Nnadiebube Journal of Education

This paper is titled “the influence of nwaneku on the moral formation and education of a child as one expands moral development theory by Gilligan Carol within African philosophy of education. Nwanekunwa is an Igbo concept meaning a child that nurtures a baby. It is an old traditional African practice where a child, sometimes from a different sociocultural background, is brought into a family for the purpose of nurturing another child. This paper tries to evaluate the possible challenges meted on the nurturer, in her inexperience, and the baby, in her motor sensory stage and consequent academic excursus. The question is ‘can a child nurture a child?’ What we do here, can it in anyway be likened to what is obtainable globally? The researcher among using available data and child development theories discovered that nwanekunwa is not a nanny nor a babysitter, neither a childminder nor a governess in the true formal sense of these concepts. Nwaana- eku at the end of the day develops double moral standard: that of the mother and that of nwanekunwa. It was recommended among other things that since a mother’s love is unquantifiable, in choosing our educational career, we must take into consideration our primary role, and get a more experienced person to do the job.

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