De cara a las cuatro caras del maestro

This section of the thesis will review the notions and theory behind the processes of socialisation and learning from toddlerhood to adolescence into adulthood. It also deals with the role of socialisation in the teaching of norms and behaviours that allows the Timoroan to become functioning members of society. This section seeks to contextualise socialisation theory to the particular context of Timoroan society.

In the section above socio-culturalist or learning-in-culture theory and notions examined provide useful information on the processes of learning and its applicability to the understanding of how the Timoroan learn and develop their particular worldview.

Given that the majority of respondents of this research study were Timoroan between the ages of 18 and 35 and identified the first stage of learning to be Timoroan as being through their mother-father and others (inan-aman sira) and within the family home context (iha uma laran), followed by the peer environment, then the formal education environment and followed by an understanding of the media and State environment (see Figure 15), it can be safely generalised most of the learning to be Timoroan not only starts but develops and

Page | 126 matures early on in the lifecycle, which in itself is not exclusive to the experience of the Timoroan in Timor-Leste.

A question pertinent to this study was then, in the developmental or learning process, who is responsible for teaching or at the very least facilitating the development of cognition about one’s culture (as referring to the notion here of a complete way of life).

In a person’s development context, socialisation is a concept used to describe and explain the processes by which individuals from childhood and throughout their lifecycle (from birth to death) acquire the behaviours necessary to enable them to fit in with their culture and operate or function within their society. It is through socialisation processes, a child acquires the rules of behaviour and the systems of belief and attitudes of a given society or social group, so that he or she can function within it (Birch, 1997, p. 17).

Departing from this maxim then the Timoroan child is mostly likely to have been socialised from toddlerhood until they reach puberty about the behaviours necessary to enable him or her to fit and function as a Timoroan within Timorese culture and society. In this regard it is important to look at the concept of socialisation in the developmental process of children and through the lifecycle in general and also in non-western societies given they are more closely related to the Timor-Leste context.

For Maccoby (2006, p. 13) the concept of socialisation deals with processes whereby naïve individuals, that is, young children are taught and learn the skills, behaviour patterns, values, and motivations needed so he or she can competently function in culture. Even though the socialisation process leaves the most lasting effect when occurring in childhood, socialisation processes occur throughout the lifecycle and are not static or linear or unidirectional, that is, they continue as people have become more mobile and globalized and need to adapt to new social settings all the time.

There are many agents of socialisation in any given society involved in shaping and moulding an individual from birth to death but despite myriad agents involved in the socialisation process it is generally accepted that parents (and religious teachers in some societies), are regarded as being the primary agents responsible for the broad moral socialisation of the growing child (Maccoby, 2006, p. 13).

The child’s family of origin is the first stage of development and in many cases the most enduring. For the author, socialising institutions, joined by peer groups, schools, religious institutions, and, in adulthood, employers and intimate partners as sources of norms for social behaviour too. For her too, a person depending on how he or she develops

Page | 127 according to the norms and behaviours of society can then be said to be said to be either well or poorly socialised (Maccoby, 2006).

Nevertheless cultural variation is importance in the study of the process of socialisation in cultures such as Timor-Leste’s.

The bulk of earlier research conducted on socialisation focussed on western traditional family environments. Such research is the source of contemporary controversy because the traditional family is no longer composed by two married, heterosexual adults raising children to whom they are biologically related which was for the most part of the 20th Century the normative and ideal family context for socialisation, that is the mother-father and 2.5 children family model. In the western world also diversity of family is rapidly on the rise. According to Raj and Raval (2013) research undertaken in the field of developmental psychology on parenting has generally focused on the experiences of middle class white families in United States (US) and other Western countries such as the United Kingdom (UK). For the same authors, culturally diverse parenting and family socialisation practices falling outside this middle class white and western norm have tended to be compared unfavourably.

In the particular case of Timor-Leste then the collective nature of the Timorese family and the roles of the extended family would certainly fall outside the norm. In more collectivist cultures, such as Timoroan culture, child rearing emphasizes conformity, obedience, security, and reliability as opposed to individualist cultures where child rearing emphasizes independence, exploration, creativity, and self-reliance (Triandis, 2001).

Some statistical notes on the composition of the Timorese family highlight the point of it being necessary to take into account the context of the Timoroan family for the analysis of these types of issues.

According to the 2009–2010 Timor-Leste Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), 17.7 percent of Timorese children either do not live with their parents or live with only one parent. The same report highlights another important factor in that the mean household size in Timor-Leste is 6 persons; with 15 percent of households having 9 or more usual members. According to the same report, urban households are slightly more likely to be larger than rural households as they accommodate relatives who move from the rural areas to seek opportunities for employment and study in the urban centres. Another important factor that needs to be considered is the fact that 23 percent of households in Timor-Leste have orphans or foster children under the age of 18 (GoTL, 2010). Thus the standard Timoroan household is much larger than a standard household in an advanced capitalist county.

