The role of education in peacebuilding: an analysis of five change theories in Sierra Leone

This paper raises a number of critical questions regarding the contribution of education to peacebuilding. Despite recent calls for greater collaboration between the two fields, there is still a lack of clarity regarding the change theories through which education may contribute to peacebuilding processes. This paper outlines developments over the past decade in the field of education and conflict, before identifying five rationales for the ways in which education contributes to peacebuilding. The second half of the paper examines the translation of these rationales into practice. Sierra Leone is often regarded as a success story of UN peacebuilding and, 10 years post-agreement, offers the opportunity to examine a broad range of programming. Using data gathered during a two-week field study (17–28 January, 2011), the paper reflects on five education programmes that operated in Sierra Leone in the post-conflict period. Semi-structured interviews were held with project personnel and beneficiaries, educational officials, students and graduates, community leaders and UN personnel to assess views on the contribution of education to peacebuilding, the rationales informing projects and challenges to implementation. A number of critical questions are raised regarding the lessons learned by the international community, its tendency to pursue its own agendas and its commitment to conflict transformation through peacebuilding.     

Using transformative models of adult literacy in conflict resolution and peacebuilding processes at community level: examples from Guinea,Sierra Leone and Sudan

This paper draws on the experience in Guinea, Sierra Leone and South Sudan, to explore how the methodology and modalities of community based participatory literacy can interrelate and combine with those of conflict resolution and peacebuilding. The paper considers how transformative models of literacy, such as those of Freire, REFLECT, the ActionAid literacy programme, and ‘New Literacy Studies’, along with the self‐expression and creative writing these generate, can contribute to the processes of forgiveness, reconciliation and reconstruction. It argues that adult literacy programmes constitute an important element in post‐conflict reconstruction.     

Effects in post-conflict West Africa of teacher training for refugee women

This article draws data from an innovative research project tracing former refugee teachers who received teacher training from the International Rescue Committee (IRC) over a 17-year-long education programme in refugee camps in Guinea (1991–2008). The research traced repatriated refugee teachers who had returned to their homes in Sierra Leone and Liberia in an effort to determine the effects of the training they received – particularly whether they were still working as teachers in their post-repatriation lives, or whether they had made use of their training in other ways. Although the research in question focused on all of the former IRC teachers who the research team could trace, the present paper is about the female teachers and their specific situations. Focusing on the women's responses yields the gender-specific conclusions about structural barriers to institutional and societal changes in conflict and post-conflict settings.     

Parenting and discipline in post-conflict Sierra Leone

BackgroundWhile the literature on physical punishment concludes that it has negative effects on children, the practice remains common in many countries. In post-conflict countries with nongovernmental organizations (NGO) operating in child protection, traditional disciplinary practices may conflict with international child rights agendas. The country of Sierra Leone has a unique history of conflict, abject poverty, low literacy, and weak governance – often, NGO agents are responsible for providing social services that the government is unable to consistently provide.ObjectiveWe examined how Sierra Leonean caregivers think about appropriate discipline for children, and whether they perceived any changes in their attitudes toward disciplinary practices since the end of the war.Participants and SettingWe collected data from parents and caregivers in urban, peri-urban, and rural areas of Sierra Leone’s four districts.MethodsWe used focus groups (12 groups, n = 92) and individual interviews (n = 21) to collect data in 2013. Focus groups and interviews were conducted by research assistants fluent in Krio and English. We used a thematic content analysis approach.ResultsWe found that physical discipline—“beating”—was widely acceptable and common. A few parents mentioned other means of discipline, such as withholding food. Parents widely agreed that parenting had changed since the war, and reported that child rights movements supported by NGOs had made it more difficult to discipline their children in traditional ways.ConclusionsDiscipline was seen a central component of child-rearing and a means of ensuring safe and proper development. This may be a protective mechanism in the precarious, high poverty environment of post-war Sierra Leone. The negative responses of parents to NGO efforts to reduce physical punishment and other forms of child abuse suggest that grassroots approaches are needed to address this pervasive problem.     

