Education Commons^™

Cultural Values And Education In Western Samoa: Tensions Between Colonial Roots And Influences And Contemporary Indigenous Needs, Steven J. Hite, E. Vance Randall, Gaugau Va'afuti Tavana

Faculty Publications

The expansion of western culture throughout the world unavoidably alters and re-shapes the perspective of the peoples engulfed by the "West." The western "universalist" culture engenders a premium on values such as "democracy, individualism, and a high standard of living based on material productivity" (Von Laue, 1987, p. 267; Philips, 1992, p. 80). The encroachment of the western colonial era in the pacific areas of Samoa, Tonga, and the Cook Islands began around 1722 and continues in many forms to the present.