education conflict essay

Module 12: Education

Conflict theory on education, learning outcomes.

• Examine the perspective of conflict theory on education
• Examine the feminist theory on education

Conflict Theory

Conflict theorists do not believe that public schools reduce social inequality through providing equal opportunity. Rather, they believe that the educational system reinforces and perpetuates social inequalities that arise from differences in class, gender, race, and ethnicity. Where functionalists see education as serving a beneficial role, conflict theorists view it more negatively. To them, educational systems preserve the status quo and push people of lower status into obedience, which keeps them socioeconomically disadvantaged.

Figure 1.  Conflict theorists see the education system as a means by which those in power stay in power. (Photo courtesy Thomas Ricker/flickr)

The fulfillment of one’s education is closely linked to social class. Students of low socioeconomic status are generally not afforded the same opportunities as students of higher status, no matter how great their academic ability or desire to learn. Picture a student from a working-class home who wants to do well in school. On a Monday, he’s assigned a paper that’s due Friday. Monday evening, he has to babysit his younger sister while his divorced mother works. Tuesday and Wednesday, he works stocking shelves after school until 10:00 p.m. By Thursday, the only day he might have available to work on that assignment, he’s so exhausted he can’t bring himself to start the paper. His mother, though she’d like to help him, is so tired herself that she isn’t able to give him the encouragement or support he needs. And since English is her second language, she has difficulty with some of his educational materials. They also lack a computer and printer at home, which most of his classmates have, so they rely on the public library or school system for access to technology. As this story shows, many students from working-class families have to contend with helping out at home, contributing financially to the family, poor study environments, and a lack of family support. This is a difficult match with education systems that adhere to a traditional curriculum that is more easily understood and completed by students of higher social classes.

Such a situation leads to social class reproduction, extensively studied by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. He researched how cultural capital , or cultural knowledge that serves as (metaphorical) currency that helps us navigate a culture, alters the experiences and opportunities available to French students from different social classes. Members of the upper and middle classes have more cultural capital than do families of lower-class status. As a result, the educational system maintains a cycle in which the dominant culture’s values are rewarded and thus generationally reproduced. Instruction and tests cater to the dominant culture and leave others struggling to identify with values and competencies outside their social class. For example, there has been a great deal of discussion over what standardized tests such as the SAT truly measure. Many argue that the tests group students by cultural ability rather than by natural intelligence. For example, a question on the comprehensive reading section of the SAT inquires about a painting at an art museum. For a student who has not experienced art museums regularly, this question poses greater difficulty than it does for a student who grew up going to cultural events such as art exhibitions. Such mechanisms in public education reinforce and perpetuate inequalities.

This video explains how cultural capital impacts a hypothetical student.

The article referenced in the interactive above raises many important issues, and some questions we might pursue further are:

• Are there any forms of cultural capital that can be acquired without economic capital? That is, can one cultivate habits of speech and appearance that suggest higher social status but which do not cost money? (or at least very much money?) What symbolic values are at work here?
• If prestigious brand-name products, such as the Louis Vuitton handbag, confer some sort of high status on those who possess and display them, then how does the “branding” of the self function in our 21st-Century economy? When individuals brand themselves through social media and other public platforms, whether as employees or “influencers” and such, what status or characteristics are they trying to claim? What do they hope to gain?
• The sociologist Charles Horton Cooley introduced the concept of the “looking glass self,” which says we develop our sense of self according to how we believe others perceive us. Can this idea help us understand how social status and economic class are related? To what extent are status and class a matter of self-conscious performance for the benefit of an imagined audience?

The Hidden Curriculum

The cycle of rewarding those who possess cultural capital is found in formal educational curricula as well as in the hidden curriculum , which refers to the type of nonacademic knowledge that students learn through informal learning and cultural transmission. This hidden curriculum reinforces the positions of those with higher cultural capital and serves to bestow status unequally.

The Hidden Curriculum ideology is very prevalent in sociology, as sociologists seek to better understand how education is shaping society as a larger unit. This video explains what this means.

This next video explains how sociologists examine the hidden curriculum from the various sociological perspectives.

Conflict theorists point to tracking , a formalized sorting system that places students on “tracks” (advanced versus low-achievers) that perpetuate inequalities. While educators may believe that students do better in tracked classes because they are with students of similar ability and may have access to more individual attention from teachers, conflict theorists feel that tracking leads to self-fulfilling prophecies in which students live up (or down) to teacher and societal expectations (Education Week 2004). The ways by which students are assigned to tracks differs both between and within schools. Today, it is less common for schools to rigidly track students in all subjects, and it is less common to track them into different vocational paths. Administrators and teachers in a given school may carefully avoid using the term “tracking” to describe the organization of their school’s curriculum. Yet, schools maintain a variety of policies that sort students into different programs of study including: test scores and grade requirements, pre- and co-requisite requirements, and teacher recommendations.

Low-track classes tend to be primarily composed of low-income students, usually minorities, while upper-track classes are usually dominated by students from socioeconomically successful groups. In 1987, Jeannie Oakes theorized that the disproportionate placement of poor and minority students into low tracks does not reflect their actual learning abilities. Rather, she argued that the ethnocentric claims of social Darwinists and the Anglo-Saxon-driven Americanization movement at the turn of the century combined to produce a strong push for “industrial” schooling, ultimately relegating the poorer minority students to vocational programs and a differentiated curriculum which she considered a lingering pattern in 20th century schools.

Some studies suggest that tracking can influence students’ peer groups and attitudes regarding other students. Adam Gamoran’s study (1992) shows that students are more likely to form friendships with other students in the same tracks than with students outside of their tracks. Since low-class and minority students are overrepresented in low tracks, and Whites and Asians generally dominate higher tracks, interaction among these groups can be discouraged by tracking. However, there is no research showing an academic benefit to low track students from such interaction.

Link to Learning

Tracking is not uncommon in the United States and can take many forms at any level of compulsory schooling. Did you experience tracking at your school? This student Ted talk explains some of the adverse consequences of separating students into high-performing, average, and below-average tracks: Student Tracking Needs to End .

To conflict theorists, schools play the role of training working-class students to accept and retain their position as lower-tier members of society. They argue that this role is fulfilled through the disparity of resources available to students in richer and poorer neighborhoods as well as through testing (Lauen and Tyson 2008). Did you know that a school’s resources are dependent on property taxes in the school district’s boundaries? This is a controversial policy, as it contributes to existing inequalities in the home and in the the neighborhood.

IQ tests have been attacked for being biased—for testing cultural knowledge rather than actual intelligence. For example, a test item may ask students what instruments belong in an orchestra. To correctly answer this question requires certain cultural knowledge—knowledge most often held by more affluent people who typically have more exposure to orchestral music. Though experts in the field of testing claim that bias has been eliminated from tests, conflict theorists maintain that this is impossible. These tests, to conflict theorists, are another way in which education does not so much provide opportunities as maintain established configurations of power.

This NPR article,  Why America’s Schools Have A Money Problem , explains more about inequalities in public schools created by differences in revenue generated through property taxes.

Think It Over

• Thinking of your school, what are some ways that a conflict theorist would say that your school perpetuates class differences?

Feminist Theory

Figure 2.  Some 1903 female graduates of Western University.

Feminist theory aims to understand the mechanisms and roots of gender inequality, particularly in education, as well as their societal repercussions. Like many other institutions of society, educational systems are characterized by unequal treatment and opportunity for women, despite the monumental progress that has been made in recent decades. The literacy rate among women worldwide is 83 percent, compared to the almost 90 percent observed for men, [1] and women around the world are still less likely than men to set foot in a school. [2]

Women in the United States have been relatively late, historically speaking, to be granted entry to the public university system. In fact, it wasn’t until the establishment of Title IX of the Education Amendments in 1972 that discriminating on the basis of sex in U.S. education programs became illegal. In the United States, there is also a post-education gender disparity between what male and female college graduates earn, despite women now graduating college at higher rates than men (Citation C). A study released in May 2011 showed that, among men and women who graduated from college between 2006 and 2010, men out-earned women by an average of more than $5,000 each year. First-year job earnings for men averaged $33,150; for women the average was $28,000 (Godofsky, Zukin, and van Horn 2011). Similar trends are seen among salaries of professionals in virtually all industries. [3]

Here are a few facts about the gendered wage gap from the AAUW (2018): [4]

Figure 3 . One way to think about the gender pay gap is by looking at the difference in median earnings for men and women.

• Women earn 80% of what men make.
• Racial minority women earn even less when compared to white men – with the lowest being Hispanic/Latina women making 53% of what men make.
• Utah has the largest pay gap, California has the smallest.
• The gender gap is found across nearly all professions.