Culturally responsive peacebuilding pedagogy: a case study of Fambul Tok Peace Clubs in conflict-affected Sierre Leone

Recent research on the peace-promoting agency of teachers in conflict-affected contexts has critiqued the dominance of a menu of curriculum initiatives circulated within aid organizations which ignore or dismiss indigenous cultural resources available within local communities. On the other hand, the turn to local culture in peacebuilding interventions has also been critiqued for idealizing the local. This paper presents a case study of the work of Fambul Tok Peace Clubs in conflict-affected Sierra Leone which aim to support teachers in drawing on local practices, rituals and symbols. Using an interpretative approach, alert to the meanings teachers ascribe to their pedagogical practices, it finds that teachers respond to local culture in multiple, sometimes contradictory ways. These range from celebration of indigenous practices as resources for conflict resolution that resonate with their pupils and communities to critique of their oppressive gender norms and inability to address structural drivers of conflict.     

Educational change in Sierra Leone: Making a case for critical African drama

This paper posits that continued adherence to the inherited British model constitutes one of the major problems inherent in the educational system in Sierra Leone and that the introduction of what the author is calling critical African drama could constitute a major and specific step toward the decolonization and Africanization of education in Sierra Leone. The author outlines some of the problematics of education in Sierra Leone, critiques the tentativeness with which African elements have been introduced, puts forward proposals for change and advances critical African drama to illustrate how these proposals could be implemented in and what they would mean for the specific subject area of literature/drama studies in secondary schools.     

Education as humanisation: a theoretical review on the role of dialogic pedagogy in peacebuilding education

In this literature review, we explore the potential role of education in supporting peacebuilding and societal transformation after violent conflict. Following a critical analysis of the literature published by academics and practitioners, we identify the notion of humanisation (as in the seminal works of Paulo Freire and others) as a unifying conceptual core. Peacebuilding education as humanisation is realised by critical reflection and dialogue in most curricular initiatives reviewed, an approach aimed at overcoming the contextual educational constraints often rooted in societal division and segregation, strained community relations and past traumas. We argue that education as humanisation and critical dialogue can offer pedagogical strategies and provide a compelling conceptual framework for peacebuilding education. Such a conceptual framework can serve as a basis for research in the area, especially in contexts where educational institutions tend to be structured to dehumanise.     

How School Choice Is Framed by Parental Preferences and Family Characteristics: A Study of Western Area,Sierra Leone

This research set out to investigate how, in a post-conflict area, parental preferences and household characteristics affect school choice for their children. A multinomial logit is used to model the relationship between education preferences and the selection of schools for 954 households in Freetown and neighboring districts, Western Area, Sierra Leone. The increased economic well-being of a family tends to increase the likelihood of choosing a nongovernment school. As a child gets older parents are more likely to select government over nongovernment schools. For girls, parents are twice as likely to select a nongovernmental organization (NGO) school than a government one. Where parental preference for girls is a “safe environment” government is the preferred choice over a private proprietor school. Interestingly, the level of household education does not affect the likelihood of attending any school management type.     

Reconstruction versus transformation: Post-war education and the struggle for gender equity in Sierra Leone

In post-war contexts, education is widely regarded as essential not only for civic reconciliation, but also as a key force for gender equity. In Sierra Leone, however, despite enhanced educational opportunities for girls, much of the emphasis on post-war educational reconstruction is unlikely to rectify gender inequities that remain entrenched within mainstream schooling and in the broader social context. Yet the capacity of education to contribute to gender-based change has not been entirely muted. Several women's associations are supporting girls’ education as integral to economic and political actions aimed at challenging the hegemony of patriarchy and gendered violence. What remains to be seen is whether these discrete efforts can foster a women's movement capable of altering the structures of patriarchal power in Sierra Leone.     

Does community poverty reduce children’s school attendance more at primary education than at secondary education? Evidence from post-conflict Sierra Leone

In Sierra Leone, the number of primary schools is almost seven times more than junior-secondary schools (JSS). Living in a poor community has been shown to reduce children’s school attendance because of lower access and poorer quality of education in these communities. However, it is unclear whether living in a poor community reduces attendance at primary school more than at JSS, given the wide disparities in school supply between the two educational tiers. Random effects logistic regression models are applied to the 2008 Sierra Leone Demographic and Health Survey for analyses. The results show that living in a poor community reduces primary school attendance but increases attendance at JSS. These results reflect post-war reconstruction in Sierra Leone where: (1) primary schools were rapidly reconstructed without inspection, leading to poor-quality schools; and (2) the redevelopment of JSS was concentrated in war-torn areas, which had minimal access to post-primary education in the pre-war era.     

