A Free-Format Values Inventory: Explorations with Zimbabwean Student Teachers

Studies of values have been rare in Africa, and have been confined mainly to work values. Furthermore, most such research have used value constructs which emerged from Western research, rather than establishing which factors best describe the local data. A form of measuring instrument is proposed in which each item defines a value construct at a level that can be understood by any respondent; the importance of each value is rated on a simple scale, and the resultant data analysed at the individual and group levels. A prototype 81 item Life and Work Values inventory is described, and data from 400 male and female Black student teachers are presented. The results are shown to correspond broadly with expectations based on other research. Minor sex differences are evident, but factors concerning a comfortable life, conformity to convention, competence and activity, freedom for the self, and achievement and recognition emerge for the total sample. It is argued that the method warrants further development, and strategies for research at the individual, societal, and cross-cultural levels are discussed.