When women face limited opportunities for education, their capacity to achieve equal rights, including financial independence, is limited. Feminist theory seeks to promote women’s rights to equal education (and its resultant benefits) across the world.

Grade Inflation

Grade inflation: when is an a really a c.

In 2019, news emerged of a criminal conspiracy regarding wealthy and, in some cases, celebrity parents who illegally secured college admission for their children. Over 50 people were implicated in the scandal, including employees from prestigious universities; several people were sentenced to prison. Their activity included manipulating test scores, falsifying students’ academic or athletic credentials, and acquiring testing accommodations through dishonest claims of having a disability.

One of the questions that emerged at the time was how the students at the subject of these efforts could succeed at these challenging and elite colleges. Meaning, if they couldn’t get in without cheating, they probably wouldn’t do well. Wouldn’t their lack of preparation quickly become clear?

Many people would say no. First, many of the students involved (the children of the conspirators) had no knowledge or no involvement of the fraud; those students may have been admitted anyway. But there may be another safeguard for underprepared students at certain universities: grade inflation.

Grade inflation  generally refers to a practice of awarding students higher grades than they have earned. It reflects the observation that the relationship between letter grades and the achievements they reflect has been changing over time. Put simply, what used to be considered C-level, or average, now often earns a student a B, or even an A.

Some, including administrators at elite universities, argue that grade inflation does not exist, or that there are other factors at play, or even that it has benefits such as increased funding and elimination of inequality (Boleslavsky 2014). But the evidence reveals a stark change. Based on data compiled from a wide array of four-year colleges and universities, a widely cited study revealed that the number of A grades has been increasing by several percentage points per decade, and that A’s were the most common grade awarded (Jaschik 2016). In an anecdotal case, a Harvard dean acknowledged that the median grade there was an A-, and the most common was also an A. Williams College found that the number of A+ grades had grown from 212 instances in 2009-10 to 426 instances in 2017-18 (Berlinsky-Schine 2020). Princeton University took steps to reduce inflation by limiting the number of A’s that could be issued, though it then reversed course (Greason 2020).

Why is this happening? Some cite the alleged shift toward a culture that rewards effort instead of product, i.e., the amount of work a student puts in raises the grade, even if the resulting product is poor quality. Another oft-cited contributor is the pressure for instructors to earn positive course evaluations from their students. Finally, many colleges may accept a level of grade inflation because it works. Analysis and formal experiments involving graduate school admissions and hiring practices showed that students with higher grades are more likely to be selected for a job or a grad school. And those higher-grade applicants are still preferred even if decision-maker knows that the applicant’s college may be inflating grades (Swift 2013). In other words, people with high GPA at a school with a higher average GPA are preferred over people who have a high GPA at a school with a lower average GPA.

Ironically, grade inflation is not simply a college issue. Many of the same college faculty and administrators who encounter or engage in some level of grade inflation may lament that it is also occurring at high schools (Murphy 2017).

• UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Literacy rate, adult male (% of males ages 15 and above). Retrieved from  https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.LITR.MA.ZS?view=chart .  ↵
• UNESCO. Gender Equality in Education. Retrieved from http://uis.unesco.org/en/topic/gender-equality-education . ↵
• Semuels, Alana (November 2017). "Poor Girls Are Leaving Their Brothers Behind." Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/11/gender-education-gap/546677/ . ↵
• AAUW. "The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap." Retrieved from https://www.aauw.org/research/the-simple-truth-about-the-gender-pay-gap/ . ↵
• Modification, adaptation, and original content. Authored by : Florencia Silviera for Lumen Learning. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution
• Theoretical Perspectives on Education. Authored by : OpenStax CNX. Located at : https://cnx.org/contents/[email protected]:Q7ShLma2@8/16-2-Theoretical-Perspectives-on-Education . License : CC BY: Attribution . License Terms : Download for free at http://cnx.org/contents/[email protected]
• Tracking (education). Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracking_(education) . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Cultural Capital Interactive. Authored by : Scott Barr for Lumen Learning. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution
• Grade Inflation. Provided by : OpenStax . Located at : https://openstax.org/books/introduction-sociology-3e/pages/16-2-theoretical-perspectives-on-education . Project : Sociology 3e. License : CC BY: Attribution . License Terms : Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/introduction-sociology-3e/pages/1-introduction
• Cultural Capital. Authored by : Sociology Live!. Located at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DBEYiBkgp8 . License : Other . License Terms : Standard YouTube License
• The Hidden Curriculum | Part 2 of 2: Sociological Perspectives. Provided by : HumberEDU. Located at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77psBGyYj94 . License : Other . License Terms : Standard YouTube License
• The Hidden Curriculum | Part 1 of 2: Norms, Values and Procedures. Provided by : HumberEDU. Located at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuLhmDE9Exo . License : Other . License Terms : Standard YouTube License
• Image on gender pay gap. Provided by : AAUW. Located at : https://www.aauw.org/research/the-simple-truth-about-the-gender-pay-gap/ . License : All Rights Reserved
• female graduates in 1903. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Group_of_women_in_cap_and_gown_at_Western_College_on_Tree_Day_1903_(3191801017).jpg . License : Public Domain: No Known Copyright

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Past issues, information, privacy policy, terms & conditions, sadiq hussain, published on, dec 19, 2012, politics & political theory, education, conflict and development by julia paulson (ed).

"Education, Conflict and Development" is a timely collection of essays that investigate, through different case studies, the changing contours of international work around the need for the delivery of education in conflict and post-conflict situations. In her new volume Paulson has attracted contributions from an impressive array of authors with a background mainly in Education.

December 19, 2012

Print this essay, latest from the magazine, latest journal issue, volume 41 issue 4.

Julia Paulson (ed), Education, Conflict and Development, Symposium, Oxford, 2011. 240 pages, $ 48.00, paperback ISBN-978-1-873927-46-5.

As we move through the second decade since 9/11, both social media and drone attacks are increasingly becoming part of our daily lives. At the same time armed conflict continues to be a reality in a number of developing countries. In this scenario, what is the impact of conflict on education and what is the role of education in areas of conflict?

Education, Conflict and Development is a timely collection of essays that investigate, through different case studies, the changing contours of international work around the need for the delivery of education in conflict and post-conflict situations. Julia Paulson, the volume’s editor, is a doctoral researcher in Education at the University of Oxford. She is also editor of Education and Reconciliation: Exploring Conflict and Post-conflict Situations (2011) . In her new volume Paulson has attracted contributions from an impressive array of authors with a background mainly in Education. Despite its broad title, the central theme of the collection is not the ‘black box’ or the ‘nuts and bolts’ at the core of the educational process, but rather the processes of delivery of education itself by international donors, agencies and organizations in areas that are (or have been) afflicted by conflict, as well as the complex challenges and politics behind such processes. Unlike most works in this area, the collection does not therefore limit itself only to ‘education within conflict’, but it also explores ‘conflict within education’.

The volume is divided into three sections. Part 1 (chapters 1 to 3) discusses general concepts of education, conflict and development from a geographical and historical perspective. In chapter 1 Colin Brock tackles the relationship between education and conflict. He argues that contention is endemic and inherent to education policy making because of the political control of education. Examples cited range from education in Amazonian Peru, postcolonial Malaysia and in the Indian state of Orissa to conflict over the control of Iran’s massive Azad Islamic University. In Chapter 2 Stephanie Bengtsson examines the concept of fragile states, a phrase that came about after the end of the Cold War to fill a conceptual gap in the aid literature. This gap relates to the perceived blurring of the two separate aid spheres of development and humanitarian assistance. The concept, Bengtsson argues, ‘opens the possibility of conceptualising mechanisms to provide aid to countries that do not seem to be in direct emergency, which would qualify them for humanitarian aid, or ready for economic growth, which would qualify them for development assistance’ (page 34).

In Chapter 3 Jeremy Rappleye explores the complex relationships between education, development and conflict in the context of Nepal, or what he terms ‘the land of three Ps’: peak (the Himalayan mountains), pot (marijuana and hashish) and poverty (attracting development missionaries). Part 2 (chapters 4 to 6) includes case studies from other countries: the conflict between Arab and African Christian groups in South Sudan, expectations and realities of education in post-conflict Sierra Leone, and an analysis of Chinese, South Korean and Japanese transnational history textbooks, which opens an alternative to national textbooks. Part 3 (chapter 7-9) deals with Northern Uganda’s practical implications of education, conflict and development. Topics in this section range from sexual violence to teachers’ perceptions and peace building.