Page | 128 Triandis (2001) definition of collective cultures are easily discernible within Timorese cultural practices whereby the Timoroan often conforms to the constraints of reality such as younger generations conforming to having to learn Portuguese as an official language, they learn to obey without questioning authority figures, lack of security is the source of much anxiety; and rely on each other and on others greatly. These are traits that are very noticeable in Timorese culture. Such traits are socialised in Timor-Leste primarily in childhood.

Data gathered in this research project indicates the type of socialisation in Timor- Leste discussed below, occurs primarily in toddlerhood with the child’s (extended) family of origin being first and then joined by peer groups, with schools, religious institutions, the media and the State playing a lesser role at this point in the socialisation of the Timorese child as sources of norms for social behaviour.

As discussed earlier and according to socialisation theory there are several agents of socialisation, that is, individuals but also groups or institutions that are highly influential in teaching other individuals throughout the lifecycle about the culture and norms of a particular society he or she lives in that allows a particular individual to function as a member of society.

Some of the most powerful agents of socialisation in contemporary and more advanced capitalist societies are: parents or guardians, peers and siblings, the media, teachers (including coaches and youth leaders) and religious leaders. These agents of socialisation exist in most societies although the process which these agents use to socialise differs from one cultural context to the other.

For Triandis (2001, p. 907) the most significant cultural difference among cultures appears to be what the author terms the individualism-collectivism cultural syndrome. As discussed earlier the socialisation process in Timor-Leste is done in a way that reflects the more collective nature of the extended family and social networks that exist in Timor-Leste. The most powerful agents of socialisation in Timor-Leste are the inan-aman sira (mother- father and other caregivers) as will be discussed in the research analysis sections of this thesis. The key word here is sira (meaning they but in this context others). The others concept is crux here because the parental role is not in the exclusive domain of the biological parents rather it is a communal and shared responsibility.

A child’s first major contact and influences are the parents or guardians. Gradually, this child comes in contact with other adults such as day-care providers or grandparents or mama-kolo (wet-nurses) who teach different skills, values, and cultural knowledge. Later the child is likely to form friendships, and this means contact with peers as well as peer’s parents

Page | 129 and other family members. Gradually, the number of interactions grows and the child is exposed to media, teachers, coaches, religious leaders, and other adults and children (Grauerholz & Swart, 2012, pp. 21-22).

Socialisation Theory recognises that a child’s first major contact and influence are the parents or guardians. It is from parents and those who assume and share parental and nurturing roles that a child receives substantial amounts of discreet cultural knowledge that allows him or her to understand the world. The theory also points out that in most societies; women still tend to be the primary caretakers of children. This entails mothers and other female guardians often play a particularly powerful role in shaping children’s beliefs and behaviours (Grauerholz & Swart, 2012).

In contemporary societies this is no longer the strict norm given the concept of ‘traditional families’ has changed and will continue to change rapidly. No longer are children being raised by two parents biologically gender different; many are being raised by same-sex parents; some are raised by a single parent, some are raised by one biological parent and one non-biological parent, some are being raised by their grandparents as both parents concentrate on their careers. The concept of family is not as clear cut as it was when the studies in the field of socialisation begun. Also children are socialised within culture; in the same way culture is now playing such an important role in the cognitive development of children (as discussed previously).

It is also no longer the norm that all children are raised the same way, rather in different cultures, children are raised differently.

Men who share an ethnic area, a historical era, or an economic pursuit are guided by common images of good and evil. Infinitely varied, these images reflect the elusive nature of historical change; prototypes of good and evil, they assume decisive concreteness in every individual’s ego development.

(Erikson E. H., 1959, p. 17).

The immediate social networks children are exposed to vary from one culture to another. Thus it follows that cultural variation also exerts significant and differential influences over mental, emotional, and social development of children (Bornstein, 1991, p. 3).

It is now widely recognised that peers and friends also play a profound influencing role in the way an individual learns his or her behaviours and values. In contemporary

Page | 130 societies this peer socialisation may not even occur face-to-face anymore and can be achieved through digital social networks such as Facebook or Instagram or Twitter.

Several key findings were made through this research project that will greatly assist in our understanding of where and how Timoroan is socialised and learns to be.

The Timoroan learns to be Timoroan (self-collective, person identity, social identity, and national identity) within the cultural extended family context and is primarily socialised by inan-aman sira25 (mother-father and other caregivers) in the uma laran26 (within the home).

Thus some of the core attributes socialised and that children are exposed to in the family context reflect primarily the ethnic background, a series of relationships, attitudes towards education and social status, and family dynamics. It is within the family also that definite rituals, habits and attitudes are established. At this level also children receive the validation they are accepted by a primary group and how they are able then to operate within that group and within society (Spodek & Saracho, 2008).

