Deeds not words: Marianist brothers, agents to moral and youth leadership in Zambia’s Matero Township

Abstract

This article seeks to investigate how the Marianist Brothers in their endeavour to provide education to local boys achieved the five-fold pedagogical moral values and evoked the youthful character of their learners to become leaders and entrepreneur in life after school. The study was anchored on Cox’s theory of phenomenology of religion. The research was qualitative in nature and employed the case study design specifically the follow-up case in order to get the in-depth information from participants’ lived experiences. The total of 35 participants took part in this research. The key participants were purposively sampled while the former boys were identified through Respondent Driven Sampling. The findings showed that the brothers’ everyday life was the core in forming the soul of Christ in their learners. The former pupils emulated the characteristics of the Marianist Brothers. They were hardworking, honest, punctual, passionate and rendered service to others. The study revealed that the former boys who took part in the study, were all in high profile positions. Further, it was revealed that the former boys who were not in formal employment had a self-sustainable business. The study established that the educational virtues the boys leant from MaBoys provided them with a positive mindset to be productive citizens in life. The study recommends that the Educational National Curriculum should consider making Religious Education a compulsory subject to all learners. By doing so, learners may acquire moral values for behavioural transformation and capacity building in youths.