I personally found Tomoe Ostuki’s chapter on Asian textbooks of particular interest. All over the world, textbooks and education lore tend to portray a heroic national history scenario for a country’s students. Ostuki, by contrast, examines the case of the recent textbook History [that] Opens to the Future: The Contemporary and Modern History of the Three Nations in East Asia jointly developed by Chinese, South Korean and Japanese scholars, educators and members of the civil society. This trilateral North-East Asian textbook project is meant to help build a history that transcends national boundaries and thus to help create what the author calls an ‘intergenerational responsibility’ for the past. In a way, it moves away from the dominating narrative and logics of the nation-state towards an alternative regional framework (see, for example, Chen, 2010). The project brings to my mind another ongoing textbook project related to my own region, the Middle East. A fruit of the collaboration between the Georg-Eckert-Institute for International Textbook Research (Germany) and the Peace Research Institute in the Middle East (Israel), as with History [that] Opens to the Future , this project will result in a trilingual (Hebrew/Arabic/English) textbook on the history of Palestine/Israel (Hussain, forthcoming). Even though the case study discussed by Ostuki is geographically distant from me, I feel it can help better understand national juridical-political complexities, as well as sensitivities and perceptions of ‘otherness’ not only in North East Asia, but also here in the Middle East.

Another chapter I found inspiring and I believe will be of particular interest to the readers of Environment and Planning D is Jeremy Cunningham’s empirical study on schools and peace-building in Northern Uganda. Cunningham suggests a social learning approach that synthesizes knowledge through the lens of human rights and freedoms. Students’ acquisition of conflict-preventing behavioral-change skills, the author argues, is at the foundation of tolerance of the Other and thus crucial for peace-building. When compared with Christine Pagen’s empirical field study in southern Sudan, where landmines lurk in surrounding areas, Cunningham’s undertaking seems to be less life-threatening. On the other hand, however, Cunningham is concerned with the practical use of knowledge by students, starting from the premise that knowledge is not merely about understanding and recalling definite facts, as Pagen’s survey seems to suggest, but it is also about the ability of students to make connections and cross references.

I believe this collection makes three main significant interdisciplinary contributions that help a better understanding of relations between education processes on one hand, and of conflict and development contexts on the other. Firstly, the results of the field studies conducted on the ground in conflict territories make for an important empirical contribution. Secondly, the study of transnational history as an alternative to national histories opens up to innovative ways of imagining education beyond traditional narratives and geographical imaginations, thus offering compelling possibilities for the future. Thirdly, a learning approach that focusses on a synthesis of knowledge with attention to human rights and freedoms likewise opens up a new space for dialogue and peace-making in contemporary areas of conflict. Incidentally, the volume could have benefited from, firstly, an index at the end of the book offering more flexibility in (re)searching the contents of the book; and secondly, from a preface for readers who desire to learn something about the story behind the book.

All in all, Education, Conflict and Development is a book that deserves to be read by development geographers, political scientists, aid economists, comparative and international educators, sociologists, historians of conflicts, and others. 

Chen K (2010) Asia as Method: Towards Deimperialization. Durham: Duke University Press.

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cholars and practitioners of urban planning need to rethink the field’s futures at this important historical juncture: some might call it a moment of truth when there is little left to hide. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed many cracks, contradictions, and inequalities that have always existed but are now more visible. This also includes the global vaccine apartheid that is ongoing as I write these words. Moreover, this is a time when the violence through which U.S. imperialism has exercised power worldwide is increasingly exposed. Protests in the summer of 2020, which spread all over the United States like fire through a long-dried haystack, showed Americans and the whole world that racialized violence and police brutality are real. They also revealed that such brutality is spatially facilitated in American apartheid—a condition that planning has been far from innocent in creating and maintaining. I think this reckoning is particularly important in the United States, the belly of the beast, where there might have been more of an illusion about planning innocence.

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Moreover, this is a time when the violence through which U.S. imperialism has exercised power worldwide is increasingly exposed. Protests in the summer of 2020, which spread all over the United States like fire through a long-dried haystack, showed Americans and the whole world that racialized violence and police brutality are real. They also revealed that such brutality is spatially facilitated in American apartheid—a condition that planning has been far from innocent in creating and maintaining. I think this reckoning is particularly important in the United States, the belly of the beast, where there might have been more of an illusion about planning innocence.

• Moreover, this is a time when the violence through which U.S. imperialism has exercised power worldwide is increasingly exposed.
• Protests in the summer of 2020, which spread all over the United States like fire through a long-dried haystack, showed Americans and the whole world that racialized violence and police brutality are real.
• They also revealed that such brutality is spatially facilitated in American apartheid—a condition that planning has been far from innocent in creating and maintaining.
• I think this reckoning is particularly important in the United States, the belly of the beast, where there might have been more of an illusion about planning innocence.
• They also revealed that such brutality is spatially facilitated in American apartheid—a condition that planning has been far from innocent in creating and maintaining. I think this reckoning is particularly important in the United States, the belly of the beast, where there might have been more of an illusion about planning innocence.

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Education, Conflict, and Peace

• Living reference work entry
• First Online: 08 May 2019
• Cite this living reference work entry

• Elisabeth King 4  

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Introduction

Education is understudied by scholars and students of security studies, international relations, and comparative politics. When scholars in these fields think of education, they typically consider it a human right or a component of sustainable development, if they think of education at all. Relatively rarely, however, do these audiences think about education as important in the realms of violence and peace (King 2014 ). This contribution argues, however, that there are multiple relationships between education and violent conflict that need to be included as part of a holistic understanding of contemporary international security issues.

This entry focuses on four high-level relationships between education and conflict that should be of interest to scholars of security studies. Across these relationships, education and conflict are both independent and dependent variables and play positive and negative roles in society. Some of the roles are clearly intended whereas others...

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Burde, D. (2014). Schools for conflict or for peace in Afghanistan . New York: Columbia University Press.

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Mack, A. (Ed.). (2012). Human security report 2012: Sexual violence, education, and war: Beyond the mainstream narrative . Vancouver: Human Security Press.

Novelli, M. (2011). Are we all soldiers now? The dangers of the securitization of education and conflict. In K. Mundy & S. Dryden-Peterson (Eds.), Educating children in conflict zones: A tribute to Jackie Kirk (pp. 49–65). New York: Teachers College Press.

Thyne, C. (2006). ABC’s, 123’s and the Golden rule: The pacifying effect of education on civil war, 1980–1999. International Studies Quarterly, 50 (4), 733–754.

United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (1945). UNESCO constitution. Available at: http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=15244&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

United Nations Security Council. (2011). Resolution 1998. Available at: http://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/CAC%20S%20RES%201998.pdf

Further Reading

Journal on Education in Emergencies . Available at: http://www.ineesite.org/en/journal

King, E. (2011). The multiple relationships between education and conflict: Reflections of Rwandan teachers and students. In K. Mundy & S. Dryden-Peterson (Eds.), Educating children in conflict zones: A tribute to Jackie Kirk (pp. 137–151). New York: Teachers College Press.

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Elisabeth King

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Péter Marton

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King, E. (2019). Education, Conflict, and Peace. In: Romaniuk, S., Thapa, M., Marton, P. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Global Security Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74336-3_609-1

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IOE - Faculty of Education and Society

A school in Madagascar by Milijaona Randrianarivelojisoa

Education and Conflict Review

Education and Conflict Review (ECR) is a peer-reviewed journal hosted by the Centre for Education and International Development (CEID) at IOE.

Education and Conflict Review (ECR) focuses on debates about education, conflict and international development and aims to provide succinct analyses of social, political, economic and security dimensions in conflict-affected and humanitarian situations. ECR provides a forum for knowledge exchange to build synergies between academics, practitioners and graduate students who are researching and working on educational issues in these environments. 

Unlike conventional academic papers, the ECR provides a space for short original contributions (3500-4000 words including references) that draw upon empirical work or present thought-provoking theoretical arguments in the subfield of education and conflict. 

Call for papers: Special issue on Myanmar

This special issue of ECR will focus on education in contexts of conflict and forced displacement in Myanmar. We encourage submissions based on collaborative research between Myanmar academics/practitioners and international researchers.

This special issue of ECR will be co-edited by Professor Tejendra Pherali (IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society) and a team of local academics to bring together a broad range of empirical research, rigorous reviews, and theoretical/conceptual analyses that focus on teaching and learning in Myanmar amid protracted conflict.

Focus areas include but are not limited to:

• The role(s) of non-state education providers
• Resilience and adaptability
• Access to accredited non-state higher education
• Community engagement and empowerment
• Conflict-sensitive education and innovative solutions in conflict-settings
• Psychosocial and emotional wellbeing of students and teachers
• Teacher professional development
• Inclusive education
• Innovations in research methods and ethical considerations in educational research
• Politics of language and mother-tongue based multilingual education
• Educational policy and systems strengthening curriculum development
• Issues around recognition/ certification of learning.

