The Education Study Group held its autumn seminar, entitled 'Education and Violent Conflict - Lessons Learnt from Ireland and Africa`.
The seminar explored experiences and understandings of the role and contribution of school-based education to conflict, to the transition from conflict to peace, as well as education's role in the development, of reconciled societies based on mutual respect across ethnic and traditional boundaries. Drawing on experiences in Africa and Ireland, North and South, the seminar discussed whether forms and content of education reinforce division, and how effective programmes intended to promote peace and reconciliation can be.
Background
The interaction between violent conflict and educational systems is a relatively understudied area within the broader fields of security studies and peace and conflict studies. While at the macro level, the role of education systems in the construction of nationalist identities has been theorized by writers such as Gellner, Anderson and Hobsbawn, these foundational texts rarely refer to the African experience of post-colonial nation state construction and do not explicitly address how educational systems function and what effects they might have in situations of violent conflict on the continent. Too often prevailing narratives of conflict on the continent assume that already weak educational systems simply collapse in the face of violent conflict, rather than recognizing the ways in which (often fragmented educational systems) persevere in the face of enormous challenges.
In situations where educational systems continue to function during situations of violent conflict or post-conflict, these systems can provide opportunities to contribute to processes of conflict transformation. Peace Education whether explicitly using that term, or terms such as Education for Mutual/Inter-cultural Understanding, Education in Conflict Resolution and Peace Building, has provided one avenue for such efforts – one that has acquired growing significance within education programmes over the past thirty and more years. This is most evident in school, further education and higher education curricula, especially and not surprisingly in situations which have experienced significant conflict.
In Ireland, most particularly in Northern Ireland, almost from the very outbreak of the recent conflict school curricula have included studies of how education might have contributed to the conflict as well a variety of programmes aimed at promoting cross-community and cross-cultural, mutual understanding and cooperation. Such programmes have embraced schools in both parts of Ireland.
Presentations
'Education during conflict: Comparing Northern Ireland, South Sudan and Tajikistan' - Dr. Rob Kevlihan, CEO, Kimmage Development Studies Centre
'Education and Conflict in Uganda' - Dr. Simone Datzberger, Post-doctoral Researcher, UNESCO Centre, School of Education, Ulster University & Dr. Alan McCully, School of Education, University of Ulster
'Dissolving Boundaries Through Education in Conflict Situations' - Prof. Roger Austin, Director, ePartners Programme, University of Ulster
'Impact of the conflict on children's education in Mali' - Emilia Sorrentino, Emergency Specialist, Plan Ireland
'Peace-building through Global Citizenship Education in an Irish Context: Connections Between Theory and Practice' - Ben Mallon, PhD Researcher & Irish Research Council Scholar, Department of Education, St. Patrick's College Dublin
'Global Learning for Peace' - Dr. Gerry McCann, St. Mary's University College, Queen's University Belfast
Biographies |
Professor Roger Austin is a pioneer in the use of ICT to link schools together as part of the process of peace building and community cohesion. He has directed programmes since 1986 in Europe, on the island of Ireland and in Northern Ireland which have received international acclaim and reached over 100,000 young people. Published research on this work, including Online Learning and Community Cohesion (2013) has shown that this approach has had a long term impact on both teachers and children. This evidence was rated in the top 6 in all UK Universities in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework. He is based at Ulster University where he is currently Director of the ePartners Programme linking schools on a cross-community basis in Northern Ireland. |
Dr. Simone Datzberger is a post-doctoral researcher (research associate) at the UNESCO Centre (Ulster University, School of Education), where she is part of a research consortium in partnership with UNICEF on Education and Peacebuilding. Her current case study is Uganda. She obtained her PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science (2010-2014) and previously worked for the United Nations Peacebuilding Support Office in New York (2007-2010). |
Dr. Seán Farren taught at secondary level in Ireland, Switzerland and Sierra Leone before joining the Education Centre at the New University of Ulster. He tutored undergraduate and postgraduate courses curriculum studies until he was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998 as an SDLP MLA for Northern Antrim. Successively Minister for Further and Higher Education, and Finance and Personnel in the power-sharing executive, 1999-2002, Seán retired from politics in 2007. He joined then the UNESCO Centre at the University of Ulster as a Visiting Professor, Seán involved associated in the Centre’s International Development Programme (2007-2010), the Irish-African Research Capacity Building Project (2008-2012) and the Irish-African School Based Mentoring project (2010-13). He is currently Chair of the DSAI Steering Committee and Convenor of its Education Study Group. He is the author of three books, several book chapters and many refereed articles. |
Dr. Rob Kevlihan is Executive Director of the Kimmage Development Studies Centre and Head of the International Development programme at Maynooth University. He has over 15 years experience working as a scholar and practitioner in international development, humanitarian action and conflict situations, and had worked and researched extensively overseas including in Sudan and Angola, Central Asia (particularly Kazakhstan and Tajikistan), West Africa (particularly Ghana, Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad) and SE Asia (Vietnam). His research interests also include work on Irish foreign and aid policy and the role of social services in conflict in Northern Ireland. He has published articles in a range of journals including International Studies Quarterly, Nations and Nationalism, Nationalities Papers, Disasters and Ethnopolitics. His first book, entitled Aid, Insurgencies and Conflict Transformation, When Greed is Good was published in 2013. |
Dr. Gerard McCann is a senior lecturer in International Studies at St Mary' s University College, Belfast. He is responsible for all international programmes in the College, including Erasmus Plus activities. He is also the co-ordinator of a number of partnership initiatives with universities in Nairobi, Lusaka and Bethlehem. Formerly the Chair of the Centre for Global Education, Belfast, he is currently Chair of Africa House (Northern Ireland). He has written extensively on the European Union's development policies and Development Education. Recent books include co-editing From the Local to the Global (Pluto, 2015),and Ireland's Economic History: Crisis and Development. |
Dr. Alan McCully is a Senior Lecturer at Ulster University. Over the last forty years he has been, first, practitioner and then researcher working on educational responses to conflict and peacebuilding in Northern Ireland, particularly as they relate to history education, citizenship education and the teaching of controversial and sensitive issues. Previous international engagement has been in central and eastern Europe. Currently, he is working on Uganda with the Consortium for Education and Peacebuilding. |
Benjamin Mallon is a PhD Researcher and Irish Research Council Scholar within the Department of Education at St. Patrick's College, Drumcondra (DCU). After seven years of secondary school teaching in London, Ben completed a MA in Education at University College Dublin before embarking on his doctoral studies. His research focuses on the relationship between education and conflict, in particular educational projects endeavouring to build peace. |
Emilia Sorrentino Since 2012 Emilia Sorrentino has been working as Education in Emergency Specialist at Plan Ireland. She is providing technical support to Country teams on designing and implementing Education and Child protection integrated programmes in emergency settings. She is currently supporting EIE activities in Northern Mali, Niger, Cameroon, Central African Republic and Egypt – Syrian Refugee response. As Education in Emergency specialist she is also member of Plan International Roster for Emergency deployable personnel. Before joining Plan Ireland’s team, Emilia has lived and worked in the Middle East for almost five years. |