The case studies summarized in this report are based on ethnographic surveys carried out mainly in Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, and Senegal (collectively called "Tropical Africa" in the text). The surveys were also carried out in the Maghreb countries, especially Algeria and southern India. Their common objective was to study the methods of socialization and the transmission of knowledge in each of these cultural regions. Efforts were focused on highlighting "traditional" educational concepts and practices in the context of family groups, in which the relationships between parents and children can be readily observed and understood. As noted by the investigators, the societies examined are organized on the basis of lineage or caste, and polygamy is practiced in the three regions. Thus, the word "family" is not seen as referring so much to a restricted environment characterized by an intense relationship between parents and children as to an infinitely wide-ranging social environment (an extended family, more properly termed a "domestic unit"). In this context, it is argued that education must be construed in its broadest sense, involving a variety of forms depending on the sociocultural environment in which it emerges. Specifically, the content of education is perceived as being the ideals, knowledge, and know-how focused on the child. (RH)