Submission Guidelines

Interested author(s) should submit a proposal for their paper (500 words max) by 24 May 2024 to: [email protected]  

• Decisions on proposals : 7 June 2024
• Full paper length : 3500-4000 words (including a 150-word abstract and references)
• Submission deadline for full papers : 19 July 2024
• Citation : The Harvard Referencing Style

Selected authors will be supported to draft their papers through a series of workshops. Research must not have been published or be under review in any other journal.

Special Issues

• Teaching and teachers in conflict-affected settings during COVID-19

Individual articles

• Teachers' gendered experiences of the global health crisis: The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on teacher well-being during school closures
• Designed for disruption: Lessons learned from teacher education in Myanmar and its borderlands
• Challenges for the government school teachers during COVID-19 and tribal conflicts/feuds in Shikarpur district, Sindh, Pakistan
• The critical role of refugee teachers in the COVID-19 education response: Supporting their continued professional contributions and leadership in displacement and durable solutions
• Educating students in the gender-conflict-COVID-19 intersection
• Education policy-making in South Africa during COVID-19
• Ensuring effective teacher management in refugee settings in the COVID-19 era: A Ugandan case study of policy and practice
• Teaching experiences in contexts of conflict and cultural diversity during the COVID-19 pandemic: The case of a public school in Bogotá
• Hybrid higher education innovation for Syrian refugee learners: Reflections on an embedded community-based research CoMOOC
• Teaching in conflict-affected settings during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya
• 'We have dealt with this situation randomly': A peer ethnographic approach with teachers in refugee settings in the age of COVID-19
• Rebuilding Syrian higher education for a stable future
• My life as a second-class human being: Experiences of a refugee academic - Tejendra Pherali
• Syrian higher education and social capital in times of conflict  - Musallam Abedtalas, Abdulhamed Alawak, Wissam Aldien Aloklah, 
• Abdulnaser Aljasem and Iman Sarmini
• Building solidarity through comparative lived experiences of post-conflict: Reflections on two days of dialogue  - Dina Belluigi and Tom Parkinson
• Academic socialisation through collaboration: Textual interventions in supporting exiled scholars' academic literacies development  - Baraa Khuder and Bojana Petrić
• Higher education and Syrian refugees' navigation of economic, social and political constraints in exile - Kathleen Fincham
• The survival of universities in contested territories: Findings from two roundtable discussions on institutions in the North West of Syria  - Juliet Millican
• Lessons from an evolving model to support higher education in countries affected by conflict  - Teresa Hanley
• Rebuilding higher education in Northern Syria  - Fateh Shaban
• Supporting peacebuilding in Syria through universities: The role of cultural heritage  - Abdulhalim Abdullah, Wael Ahmad, Samir Al Alabdullah, Rachid Chikhou and Adnan Rachid Mamo
• Agricultural knowledge from academy to farming communities: The role of higher education in enhancing food security in Syria  - Shaher Abdullateef, Esraa Almashhour, Abdulmonem Alabboud, Basem Mohamed Saleh, Abdulrahman Albayoush, Muhammed Assaf and Andrew Adam-Bradford
• The effect of the Syrian crisis on electricity supply and the household life in North-West Syria: a university-based study  - Fuad Alhaj Omar, Ibrahim Mahmoud, Abdulrahman Hussian, Lennart Mohr, Hanadi Omaish Abdullah and Abdulnasser Farzat
• Theories and conceptual frameworks in education, conflict and peacebuilding
• Education and conflict: Emergence, growth and diversification of the field  - Tejendra Pherali
• Societal security and education in deeply divided societies  - Kelsey Shanks
• Analysing donor conceptualisations of state fragility  - Robin Shields and Julia Paulson
• The need for contextualisation in the analysis of curriculum content in conflict  - Alexandra Lewis
• Evidence hungry, theory light: Education and conflict, SDG16, and aspirations for peace and justice  - Julia Paulson
• Horizontal inequalities and conflict: Education as a separate dimension of horizontal inequalities  - Arnim Langer and Line Kuppens
• Paulo Freire and critical consciousness in conflict-affected contexts  - Arran Magee and Tejendra Pherali
• Refugee education: Backward design to enable futures  - Sarah Dryden-Peterson
• Education, conflict, peace-building and critical realism  - Priscilla Alderson
• Achieving educational rights and justice in conflict-affected contexts  - Ritesh Shah and Mieke Lopes Cardozo
• Conceptualising critical peace education for conflict settings  - Monisha Bajaj
• The '4 Rs' as a tool for critical policy analysis of the education sector in conflict affected states  - Mario Novelli, Mieke Lopes Cardozo and Alan Smith
• Education and violent extremism: Insights from complexity theory  - Lynn Davies
• Education in emergencies: 'What works' revisited  - Dana Burde, Heddy Lahmann and Nathan Thompson
• Education, Peace and Development in Somali Society
• Democracy in Somaliland  - Michael Walls
• Higher education partnerships for peace and development  - Tejendra Pherali and Alex Lewis
• Somali diaspora and homeland relations - Idil Osman
• Looking for the real refugee crisis: Researching Somali displacement near and far - Laura Hammond
• Somalia stability: Hostage to local, regional and distant actors - Nasir M. Ali
• Going on Tahriib: Young Somalis and the risky journey to Europe - Nimo-Ilhan Ali

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Education for conflict prevention and peacebuilding: meeting the global challenges of the 21st century

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Education and conflict: the role of education in the creation, prevention and resolution of societal crises - consequences for development cooperation, attachments.

This literature study provides an overview of the international discussion on the relationship between education and conflict within the framework of development cooperation as reflected in current German and English publications and documents. Thus it is also intended to allow for an initial review of the most important discussion ideas, the approaches and strategies being pursued, as well as the achievements, research desiderata and action deficits on the topic complex "education and conflict management", and the latter's relevance for development cooperation. Topics include: 1. Introduction and problem: Education promotion and crisis prevention in development cooperation 2. The extent of the challenge: Violent conflicts jeopardise "Education for All" 3. Education in times of emergency, crisis and war 4. The two faces of education: Education and the roots of peace and violence 5. Education for peace: Concepts for peace education and their relevance for development cooperation 6. Measuring peace: Instruments for conflict impact assessment in education assistance

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Education and conflict: Essay review

2007, International Journal of Educational Development

Related Papers

International Journal of Educational Development

Clive Harber

Audrey Bryan

Conflict Resolution Quarterly

alan tidwell

In this article the author examines peace education in zones of conflict. Central to his thesis is that peace education, though returning valuable service to a conflict-affected community, must take into account the local conflict conditions. It is important to understand the range of ways in which conflict can affect provision of education; many of these ways are identified.

AEGIS : Journal of International Relations

Anton Abdul Fatah

Book Review: Harber, Clive. Schooling for Peaceful Development in Post-Conflict Societies: Education for Transformation?. Springer, 2019. xiv + 306 pp. US$63.70. Cham, Switzerland. ISBN 978-3-030-17688-4.

Joseph Sany

Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education

Rosalie Metro

Research in Comparative and International Education

Mitsuko Matsumoto

Some argue that the field of study of ‘education and conflict’ has yet to be solidified since its emergence in the 1990s, partly due to the weak theory base. This article reviews the literature on the ‘contribution’ of schooling in contemporary violent conflict, via three strands of theoretical ideas, to demonstrate the validities and limitations of the current theoretical ideas available in the field. The article shows that the literature is skewed toward cases of ethnic conflicts and limited to theoretical ideas that fail to explain the complexities of contemporary conflicts captured by the case studies. It also shows the still insufficient engagement of the literature in the field with the dynamics and the root causes of contemporary conflict that have been demonstrated by scholars across social sciences.

In Z. Gross and L. Davies (Eds.) ‘The contested role of education in conflict and fragility’. The World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES), pp. 249 – 256.