The Timoroan self is also much more aware of being a self-collective or a having self- in-relation-to-others than as a self-individual. In Timorese traditional structure, this self- collective is often determined in culture through rituals such as the barlake (traditional union) of two self-collective Timoroan persons whereby the ceremony represents both the union of man-woman Timoroan but principally a union of their collectives or families. With the barlake comes the expectation that two families are united and conceivably share common but now expanded purposes through the lia27_{. It is within this cultural context then that the} uma laran must be considered because the Uma Laran in this context represents the Inan- Aman Sira’s (Mother-Father and Others) Home (in the unlikely event the parents separate to

25 _{Inan-Aman sira = literally translates as Mother-Father and others which can be}

contextualised into meaning that the parental role is a shared role in Timorese society in that parenting duties are exercised not only by the biological parents but also by other members of the extended traditional Timoroan family: parents, grandparents, siblings and other first- cousins, uncles and aunties and including also the traditional wet-nurses.

26 _{Uma-Laran= literally translates as inside the home but in a cultural context uma-laran also} refers to all the persons who have access (granted and implied) to the real of the traditional Timorese household and this includes the clan. The uma-laran can represent all the social spaces, although primarily the home, frequented by the cultural extended family a Timoroan belongs to by descent or marriage-alliance.

27 _{Lia – lia can be seen as sets of family and clan commitments that require by cultural}

obligation the collective to come together so for example the burden of someone who belongs to that same collective is shared, such as during a lia-mate (death). The important aspect of a lia is that participation is more a matter of obligation than a matter of choice and it helps to bind members of the same collective to one another and to the collective as a whole.

Page | 131 either the family of the man or the woman depending on barlake arrangements) and also the households of the clans to which they belong to.

Such as it takes place in Timorese society and as noted by Miller (2011, p. 211) who suggested that in societies, community members may share the socialisation of the young, and even reprimand misbehaviour in children other than their own. But this is possible because these children are encouraged to participate in daily activities within the community, in contrast to the segregation of children from community work and social activities in middle-class European and American communities.

Thus the socialisation processes in Timor-Leste occur at different stages as illustrated below and in comparison to the stages of the socialisation process in western and more advanced societies.

a. Timoroan Process of Socialisation. b. Western Process of Socialisation.

Figure 15: The socialisation of Timoroan National Identity compared to the socialisation process of National Identity in mostly western and advanced societies.

There is another likely reason why the major agents of socialisation in Timor-Leste in particular of Timoroan national identity are still the parents and other immediate relatives, and the kolegas (peers) rather than the formal education system or even the media, such as in more advanced capitalist societies.

The socialisation processes referred to in this section are not new to Timor, in particular in regards to the socialisation of a political national identity. In fact, the Timoroan as stated previously have been socialised at one point or another during the 500 years of foreign occupation to be either Portuguese or Indonesian.

Page | 132 The major agent of socialisation during the occupation periods was the formal education system. Initially and during Portuguese presence in Timor-Leste, the Portuguese education system with assimilation philosophies was designed to educate elites who would then go on to develop strong affinities to Portugal and the Portuguese language. The Indonesian soon became aware of this reality after the invasion and implemented a large- scale educational system as the cornerstone of its assimilationist policy to re-socialise the Timoroan to let go of both their Portuguese legacy and embrace becoming Indonesian.

It knew that through education the Indonesian government could resocialise the younger generations. Through the imposition of the Indonesian language, the national Pancasila ideology, the respect for typical Indonesian symbols of patriotism such as the flag and the national anthem, and the dissemination of a new version of history, Indonesia sought to ensure that young Timorese could eventually come to view themselves as full-fledged Indonesian citizens. Moreover, schools would become the main sites of interaction between Timorese and the children of transmigrant workers – Indonesians who voluntarily decide to migrate to East Timor in search of better economic opportunities. The Indonesian government hoped that through close contact among students, potential animosity between the different ethnic and religious groups would dissipate over time.

(Arenas, 1998, p. 131)

The types of socialisation processes employed by the Portuguese colonial administration but more assertively and pervasively by the Indonesian regime during the occupation were achieved through the formal education system. This is likely to have caused the Timoroan to develop great distrust in the education system. This then helps explain why most of the socialisation of the Timoroan takes place at home and is done by the parents and other close relatives.

In the context of the Indonesian occupation of Timor-Leste, socialisation took a much more aggressive integrationist agenda promoted through the education curriculum. This was done to help facilitate the integration of the newly made 27th Province of Indonesia and of the Timoroan as Indonesians to the rest of the Republic. And again mirroring what the Portuguese colonial education system had attempted to do previously, the education that the Timoroan received in Indonesia meant to civilise them and instil in them a sense of being Indonesians through a concerted effort to make them Indonesian (Van Klinken, 2013). Even though these socialisation attempts failed, it was not by lack of trying, but in the case of Indonesia, as