University agency in peacebuilding: Perspectives on conflict and development in Kenya

In 2007, Kenya erupted into violence as a result of heavily contested elections. Because identity divisions lay at the heart of the conflict, the nation’s public universities were deeply impacted, at times pitting students, faculty, and staff against one another, and disrupting the ability of Kenyan higher education to contribute to the development process. This qualitative case study explores how faculty and administrators, at two public institutions in a conflict zone, understand and describe their university’s contributions to development. Analyzed through the lens of conflict transformation, the data reveal that the universities changed internal policies and practices to accommodate constituents impacted by the conflict and to cut across conflict lines, and that participants shifted in their thinking about the institution’s internal and external relationships and purposes. The article has two aims. It offers preliminary heuristics for peacebuilding as a university process, providing a framework of practices and policies that engage university constituencies and may transform conflict. It also shows how conflict changed participants’ perspectives about the relationships between themselves, higher education, and development in their country. Further, this article explores a connection between participant beliefs about peacebuilding and development in Kenya.     

School mining clubs in Kono,Sierra Leone: the practices and imaginaries of a pedagogy of protest against social injustice in a conflict-affected context

ABSTRACT

This paper takes as a case study the pedagogical practices emergent from the educational interventions of a civil society organisation in the conflict affected region of Kono, Sierra Leone. Using a cultural political economy approach, it highlights the possibilities of pedagogy being leveraged to protest against perceived and experienced social injustices. In so doing it contributes to understanding of a context-specific model of teacher agency, rooted in the local and global challenges faced by pupils and their communities. It thereby illuminates an alternative to the generic and decontextualized framings of pedagogy frequently offered in human rights and peace education curricula.     

Swimming with the Shoal

This article responds to Yuli Rahmawati and Peter Charles Taylor’s piece and explores my role as a science teacher, science teacher educator and researcher in two contexts, Sierra Leone and Bhutan. In the first part of the article I reflect on my 3 years as a science teacher in Sierra Leone and demonstrate resonances with Yuli’s accounts of culture shock and with her positioning of herself in a third space. I also reflect on the importance of colleagues in helping me reshape my identity as a science teacher in this new context. The second part of the article reflects on much shorter periods of time in Bhutan and my work as a teacher educator and researcher where, unlike Sierra Leone, it was not possible because of the short periods I worked there, to occupy a third space. I close by discussing how in Bhutan, but also Sierra Leone, collaboration with colleagues allowed me to contribute my own expertise, despite my lack of a deep understanding of the cultural context, in a way that was as valuable as possible. I liken this way of collaborative working in my professional life as ‘swimming with the shoal’.     

Teachers as agents of peace? Exploring teacher agency in social cohesion in Pakistan

This paper studies an under-researched area – teachers’ role in peacebuilding in conflict-affected contexts – through exploring teacher agency for social cohesion in Pakistan. Insights are sought into teachers’ perspectives on the major drivers of conflict in society and the role of education and teachers in social cohesion and mitigating inequities in education. A 4Rs framework of redistribution, recognition, representation and reconciliation was employed to analyse data gathered from: interviews with and classroom observations of teacher educators; focus-group discussions with and a questionnaire completed by pre- and in-service teachers; and analysis of teacher education and school curriculum texts. While teachers expressed a nuanced understanding of the conflict drivers in society and appreciated the significance of education in peacebuilding, they subscribed to assimilationist approaches to social cohesion, which were aligned with curriculum texts and promoted official nation-building agendas. Additionally, teachers saw issues of social cohesion as peripheral to the core academic curriculum. Teachers’ identity was integrally linked to their religious affiliations.     

Constructing citizenship in post-conflict contexts: the cases of Liberia and Rwanda

In post-conflict and fragile contexts, one central aim of education is to prepare citizens to rebuild society and manage conflict. In this paper, we discuss the ways that citizenship education, students’ civic attitudes, and student civic practices vary across two post-conflict contexts in Africa: Liberia and Rwanda. First, we consider the historical and current complexities of citizenship education in these countries drawing on a post-colonial framework and Osler and Starkey’s three dimensions of citizenship. Next, we discuss survey and interview data from secondary students based on separate multi-level case studies in the respective countries. We note differences and similarities in student conceptions of good citizenship, civic identity, classroom climate, and civic engagement across the two countries, as well as variation by school type and gender. Some notable findings included less active conceptions of citizenship and openness to discussing controversial issues in Rwanda than in Liberia, and less participation in out of school activities among young women than young men. These and other results highlight differing contextual values of development, security, freedom of speech, and civic action and the overall importance of citizenship education in a post-conflict context.     