Mieke T.A. Lopes Cardozo , Ritesh Shah

Kenneth Bush

This study seeks to develop a clearer understanding of one particular dimension of contemporary ethnic conflict: the constructive and destructive impacts of education – the two faces of education. The need for such analysis is apparent from even a cursory review of experiences in conflict-prone regions. Because educational initiatives can have polar opposite impacts, those involved must stop supporting peace-destroying educational initiatives, and start supporting those aimed at peacebuilding. In other words, if such educational initiatives are to have a positive peacebuilding impact, then they must seek to deconstruct structures of violence and construct structures of peace. The ways in which this might be achieved are addressed in the final section of this study. 1. THE CONTEMPORARY IMPORTANCE OF ETHNICITY 1 1.1 A review of perspectives on ethnicity 1 1.2 Children’s ethnic socialization 2 1.3 The new math of ethnic violence 4 1.4 Nature and dynamics of violent ethnic conflict 4 1.5 A caveat: double minority complexes 5 1.6 Ethnicity, education and nation-building 6 2. THE TWO FACES OF EDUCATION 9 2.1. Negative 9 2.1.1 The uneven distribution of education 9 2.1.2 Education as a weapon in cultural repression 10 2.1.3 Denial of education as a weapon of war 11 2.1.4 Manipulating history for political purposes 11 2.1.5 Manipulating textbooks 13 2.1.6 Self-worth and hating others 14 2.1.7 Segregated education to ensure inequality, lowered esteem and stereotyping 14 2.2. Positive 16 2.2.1 Conflict-dampening impact of educational opportunity 16 2.2.2 Nurturing and sustaining an ethnically tolerant climate 16 2.2.3 The de-segregation of the mind 16 2.2.4 Linguistic tolerance 17 2.2.5 Cultivating inclusive citizenship 18 2.2.6 The disarming of history 19 2.2.7 Education for Peace Programmes 20 2.2.8 Educational practice as an explicit response to state oppression 21 3. TOWARDS A PEACEBUILDING EDUCATION 23 3.1 An introduction to peacebuilding education 23 3.2 The context 24 3.3 Cultures of fear and coping mechanisms 26 3.4 Distinguishing peacebuilding education from peace education 26 3.5 Guiding principles and the role of external actors 27 3.6 The goals of peacebuilding education 27 3.7 The importance of re-membering 30 4. CONCLUSION 33 4.1 The negative face of education 34 4.2 The positive face of education 34 4.3 Guiding principles for peacebuilding education 34 4.4 The goals of peacebuilding education 34 Annex – The international legal framework 36 References 39

Kathy Bickmore

Conflict —disputes, distrust, incompatible interests, not necessarily violence—is inevitable in life, but, despite what we see in news and history books, it is often addressed peacefully: “Actually, peace is not news because most people live in peace with their neighbors most of the time, and most countries live in peace with neighboring countries most of the time” (Alger, 1995, p. 128). Education alone cannot resolve (and may even legitimize) systemic issues that exacerbate destructive conflict—such as resource scarcity, concentration of power, social exclusion, or narratives of enmity and aggressive nationalism. However, education may build capacity and social relationships for democratic, inclusive and just conflict management (transformative peacebuilding), by influencing individual and collective understandings, competencies, values, norms, opportunities, agency, and status equity. Comparative international education as a field has always carried a concern for peace, including international understanding and amelioration of harms such as injustice and poverty (Burns, 2008). This chapter reviews international and comparative scholarship on education for democratic peacebuilding, primarily in societies suffering current or recent escalated destructive conflict (repression, gang violence, war or division).

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Conflict Theory in Education and the Theory of Education

This essay about conflict theory explores how this sociological perspective, influenced by thinkers like Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Ralf Dahrendorf, examines power imbalances and inequalities within educational systems. It discusses the notion of the “hidden curriculum,” the distribution of educational resources, and the role of power dynamics in classrooms. The theory’s application highlights how education can perpetuate social stratification, and the essay acknowledges critiques that emphasize potential for reform and the empowerment of individuals to challenge societal norms.

How it works

In the intricate web of educational theory, conflict theory serves as a powerful analytical framework to dissect the complex forces that shape educational systems. Originating from Karl Marx’s ideas and further elaborated by thinkers like Max Weber and Ralf Dahrendorf, conflict theory exposes the power imbalances, inequalities, and injustices embedded within societal institutions. Applied to education, it examines how these power relationships are evident in classrooms, schools, and broader educational entities, influencing aspects ranging from the development of curricula to the academic success of students.

At its essence, conflict theory suggests that society consists of various social groups competing over resources, status, and power, leading to enduring conflicts. In education, these conflicts are apparent across different lines such as socioeconomic status, race, gender, and ethnicity. Schools and educational systems are seen not as impartial, but as reflections and perpetuators of the broader societal inequalities.

A key principle of conflict theory in education is the notion of the “hidden curriculum.” Beyond the official curriculum that specifies what should be taught, the hidden curriculum consists of the subtle lessons, values, and norms that are conveyed through educational practices. This includes teaching students to adhere to authority, to conform, and to uphold societal hierarchies. For instance, curricula that primarily feature the stories and perspectives of the dominant culture can marginalize minority experiences, thereby maintaining social inequality.

Additionally, conflict theory highlights the uneven allocation of educational resources. Schools in wealthier areas typically have more funding, superior facilities, and more qualified teachers compared to those in poorer regions. This imbalance furthers the cycle of inequality, as students from underprivileged backgrounds lack the resources and support needed for academic excellence.

In the classroom, power dynamics significantly influence the educational experience. Teachers, as representatives of the educational system, possess significant control over students. This authority can either reinforce the status quo or be used to challenge it. Teachers might inadvertently continue stereotypes and biases through unequal treatment or expectations based on the social identities of students. Alternatively, they might employ a critical pedagogy that encourages students to question societal norms and participate in transformative actions.

Conflict theory also underscores how education helps perpetuate social stratification. The process of credentialing, where individuals obtain qualifications, is purported to support a meritocratic system. However, access to quality education often depends on one’s social and economic background, intertwining educational achievement with social class and perpetuating existing inequalities.

While critics of conflict theory argue that it neglects individual agency and the potential of education to enable social mobility, they recognize that structural influences are profound. They argue that education can act as a lever for societal change by empowering individuals to challenge prevailing conditions. They also highlight educational initiatives that strive for equity and inclusion, suggesting that significant reforms can be achieved within the current system.

In conclusion, conflict theory provides a vital perspective for understanding the complexities of education and its role in either reinforcing or challenging social inequalities. By revealing the inherent power dynamics in educational settings, it encourages critical examination and pushes for actions that promote fairness and equal opportunities for everyone.

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Beyond Intractability

The Hyper-Polarization Challenge to the Conflict Resolution Field: A Joint BI/CRQ Discussion BI and the Conflict Resolution Quarterly invite you to participate in an online exploration of what those with conflict and peacebuilding expertise can do to help defend liberal democracies and encourage them live up to their ideals.

Follow BI and the Hyper-Polarization Discussion on BI's New Substack Newsletter .

Hyper-Polarization, COVID, Racism, and the Constructive Conflict Initiative Read about (and contribute to) the  Constructive Conflict Initiative  and its associated Blog —our effort to assemble what we collectively know about how to move beyond our hyperpolarized politics and start solving society's problems. 

By Olympio Barbanti, Jr.

August 2004  

Millennium Goal 2 - Achieve Universal Primary Education

Among the many problems developing countries face, education is central. Without education there can be no proper development. One could then expect developing countries to place a high priority on education (at least at a basic level), so everyone would at least meet some minimal educational standards (e.g., basic literacy). Often, this does not happen.

Reasons for Poor Education

Social structural issues.

Structural conflicts are one reason why education is often not prioritized.  Lack of education allows easier political and economic control and thus is in the interest of the powerful elite. Those with less education usually have less income and also have more difficulty understanding their own predicament. Thus, these people are more vulnerable in both social and economic terms, and often become dependent on the powerful in society for supplying many of their basic needs. Many poor people sell their electoral votes in exchange for needed goods: dentures, medicines, or any other material needs. Since education could free people from this relationship, the powerful elite see education as something to be avoided, not promoted.

Family Issues

Family problems are a second reason why education is not prioritized. Poor families are unstructured, fathers are frequently absent and sometimes have been replaced by a woman's partner. The level of intra-household conflict and even physical violence is high, but remains veiled as women fear the consequences of reporting the abuse or being abandoned. Additionally, parents who did not get a good education normally do not attribute importance to education for their children. All this reflects on the child, who invariably brings to the school the conflicts they face at home. In addition, many poor children are asked, if not forced, by their parents to beg in the streets or to work instead of going to school.

School Issues

Interviewee, Maria Livia de Castro empowers teenagers through art through her NGO. She believes that the current official school model is not completely compatible with the idea of opening minds and developing human capabilities. For her, basic schooling in Brazil is extremely conservative. It does not provide empowerment . She exemplified this assertion with the case of a student who was being expelled from school because he had spray painted the school's walls. In her opinion, the school could have taught him the difference between right and wrong, and tried to channel his artistic gifts to art production. [1] 

This exemplifies the lack of conflict resolution training within schools in Brazil. Like those in many other developing societies, Brazilian schools tend to be authoritarian.  However, public schools in developing countries are facing difficult times, thus they need conflict resolution skills to deal with their problems.

Silvana Gallina, president of the Espirito Santo State Reforming School System, reports that the large majority of youth taken to reform schools in Brazil are fathers and breadwinners, despite an average age of only 13 years old. The great majority of these youths have committed crimes related to drug trafficking. In fact, drug trafficking is one big impediment to primary education, since children in school are not available to help the drug trade.

