school uniform?"It was always hard to place the
age of Indonesians. Surely he was too old to be still at school?
to Biology."There's no electricityat my
He waved a book at me. Introduction
house and they complain if I burn paraffinjust to read, so we have to come
here and study under the streetlamps". A wave of post-imperialguilt struck
me. I thought of my own world of bedside lamps, scholarships and libraries."You are still at school?"
He sighed. "I should be marriedbut, yes, I am still at school. I have to keep
stopping my studies to go back and work in the rice fields. Or I work in the
hotels to get the money for school fees. It takes so long". (1989, p. 109).
During the school year there are periods when the traditionaleconomy can cause
widespread absenteeism among pupils. In Ghana, for example, Abbey (1989) notes
thatin Ashanti,Brong Ahafo and some parts of the easternregionduringthe main corn
harvestingseason and in the Asante-Akimarea during the snail season, some schools
are compelled to reschedule their startand finishtime to accommodate the situation
since the problem is understood by all. In Botswana there have been discussions at
ministeriallevel about whetherit was possible to align school holidays withagricultural
operations so that pupils could help parents on the land. The education ministertold
parliamentthat he had sought expertadvice fromagriculturalistswho said it could not
work because the school calendar would have to be based on the predicted times and
natural rainfall,but this was not precise (Daily News, 16 March 1989).
Cultural expectations and practices can also influence absenteeism or lateness
amongst both female members of staffand pupils. Research in rural Thailand noted a
situation where two single women teachers were stayingin the only teachers' house
available and had asked one of the femalepupils to stayand keep them company in the
house. This was frowned upon by the people in the village who accused the two
teachers of discriminationforleaving the student to sleep on the verandah, asking her
to do theirlaundryand using the rainwaterfromthe tanks forbaths instead of bathing
in the canal in frontof the school. Thus, theywere being criticisedfornot conforming

This content downloaded from 103.231.241.233 on Tue, 27 Jan 2015 09:56:34 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

PrismaticSocietyRevisited 495
to the people's way of life. Then, a man in the village with a criminalrecord of using
violence startedto court one of the teachers. Upon being told by the villagersthat the
normal practice therewas fora man attractedto a woman to abduct her, both teachers
felt unsafe and decided to take up residence in town and spent roughly two to
two-and-a-halfhours on each journey to and fromschool (Chantavanich et al., 1990,
p. 134).
In Botswana, between 300 and 500 female studentsa yearhave to absent themselves
fromschool on account of pregnancy(Simon, 1984, p. 107). Botswana has a population of one and a half million. Not surprisingly,schoolgirl pregnancy is a widely
discussed issue. The President's wifepointed out that whereas teenage pregnancywas
not an issue when earlymarriagewas widespread and females did not go to secondary
school, it became a problem because femalesnow delayed marriagebut sexual practices
had not changed (Daily News, 13 February 1989). Anotherculturalfactorthathas been
suggested to help explain this is the need for a woman in southern Africa to get
pregnant to prove that she can have babies before she can get married.
Motherhood can also affectteachers. In the studyof ruralThailand it was found that
married female teachers with children under five would often miss classes or were
forcedto bringtheirinfantsinto the classroom because theycould not affordto employ
a wet-nursewhile theywere working(Chantavanich et al., 1990, p. 126).
As the above suggests, traditional cultural expectations and practices can often
conflict with the needs of 'modern' schooling in prismatic or developing societies.
Educational managers and administratorsare thereforefaced with choices over priorities. This account is fromMalawi:
The districteducation officer(DEO) faced a painful predicament when the
sobbing teacher called. The teacher's uncle had just died, some 40 kilometers
away, farto the south of Zomba. But the DEO's only Land Rover was in the
governmentrepairshop, havingvanished into that automotiveblack hole from
which few vehicles emerge (at least in less than six months time). The DEO,
acting under a peculiar mix of state regulationand governmenttradition,was
obliged to move the body to the preferredburial ground. (Distribution of
teacher salaries and textbooks must wait under such a situation.) As the
education ministry'srepresentative,the DEO must respect this entitlement
and protect the government'scredibility.(Fuller, 1991, p. 89).
CONCLUSION
It is said of the elusive but much debated notion of post-modernismthat one feature
of it is the rejection of the possibilityof grand theory.This paper argues that universal
theories of educational or other forms of management and administration are a
chimera. Rather there is a necessity to begin with administrativerealityin particular
economic and culturalcontextsand then attemptto explain the phenomena thatoccur.
Thus judgements about 'good' or 'poor' management cannot be made on a universal
or culture-freebasis. What is seen as 'poor management' by an external expert in a
prismatic society may in fact be part of a skilled and well-designed strategyfor
managing a bureaucracy to the managers' advantage. Reilly (1987) provides the
followingexamples:
1. The lack of accurate, up-to-date stafflists,ineffectivepersonnel record systemsand
few realistic plans about workinghours are essential for the system of patronage

This content downloaded from 103.231.241.233 on Tue, 27 Jan 2015 09:56:34 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

