Abstract:
This study deals with the problem of moral development discontinuity prevalent
in today's multicultural societies. Black adolescents are confronted by many
obstacles in their situatedness in the home, school and society. It has been
revealed that the black adolescent in the multicultural situation is exploited,
dehumanised and exposed to impersonal situations when he should be offered
moral guidance and challenging moral dilemmas in order to develop his moral
sense, however he is consequently reduced to an object that is tossed to and fro
by his fellow human beings. The black adolescent, it has been shown, needs his
fellow human beings, as transmitters of moral values to help him to achieve a
moral-self.
This study examines the three multicultural situations, the home, the school and
the society and shows that morals are not inherited but acquired through mutual
contact. The acquisition of morals manifests itself under conditions characterised
by respect, modelling, imitation, indoctrination, reward and punishment,
conformity, loyalty, communication, exemplification, socialisation, experience
and learning as determined by the home, school and society. It was also found
that in their acquisition of morals in a multicultural society, black adolescents
experience confusion brought about by the cultural differences of their society.
\\!hat they previously regarded as the right thing to do in their cultural background
receives negative responses in the multicultural situation. It was further found that
black adolescents in a multicultural situation are not provided with sufficient
opportunities to participate meaningfully in moulding their new moral
environment. The multicultural environment is cold and unfriendly, as a result
black adolescents are barred from expanding and anchoring themselves in their
new situation to face the challenges confronting them with confidence.
The empirical research revealed that in the home parents are too busy with their
professional upgrading and the positions they hold at work to bother about the
moral upbringing of their children. In school teachers emphasise scholastic
achievement above moral development. The society does not provide black
adolescents with moral role models to imitate. Society has become to
technocratic, with devices such as the TV, radio, Internet and video games, to
guide black adolescents in their moral intemalisation.