Frequently, in large Brazilian towns and neighborhoods, criminal elements order schools and stores to shut their doors and send students and employees away. This hurts the children, who miss school, but it also hurts them because the resulting fear and instability undermines their full learning capacity.  

This poses a question of how to negotiate with illegal agents. Should public figures negotiate with them, since negotiation implies recognizing the legitimacy of these agents? On the other hand, can any better result be achieved without negotiation? Answers to these questions remain unclear.

Illiteracy and Conflict Resolution

A recent poll of 15 to 64 years olds found that only 25% of Brazilians could fully read and write, 8% were completely illiterate, and 67% were functionally illiterate--they could read, but could not comprehend the full meaning of what they read or make a connection to other issues. This is both a development problem and a problem for development.

For example, one NGO interviewee, Lucio Ventania, works with socially vulnerable people such as prostitutes and former inmates. His clients face great difficulties obtaining jobs because they cannot understand very basic information. One can then imagine the limitations this situation poses for conflict resolution practice as it is largely based on rational methods of dialogue and structured meetings in which people are "equalized" around a table. Generally, those who are functionally illiterate know their restrictions and will not want to (or be able to ) fully participate in such meetings.

Conflict professionals are gaining a greater appreciation for the importance of cultural sensitivity in their methods. Here, the concept of "cultural sensitivity" refers more to the needed awareness of formal educational levels than to other cultural characteristics, though those are also important. Local perceptions of right and wrong, for example, must be acknowledged.

Empowerment

The concept of " empowerment ," as advanced by the Brazilian academic Paulo Freire, is very important in developing countries. Freire rightly saw empowerment as a path to freedom. In his view, the functionally illiterate should be educated with a pedagogy capable of opening their minds to a broader understanding of the reality in which they live. This means not only teaching them to read and write but giving them social, political, and economic awareness and skills which will enable them to more fully understand but also participate in their own, their family's and their community's lives.

--------------

[1] Editors' note: I heard a story on the U.S. National Public Radio about a group of educators who were encouraging young inner-city youth in the U.S. to create legal graffiti as art in an effort to overcome the trend of expelling students for doing it illegally. So it is not just a problem in developing countries!

Use the following to cite this article: Barbanti, Jr., Olympio . "Development, Education and Conflict." Beyond Intractability . Eds. Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess. Conflict Information Consortium, University of Colorado, Boulder. Posted: August 2004 < http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/development-education-conflict >.

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The intractable conflict challenge.

Our inability to constructively handle intractable conflict is the most serious, and the most neglected, problem facing humanity. Solving today's tough problems depends upon finding better ways of dealing with these conflicts.   More...

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• Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links for the Week of April 28, 2024 -- New suggested readings from colleagues and the Burgesses.
• Attack the Problem, Not the People -- "Separate the people from the problem" might be the most often violated fundamental conflict resolution principle, even by people who know better. And it is hurting us.

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How does war affect education?

The consequences of conflict meeting the classroom.

Sep 13, 2023

Written shortly after the end of World War II, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees the right to education without discrimination. However, that right is easily violated, or simply ignored, in a humanitarian crisis. This is especially true for countries in conflict . The loss of education due to conflict can have catastrophic outcomes, especially since education is key to fostering sustainable peace. Here’s what you need to know.

How war affects education: Facts and figures

• Children in conflict-affected countries are 30% less likely to complete primary school than those in non-conflict affected countries
• Only 50% of refugee children have access to primary education, compared with a global level of over 90%
• In 2017, 64 million primary aged children were not in school, accounting for 9% of the global primary aged population. Children in poor countries and those affected by fragility and conflict are most likely to be out-of-school.
• A gap in education due to emergencies will cost future generations the benefits of health, income, equality, and psychological well-being that education provides. This fuels the cycle of poverty .
• The longer children remain out of school, the less likely they are to return

Attacks on schools have increased

There are specific international humanitarian laws and rules of war that prohibit attacks on schools and require combatants to limit the impact of violence on children. Despite this, going to school has become an even more dangerous endeavor in the last few years. In 2020, UNICEF counted 535 verified attacks on schools. Despite the pandemic-related closures that year, this was a 17% increase compared to attacks in 2019.

More broadly, the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack records over 5,000 reported attacks on education and military use of schools and universities between 2020 and 2021. These incidents harmed over 9,000 students and educators across 85 countries. Their 2022 “Education Under Attack” report concluded that, on average, six attacks on education took place every day. Over 400 attacks occurred on schools in the Democratic Republic of Congo alone.

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Women and girls are sometimes the target of education-related attacks

There are specific international humanitarian laws and rules of war that prohibit attacks on schools and require combatants to limit the risk of injury and death to civilians. However, these laws and regulations are often ignored. Education Under Attack notes that girls and women have been attacked at school as a result of conflict in at least 11 countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan . EUA also reports the use of explosive weapons in attacks on schools in Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen (among others).

Even if they aren’t being attacked, girls may be more likely to lose out on an education due to conflict, either kept home for their own safety — especially on commutes to and from the classroom — or forced into child marriage as a means of coping with the economic impacts conflict has on vulnerable families.

Boys’ education is also under threat in wartime

In Shattered Lives , Concern’s 2017 study on the effects of the conflict in Syria , all participants interviewed agreed that women and children were most at-risk to the impact of war. Girls face the prospect of abuse, harassment, and forced marriage, which often has a direct result on their education.

However, young men and boys also face similar threats to education. Young men in their late (or even early) teens often face the existential threat of being drafted or forcibly conscripted either into a national army or rebel group. Many families in Syria sent their sons away to avoid this fate, with many rural villages completely devoid of men ages 18 to 35 due to recruitment, displacement, or death.

Younger boys aren’t safe, either. The near-universal poverty rates in Syria have led to many children dropping out of school and turning to hazardous work, such as selling fuel, in order to support themselves and their families. Many boys collect waste to sell as scrap metal, leaving themselves more exposed to landmines and other unexploded devices. Many boys are also enlisted, either voluntarily or through force. During Sierra Leone’s Civil War (1991-2002), approximately 14,000 child soldiers fought on both sides. At one point, 25% of the national army consisted of children ages 8 to 14.

Psychological well-being is also under attack when conflict strikes

A recent column published by the Centre for Economic Policy and Research notes that “one aspect that has received little attention so far is the effect of conflict on academic achievement.” The CEPR points specifically to high school students in this case, but in reality, the reasons behind war’s effect on educational attainment applies to all children.

One of the key reasons for this is that children feel the effects of war acutely. The younger they are, the fewer mechanisms they have to express the emotional reactions that are a normal part of conflict like fear, anxiety, and depression. A lack of psychosocial support has an effect on how well students will perform in school, especially those who need additional learning support even in a non-conflict setting.

This is also where education can play a key part in reducing the impact of war on children’s lives. Conflict-sensitive education, which is (as the name suggests) educational programs that adapt curricula and learning goals to the realities of war, can help children keep up with building important life skills and maintain a sense of normalcy. Even if they aren’t learning grammar or multiplication tables at this time, it provides them with a foundation of support and well-being to continue their full course of education when the time is right.

It’s hard for children to come back from even a few months of missed classes

Returning to the classroom after an extended time away from it isn’t a one-to-one ratio. Children can’t make up for a month’s worth of missed learning within a month. As we’ve seen with school shutdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it takes time to adjust and readjust to new settings and new normals, especially when it comes to productivity and exercises that require our cognitive skills.

Unfortunately, most school systems in countries and communities affected by conflict don’t have the resources to accommodate this need for extra time, which can leave children falling increasingly behind on learning benchmarks.

“I won’t go back to school. I have lost my will now after missing it for two years.” — Samer*, Syrian student

After the war has ended, many children don’t come back

When we met 16-year-old Syrian boy Samer* in 2013, he was 16 and told us: “I won’t go back to school. I have lost my will now after missing it for two years.” Even if he had been able to get back into the classroom sooner, he felt he would be too behind on classes and that the education system would take much longer to get back up to full speed. “For my generation and me, the future is not clear.”

Since we last spoke with Samer, another generation of Syrians has come of age without securing their basic right to a quality education . Samer would be 25 now, and while his decision was made at a critical age, when college is close by and many students set themselves up on a career trajectory, interruptions to education are equally critical for younger children. Losing out on the first few years of a primary education leaves many children feeling hopelessly behind. Without the right support, many fail to catch up or learn at their full potential.