496

OxfordReviewofEducation

wherebyemploymentcan be offeredto needy relatives,friendsand those to whom

obligation is owed.
2. The ineffectivenessof financialcontrols and audit systemsis necessary in order to
permit those in charge to manipulate the allocation of funds, not necessarily for
corruptpurposes, though this could be the objective, but to a favouredproject.
3. Authoritarian,highlypersonalised stylesof managementin which decision-makingis
seldom delegated are crucial if those at the top are to maintain theirpowerfuland
profitablepositions.
4. Procrastinationand slowness in making decisions is part of a strategyto ensure that
the boat is not rocked and to demonstratepublicly power and status.
There has been a dearth of empirical research into the purposes and nature of
educational management in developing countries and a consequent lack of theoryto
explain many featuresof the operation of schools and other educational institutions.
The notion of schools and other educational bureaucracies operating in 'prismatic'
societies offersone useful conceptual tool, though it is to be hoped that others will
follow.
REFERENCES
ABBEY, E. (1989) The realitiesof school management in Ghana. Unpublished M. Ed.

essay, Universityof Birmingham.

ARMAH,A.K. (1969) The BeautyfulOnes Are Not Yet Born (London, Heinemann).
BA, M. (1986) ScarletSong (Harlow, Longman).
BA, M. (1987) So Long a Letter(London, Virago).
BARLEY,N. (1986) The InnocentAnthropologist
(Harmondsworth,Penguin).
BARLEY,N. (1989) Not a Hazardous Sport (Harmondsworth,Penguin).
BERGER, M. (1957) Bureaucracyand Society in Moder Egypt (Princeton, Princeton
UniversityPress).

CHANTAVANICH,A., CHANTAVANICH,S. & FRY, G. (1990) Evaluating Primary Education

(Ottawa, InternationalDevelopment Research Centre).

DADEY, A. & HARBER, C. (1991) Trainingand Professional

SupportforHeadship in Africa

(London, Commonwealth Secretariat).

SchoolManagementin an InternationalContext
DAVIES, L. (1990) Equityand Efficiency?:

(Lewes, The Falmer Press).

in
L. & HARBER, C. (forthcoming)School Managementand School Effectiveness
DevelopingCountries(Oxford, Pergamon).
DORE, R. (1976) The Diploma Disease (Berkeley,Universityof California Press).
FULLER,B. (1991) Growing-UpModern (London, Routledge).
HANSON,E. (1986) Educational Reformand Administrative
Development:The Case of
Colombia and Venezuela (Stanford,Hoover Press).
HARBER, C. (1989) Politicsin AfricanEducation (London, MacMillan).
HOOGVELT,A. (1976) The Sociologyof DevelopingSocieties(London, MacMillan).
HUGHES, M. (1990) Improvingeducation and trainingfor educational administrators
and managers: urgent needs. Paper presented to UNESCO International Congress, Planning and Management of Educational Development, Mexico.
LUNGU, G.F. (1983) Some criticalissues in the trainingof educational administrators
forthe developing countriesof Africa,International
JournalofEducationalDevelopment,3, pp. 85-96.
DAVIES,

This content downloaded from 103.231.241.233 on Tue, 27 Jan 2015 09:56:34 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

PrismaticSocietyRevisited 497
NGUGI WA THIONGO, (1986) Petals of Blood (Oxford, Heinemann).
OUSMANE,S. (1976) Xala (Oxford, Heinemann).
REILLY, W. (1987) Management and training for development: the Hombe thesis,
and Development,2, pp. 25-42.
Public Administration
RIDEOUT, W. (1987) Rights of access and equal opportunity,in: N. B. TARROW(Ed.),
Human Rightsand Education (Oxford, Pergamon).
in DevelopingCountries:the Theoryof PrismaticSociety
RIGGS,F. (1964) Administration
(Boston, Houghton Mifflin).
SIMON,M. (1984) Equity in secondary education in Botswana, in: M. CROWDER(Ed.)
Educationfor Development(Gabarone, Macmillan).
SMITH,L. (1988) Broadening the base of qualitative case studymethods in education,
in: R. BURGESS (Ed.) ConductingQualitativeResearch(London, JAI Press).
VANGENDT, R. (1976) ToolsfortheImprovement
ofSchool Management:a Studyin Two
Phases, Reports and Studies No. S18. (Paris, UNESCO).
VAN RENSBURG,P. (1978) The SeroweBrigades (Basingstoke, Macmillan).
VULLIAMY,G. (1987) School effectivenessresearchin Papua New Guinea, Comparative
Education, 23, pp. 209-233.
WEEKS,J. (1988) Current issues in professionaldevelopment in developing countries,
26, pp. 382-392.
Journalof EducationalAdministration,
Dr Clive Harber, School of Education, Universityof Birmingham,
Correspondence:
Edgbaston, BirminghamB15 2TT, UK.

This content downloaded from 103.231.241.233 on Tue, 27 Jan 2015 09:56:34 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions