Robert Serpell

Robert Serpell is vice chancellor of the University of Zambia. He has conducted numerous studies on gaps in academic performance between ethnic groups, finding that even within a given society, different cognitive characteristics are emphasized from one situation to another and from one subculture to another. These differences extend not just to conceptions of intelligence but to what is considered adaptive or appropriate in a broader sense. ["Estimates of intelligence in a rural community of Eastern Zambia" (Serpell, 1974)] Serpell's work shows how of intelligence vary from culture to culture, and that the majority of these views do not reflect Western ideas. [ [http://www.apa.org/monitor/feb03/intelligence.html Intelligence across cultures: Research in Africa, Asia and Latin America is showing how culture and intelligence interact.] by Etienne Benson]

Serpell and others have found that people in some African communities--especially where Western schooling has not yet become common--tend to blur the Western distinction between intelligence and social competence. In rural Zambia, for instance, the concept of nzelu includes both cleverness (chenjela) and responsibility (tumikila).

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