Conflicts are becoming increasingly more protracted, which changes the way we need to approach education in war zones

Many conflicts are now a decade — if not decades — old: Afghanistan, Burkina Faso , the Central African Republic , DRC, Somalia , South Sudan , Syria… The longer a crisis like conflict goes on, the more complex an emergency the situation becomes. Many countries that have transitioned into peacetime struggle to rebuild infrastructure, and education is often low on the list of priorities next to issues like sanitation, roads, and running water.

Meanwhile, we are at the peak of a conflict-related global refugee crisis with the average length of displacement times for refugees and IDPs growing from months to years to generations. We can no longer see these humanitarian emergencies as short-term events, and this means we have to change our approach to education. Part of this includes bridging the gap between education’s place in short-term humanitarian aid and long-term development work, to ensure that students (many of whom may spend their entire primary education in displacement) see the same educational outcomes as their peers in non-conflict settings.

Education for Syrian refugee children: Avoiding a lost generation

More than half a million Syrian refugee children have missed out on years of precious education. Here's how we're working with students, teachers, and families to get them back in the classroom.

Education is key to mitigating current conflict and preventing future conflict

Education can be transformative, providing children with access to information and facilitating the development of skills to challenge, analyze, and communicate that information. This is a key component in fostering a lasting peace. The skills that education develops can spur individuals and societies to challenge oppression, tyranny, and inequality. In turn, they can create space for dialogue, democracy, and transformation. The right education is one of the best conflict mitigation strategies available to any society. (Conversely, when governments deliver education in ways that foster intolerance, prejudice, and injustice, this can exacerbate wider tensions and make armed conflict more likely.)

What’s more, the real benefits of an education are linked to the next generation. A parent’s education is linked to improvements in:

• Their children’s cognitive development
• The health outcomes of all family members
• Infant and maternal mortality rates (due to children getting married and having their first child at older ages)
• Resilience to cope with emergencies and shocks
• Criminal activity reduction
• Democratic systems

These intergenerational benefits of a quality, equitable education require long-term sustained investment, however. This can be threatened by the realities of war. Investing in response early on when conflict breaks out means we can reduce needs and vulnerabilities in the future.

Education and conflict: Concern’s approach

Concern’s work in education aims to improve the lives of children living in extreme poverty and vulnerability by increasing access to high-quality primary education and supporting overall child well-being. One of our specialties in this area is education in emergencies , including conflict. Understanding the effects that war can have on an education, we focus on supporting children in fragile and crisis situations. Our conflict-sensitive approach to education includes programs like:

• Establishing Temporary Learning Spaces (TLS) for children displaced by conflict
• Equipping teachers with the skills to support children affected by crisis, conflict, and displacement
• Developing informal accelerated learning programs, including those based on literacy, numeracy, and psychosocial support
• Supporting community-led schools
• Working with governments to reestablish and rebuild national education systems once peace has been reached

Concern also supports community engagement in school management, empowering parents and community leaders to have a role in decision-making at the local school level and engaging caretakers to understand what their children are going through during emergency situations and how to best support them in difficult times. Many of our community-led projects address factors that restrict access and demand for education, particularly among poor and vulnerable children and girls.

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• Understanding Poverty

Delivering Education in the Midst of Fragility, Conflict, and Violence (FCV)

Ensuring a safe environment for children to learn is more than a mission for the World Bank. It is an urgent imperative. In large part, the success of our FCV Strategy is predicated on education. There are few spheres of development with so much potential to contribute to violence prevention and peace building. Schooling, therefore, has a critical role in developing the social cohesion for stability, as well as the skill base needed for our client countries to advance in their development and achieve economic prosperity.

Today, only 3% of humanitarian aid goes to education. Yet the children most in need of a good education are also at greatest risk of having their learning disrupted, whether by conflict, violence, pandemics, climate, or other crises.

WITH INVESTMENTS TOTALLING $7 BILLION, THE WORLD BANK IS THE LARGEST EXTERNAL FINANCIER OF EDUCATION IN FCV SETTINGS

The World Bank, through technical assistance, loans, and grants, works in collaboration with humanitarian actors and other stakeholders to minimize these disruptions and advance education in FCV settings. Our education portfolio in Fragility, Conflict, and Violence settings has grown rapidly in recent years, reflecting the increasing importance of the FCV agenda in education. In fiscal year 2024 (FY24), our investment in FCV settings stands at $7 billion, accounting for about 27% of the World Bank’s education portfolio and representing 42 projects in 28 countries. This share will continue to grow under our Strategy for Fragility, Conflict, and Violence 2020-2025. An additional $1.2 billion in funding for education in FCV countries will be approved in FY24 and FY25.

In FY24, 33 out of 42 active portfolio projects are in Sub-Saharan African countries. In the Middle East and North Africa region, the ongoing Syrian refugee crises and other regional instabilities have led to an increase in projects.

PROGRESS IN EDUCATION WILL INCREASINGLY BE DETERMINED BY OPERATING EFFECTIVELY IN FCV SETTINGS

The current global situation, characterized by a changing climate, shifting geopolitics, and the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, is most likely a preview of the uncertainties that countries will face in the future. By 2030, more than half of the poor, and two-thirds of the extreme poor, will live in situations of FCV. For the World Bank to achieve its goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting prosperity on a livable planet, it will need to succeed in FCV settings.

Launched in February 2020, our Strategy for Fragility, Conflict, and Violence 2020-2025 is an important milestone in how the World Bank serves populations living in these settings. The strategy rests on four pillars. Our white paper “Safe and Learning in the Midst of Fragility, Conflict, and Violence” recommends actions across those pillars.

WORLD BANK SUPPORTS PROJECTS IN FCV COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD

• In Yemen, The World Bank’s Restoring Education and Learning Project provides a school package to over 1,100 schools that includes four key elements: (i) teacher training and performance-based teacher payments; (ii) learning materials and school supplies; (iii) rehabilitation of school infrastructure; and (iv) school feeding. The project reaches almost 600,000 children, targeting the most vulnerable districts. It also supports delivery of remedial education for struggling students in grades 1-6 to address learning losses in math and language, as well as strengthening local capacity for managing education. The project includes close collaboration with partners—UNICEF, the World Food Program (WFP), and Save the Children.
• In Nigeria, the AGILE project expands and improves secondary schools to ensure safe, accessible, and inclusive infrastructure. It also provides skills training for adolescent girls on digital literacy, health education, gender-based violence awareness and prevention, negotiation skills, and self-agency. The project aims to benefit about 6.7 million adolescents and 15.5 million direct beneficiaries, including families and communities, in seven states.
• In Somalia, the Education for Human Capital Development Project aims to increase access to primary education in underserved areas , with a focus on girls, and improve quality of instruction. It includes (i) strengthening government’s stewardship role; (ii) establishing a national student learning assessment system; and (iii) strengthening system-level monitoring and evaluation.
• In Ukraine, The World Bank’s education support includes financing of teacher salaries; support for a remedial online tutoring program for displaced students; and reallocating $100 million to support and protect academic scholarships for higher education students.
• In Cameroon, a World Bank project has supported the government in hiring over 9,000 primary school teachers— prioritizing zones that host refugees and internally displaced people. It provides training for almost 60,000 teachers in effective pedagogies and topics such as education in emergencies, gender-based violence and psychosocial support. The project also supports school grants as well as financial management trainings for school management councils in refugee-hosting areas.

WORLD BANK’S WORK IN FCV SETTINGS RECEIVES STRATEGIC OPERATIONAL SUPPORT

PROVIDING TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE  

To strengthen our response, the World Bank is launching the Inclusion Support Programme for Refugee Education (INSPIRE). INSPIRE seeks to provide technical support to help integrate refugee children into host country systems. It also promotes predictable concessional financing to countries that open their schools to refugee children. Working with partners, INSPIRE will help implement programs to help transition refugee populations into host country schools while strengthening the quality of education for all students.

The Bank has also mobilized an Education and FCV Response Team to provide just-in-time advice and support to country staff on operations in FCV settings. The support includes analytical work, distilling best practices, and generating creative solutions for service delivery in these challenging contexts.

EXPANDING AND SHARING GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE

The World Bank aims to inform evidence-based solutions for education in FCV settings. For example, recent case studies were conducted to analyze what works including displaced populations within host country national education systems. In The Global Cost of Inclusive Refugee Education —a joint report of the World Bank and UNHCR—we estimate the cost of educating refugee children in host country systems. Our knowledge exchange events and publications seek to ensure that expertise and tools reach those who need them across countries.

BUILDING NEW PARTNERSHIPS TO REACH BENEFICIARIES

The World Bank’s growing investments in education in FCV settings mark an opportunity to partner with and learn from others who have a longstanding presence in this space, including both our traditional partners (e.g., UNICEF and UNHCR, international NGOs, bilateral agencies), and newer partners (e.g., municipalities or community-based organizations). We continue to expand our partnerships with humanitarian actors from civil society, including faith-based organizations and local entities, such as associations of women’s groups. These organizations have a strong presence on the ground in hard-to-reach areas and offer crucial contextual knowledge and technical know-how. Together, we can more effectively advance education and learning in the world’s most challenging settings.

