Abstract
M.Ed. (Philosophy of Education)
The central aim of the study was to make an analysis of the values and value-orientations of girls committed to a child-care school in order to understand better their thought processes and behaviour. It was necessary to focus on values and value orientations as these are indicative of what is important to the girls and can be regarded as underlying motives for human behaviour. The motivation for this study lies in the fact that committal is a sensitive and often problematic situation. Children in
ordinary schools are committed to child-care schools, and committed children in chid care schools are transferred to reform schools. The most important grounds for committal are need of care and unacceptable behaviour, hence the importance of
examining values and value-orientations as underlying motives for behaviour.
The primary expectation when committing a child to a child-care school is that the child will be guided towards a positive behaviour change. This study revealed that the value-orientation of an individual is subject to influence and that behaviour changes can be brought about through purposeful coaching of values. Bearing in mind the purposeful influencing of the value orientation of the committed pupil, it is essential that the
educator should take special note of the various aspects of the committal, the living conditions, values and value-orientation of these learners. In this respect the most important aspects described in the study are:
* an analysis and description of the grounds for committal and the legal stipulations applicable in cases of need of care.
* The identifying of a hierarchy of fifteen main type values which can be regarded as possible determinants in assessing the behaviour of girls.
* The identifying of characteristics which are typical of the lifestyle of committed girls, and which have an influence on their values, value-orientation and behaviour. With reference to the above aspects of the investigation the following are important findings:
* Generally, the girls are committed on grounds of being in need of care for unacceptable behaviour. 'In need of care' refers to material inadequacies and a poor socio-economic existence. The 'unacceptable behaviour' which motivated most committals were serious disobedience, contact with undesirable friends, truancy, petty thieving, chronic absence from home and absconding from home.
* With regard to the hierarchy of values it was discovered during the investigation that the values most affected were economic, relationship related, life- and personal values.
Those least affected were moral, intellectual, physical and authoritative. The hierarchy of values is indicative of what is important to committed girls and affects their
behaviour.
* The characteristics of the lifestyle of most of the committed girls were:
large families (more than five children) broken families (step parents) age at committal: 13/14 years home language: Afrikaans church attendance of parents: fairly good. Living conditions have an effect on value-orientation and contributes to behaviour on the grounds of which committal takes place.