Transitions to adulthood are usually defined by markers such as leaving school, starting a first job, leaving the parental home, forming a first union, marrying and having a first child. Youth policy remains strongly influenced by these linear transitions, and by the metaphor of a "pathway" from school to work and adulthood, taking…

Human capital and functionalist paradigms underpin the stance taken by most governments to education policy. These models have also had a profound effect upon the determination of education priorities in the poorest states and, indeed, upon aid policy. This paper argues, on the basis of evidence from the papers in this volume and from the wider…

In urban Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), cultural factors arising from West Africa's "triple cultural heritage" (African, Euro-Christian, and Islamic) and globalization place considerable strains on secondary education and have implications for postcolonial nation-building and development. Surveys of 200 secondary students in the…

Data were collected in five countries (The Gambia, Ghana, Mauritius, Nigeria, Sierra Leone) between 1976 and 1981 from secondary students to examine five variables affecting occupational aspirations: sex, culture, religion, socioeconomic status, and environment and opportunities of the school. School quality and sex affected attitudes most. (LC)