Grandmothers: A Learning Institution - Basic Education and Policy ...

social work, including family systems theory—havetraditionally had much less influenceon the conceptual orientationsadopted in child development programs.For example, in the child health and nutritionfield, there is very limited discussion offamily systems theory (Hartman & Laird1983), which provides tools for andinsights into intra-household interaction,influence, and decision-making.The resultof this predominant orientation is thatmost child development programs adopt anarrow focus on children, their mothers,and occasionally their parents, while ignoringother significant family members, suchas grandmothers.In conclusion, it appears that the combinationof several negative stereotypes aboutgrandmothers and the narrow conceptualmodels used in child development programshave contributed to obscuring therole played by grandmothers, discreditingtheir involvement in children’s developmentat the household and communitylevel, and, finally, excluding them from childdevelopment programs.Alternatively, as proposed above, if oneadopts a systems approach to the designof child development programs, strategiesshould aim to strengthen the knowledgeand practices of all key family memberswho are involved, either directly or indirectly,in promoting child health, growth,and development.GRANDMOTHERS’ ROLES INDIFFERENT CULTURESIn this section, the roles of senior womenor grandmothers in families and communitiesin diverse cultural settings around theworld is reviewed. This includes discussionof the available literature from Africa, Asia,Latin America and The Pacific, as well asfrom Native American nations andAboriginal Australia. Many other annotatedreferences from each region of theworld are found in Appendix B.The lastsection in this chapter presents a summaryof what appear to be generic roles ofgrandmothers that exist across cultures.AFRICAIn a discussion of child-rearing roles andpractices in African societies, Apanpa(2002) discusses the constant interactionof grandmothers, aunts, and other familyand community members with African childrenfrom their first days of life. All of thisstimulation contributes to children’s socializationand development. Apanpa reportsthat studies conducted in Uganda, Senegal,Botswana,Tanzania, Nigeria, Zambia, andSouth Africa have all shown that Africaninfants’ psychomotor development is precociousas compared with that ofEuropean children. Researchers associatethis with the intense handling by familymembers, especially by senior women,who interact constantly with infants.In most African societies, in all mattersrelated to the well-being of women andtheir children, there is a clear hierarchy ofauthority in the household of seniorwomen over younger women. For example,Castle (1994) discusses the “hierarchicaltransmission of knowledge” from mother-in-lawto daughter-in-law in the householdcare of sick children in Fulani andHumbebe households in Mali. She alsorefers to the “authority and superior status10 UNITED STATES AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT