When selection trumps persistence : the lasting effect of missionary education in South Africa
Date
2015-01-15
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
International Institute of Social History
Abstract
To estimate the long-term, persistent effects of missionary education requires
two strong assumptions: that mission station settlement is uncorrelated with
other economic variables, such as soil quality and access to markets, and 2)
that selection into (and out of) mission stations is unimportant. Both these
assumptions are usually not sufficiently addressed, which renders the interpretation
of the persistent effects of mission stations suspect. We use an 1849
mission census of the Cape Colony in South Africa to test whether, controlling
for location and selection, mission station education can explain education
outcomes 147 years later. Our first set of results show that Black and Coloured
residents of districts with a mission station are today likely to attain more
years of schooling than those in districts with no stations. In addition, when
only modern-day controls are included, education seems to be the mechanism
that explains this persistence. However, when we control for selection in
1849, literacy loses its explanatory power. Education outcomes may be highly
persistent – even in the face of active repression by apartheid authorities – but
the key factor is early selection and not education persistence.
Description
CITATION: Fourie, J. & Swanepoel, C. 2015. When selection trumps persistence : the lasting effect of missionary education in South Africa. Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis, 12(1):1–30, doi:10.18352/tseg.32.
The original publication is available at https://www.tseg.nl
The original publication is available at https://www.tseg.nl
Keywords
Education -- South Africa -- Cape of Good Hope, Missions -- Study and teaching
Citation
Fourie, J. & Swanepoel, C. 2015. When selection trumps persistence : the lasting effect of missionary education in South Africa. Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis, 12(1):1–30, doi:10.18352/tseg.32.