Exploring humanitarian law: Armed conflict and education for social cohesion

preliminary evidence from a variety of settings around the world indicates that a focus on the shared human experiences of people affected by armed conflict appears to respond to diverse educational needs in very different social and political settings. Education in humanitarian law fosters increased awareness of humanitarian issues in the face of the threat of armed conflict, encourages a shared sense of citizenship in post-conflict settings through the exploration of minimal international humanitarian norms, and heightens awareness of less contentious means of addressing social and political violence through the examination of various issues of global concern. In post-conflict and divided societies, education based on the exploration of humanitarian issues highlights the common human concerns that arise in times of armed conflict, concerns that are often obscured by politically and ideologically driven analyses. By developing a sense of shared destiny, education in humanitarian law can contribute to strengthening and rebuilding social cohesion.     

The role of basic education in post-conflict recovery

The last decade has seen a growing recognition amongst international donors, development agencies, non-government organisations and academics of the vital role education can play in bringing about recovery following violent conflict, natural disaster and other crises. This has led to the development of increasingly targeted and sophisticated programme planning and management tools, for use by government ministries, UN agencies and non-governmental organisations in fragile contexts. Drawing on the 2010 independent study of UNICEF's Education in Emergencies and Post-Conflict Transition Programme, this paper explores the transformative role education can play in post-conflict recovery. It argues that while basic education assistance can have a catalytic role in helping states during the early stages of a transition out of violent conflict, there is the need for a better understanding of its role in building peace at the national, sub-national and community levels. The paper also argues for the development of a solid evidence base to inform policy and practice at all national, regional and community levels so as to demonstrate conclusively the important role played by education during and in the aftermath of conflict.     

Quality in an Integrated Rural Development Program: the Sierra Leone experience

As part of a longitudinal research study started in 1984, the purpose of this paper is to critically examine the issue of quality in an Integrated Rural Development project in Sierra Leone. An in-depth study was conducted (1990-93) to assess pre-service teacher quality, using two major indices: teacher knowledge base of subject-matter and teacher beliefs about teaching and classroom management. The results indicate that quality is affected by what knowledge teachers possess in a given subject area and their perceptions of teaching. This research is a departure from the traditional areas of looking at quality in education, that is from what happens to students in the education process to the issue of the quality of education teachers receive during their training.     

Global citizenship as education for peacebuilding in a divided society: structural and contextual constraints on the development of critical dialogic discourse in schools

In post-conflict and divided societies, global citizenship education has been described as a central element of peacebuilding education, whereby critical pedagogy is seen as a tool to advance students’ thinking, transform their views and promote democratic behaviours. The present study investigates understandings of and attitudes to global citizenship and the challenges faced in its implementation. Teacher interviews highlight lack of time and resources for critical reflection and dialogue. Where opportunities for relevant training are provided, this can benefit critical engagement. Boundaries of educational systems and structures also influence pupils’ understandings of the issues as evidenced in questionnaire findings. We argue that critical pedagogies may be limited unless criticality and activism transcend local and global issues and are applied to schools themselves. Emotional engagement may be required for teachers to claim the space to critically reflect and share with colleagues within and beyond their sectors in order to enable critical discourse amongst pupils.     

A conceptual framework to analyse the multiscalar politics of education for sustainable peacebuilding

A critical and more nuanced understanding of the multifaceted relationship between projects of peacebuilding and educational provision is starting to develop. Drawing on an epistemological and ontological anchor of critical realism, and a methodology informed by the application of cultural political economy analysis and the strategic relational approach to understanding educational discourses, processes and outcomes, we illustrate how the ‘many faces’ of education in conflict-affected situations can be better theorised and conceptually represented. In doing so, we link goals of peacebuilding to those of social justice, and reinvigorate the notion of education playing a transformative rather than a restorative role in conflict-affected contexts. Making such ideas concrete, we provide examples of how such an analytical framework can be employed to understand the multi-faceted relationship between education and projects of social transformation in conflict-affected environments across the globe.