• Case Study Summary
• Evidence Synthesis and Intervention Map
• Colombia Case Study
• Jordan Case Study
• Chad Case Study
• Blog: Girls’ education in conflict is most at risk: Here’s how to reach them
• Brochure: Safe and Learning in the midst of Fragility, Conflict, and Violence (FCV)
• Approach Paper: Safe and Learning in the Midst of Fragility, Conflict, and Violence (FCV)
• World Bank's work on Fragility, Conflict & Violence
• International Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE)
• Global Partnership for Education
• Education for All (EFA) Report
• International Rescue Committee (IRC
• The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

GLOBAL REFUGEE FORUM 2023

The second  Global Refugee Forum  (GRF) took place from 13 to 15 December in Switzerland. The World Bank is Part of the GRF 2023 Multistakeholder Pledge: Securing Sustainable Futures - Towards a Shared Responsibility to Uphold the Right to Education and Include Refugee Children in National Education Systems.

Home — Essay Samples — Business — Conflict — Examples Of Conflict In Education

Examples of Conflict in Education

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Published: Mar 13, 2024

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Student-teacher conflict, interpersonal conflict among students, conflict between administrators and teachers, conflict within the education system.

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Conflict Resolution Toolkit: Essential Skills for Educators

This Erasmus training course equips educators across Europe with the essential skills to navigate and resolve conflicts effectively in the classroom and school environment. Over five days (20 hours), participants will gain practical tools, communication strategies, and de-escalation techniques to foster a positive and collaborative learning environment.

Description

• Identify the root causes of conflicts in educational settings.
• Apply active listening techniques and develop empathetic communication.
• Utilize assertive communication strategies to address conflict situations constructively.
• Employ collaborative problem-solving approaches to reach mutually beneficial solutions.
• Foster positive relationships with students, parents, and colleagues.
• Develop a personalized conflict resolution toolkit for daily use.
• Module 1: The Landscape of Conflict: Exploring common types of conflicts in schools.
• Module 2: Impact of Conflict: Recognizing the negative effects on students, educators, and the learning environment.
• Module 3: Self-Awareness: Identifying personal triggers and communication styles.
• Module 4: Active Listening: Mastering the art of truly hearing and understanding others.
• Module 5: Empathic Communication: Building bridges through validation and emotional intelligence.
• Module 6: Assertive Communication: Expressing needs and concerns confidently and respectfully.
• Module 7: Recognizing Warning Signs: Identifying escalating situations before they boil over.
• Module 8: Verbal De-escalation Techniques: Calming communication strategies for tense moments.
• Module 9: Non-verbal De-escalation Strategies: Body language and active listening to de-fuse tension.
• Module 10: Negotiation Skills for Educators: Finding win-win solutions through collaborative approaches.
• Module 11: Mediation Techniques: Facilitating communication and compromise between parties.
• Module 12: Building Trust and Rapport: Fostering positive relationships for future collaboration.
• Module 13:  Developing a Personalized Toolkit: Creating a practical plan for conflict resolution

Learning objectives

• Identify and analyze various types of conflict common in educational settings.
• Employ active listening and empathic communication techniques to understand different perspectives in a conflict situation.
• Utilize assertive communication strategies to express their needs and concerns constructively and respectfully.
• Apply de-escalation techniques to manage heated situations and prevent further escalation.
• Facilitate collaborative problem-solving approaches to negotiate win-win solutions.
• Develop strategies to build positive relationships with students, parents, and colleagues as a foundation for conflict prevention.
• Create a personalized conflict resolution toolkit containing practical strategies and resources tailored to their specific needs. 

Methodology & assessment

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• Price: 400 Euro
• Package contents: Course

Additional information

• Language: English
• Target audience ISCED: Primary education (ISCED 1) Lower secondary education (ISCED 2) Upper secondary education (ISCED 3)
• Target audience type: Teacher Teacher Educator
• Learning time: 15-20 hours

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Antisemitism Accusations Against Staff Pose Dilemma for School Leaders

Republicans have pressed educators to fire employees who they say crossed lines. But school leaders say that legal, political and union considerations complicate matters.

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By Troy Closson

Throughout a series of congressional hearings about what public schools and universities are doing to combat antisemitism, Republicans keep hammering school leaders on one question.

Why haven’t they fired educators accused of antisemitism?

The accusations have come during a wave of demonstrations and discussions about the Israel-Hamas war on the campuses of public schools and universities. The Republicans leading the hearings have argued that school administrators have not done enough to discipline employees whose behavior they say has crossed from protected free speech into antisemitic hate speech and harassment.

But even defining what sorts of activities and speech are antisemitic is also hotly debated, including among Jewish families and organizations.

School leaders have had a variety of responses. Some have promised to crack down on individuals, by name, while others have refused to provide any information about employee discipline.

At one of the hearings at the Capitol this month, the New York City schools chief repeatedly leaned on one legal phrase: due process.

“We do not have the authority — just because I disagree — to just terminate someone,” the chancellor, David C. Banks, said. “That’s not the way it works in our school system.”

The different approaches by public school and college administrators, both to congressional questioning and to the discipline itself, are a reflection of how discipline has become one of the thorniest challenges for schools trying to navigate tensions over the Israel-Hamas war.

As complaints rack up over teachers who promote protests or professors who spar with students online, leaders have been thrust into a deeply charged issue touching on a complex web of concerns. Among them are gray areas of free speech rules, employees’ union rights and heated debates over contested phrases like “from the river to the sea.”

To some Jewish students and parents, administrators are not doing enough to reprimand or even get rid of employees who they say are allowing hostile views toward Jews to fester in classrooms and lecture halls. Yet to some Arab and Muslim families, many leaders have gone too far, infringing on educators’ rights and unevenly enforcing the rules about what warrants discipline.

The tension over discipline is likely to re-emerge on the national stage later this month, when the presidents of three more universities, Rutgers, Northwestern and the University of California, Los Angeles, become the next to testify in Washington.

When asked by Republicans about individual professors at a hearing last month, Columbia University’s president, Nemat Shafik, divulged that two were under investigation for making “discriminatory remarks.”

One of them, who described the Hamas-led attack on Israel as a “resistance offensive” in an article, would never work at the school again, she said.

Nine days later, the university’s senate accused the administration of having breached professors’ due process rights and their privacy.

“These actions show little respect for clearly established protocols,” read a resolution approved by the senate.

The Columbia leader’s approach before Congress stood in stark contrast to the testimony of public school leaders at a separate hearing. The Berkeley Unified School District superintendent, Enikia Ford Morthel, repeatedly declined to share even broad details of punitive measures taken against district employees, noting that California has strict confidentiality rules that govern personnel details.

The contrasting playbooks were in part a reflection of the chasm between the legal and professional standards for public school districts and higher education institutions. While most professors are granted broad rights to academic freedom, schoolteachers are far more constrained in their choice of lessons, as well as in their speech as public employees.

Some episodes have centered on clearer cases of explicit hate speech or antisemitic tropes . But many revolve around more nuanced situations, such as how teachers have discussed the war in history and social studies courses, or how their political behavior — such as helping to organize a walkout to call for a cease-fire in Gaza — may influence students’ views.

In Berkeley, for example, the Brandeis Center, a Jewish civil rights group, filed a complaint earlier this year, arguing in part that the district had “refused” to discipline teachers, including some who framed the Hamas attack as “resistance” or called Israel an “apartheid state” in their classrooms.

Rachel Lerman, the center’s vice chair and general counsel, said that many Jewish families feel like if another group were to face similar targeting in schools, “we would see results.”

“It’s not about silencing speech,” Ms. Lerman said. “It’s about what’s appropriate in the classroom under the school’s own rules and California’s own laws.”

A confrontation over similar issues unfolded last week when Republicans questioned Mr. Banks, New York City’s schools chief, over why he had reassigned, but not fired, the principal of a high school where students raucously protested a Jewish educator who posted support for Israel on social media.

Mr. Banks repeated that every school employee is entitled to due process. In a strong union town like New York, most teachers and principals are entitled to hearings where they can respond to accusations of misconduct before officials impose discipline, including firing them.

On an issue as sensitive as the Israel-Hamas war, it may be no surprise that some families “may not ever feel the sanction was appropriate,” said Cheryl Logan, a former superintendent in Omaha and expert in educational leadership.

District leaders, though, must strike a delicate balance. “People have private lives,” she said, “and they work in public schools.”

Some states like Massachusetts broadly restrict all public employees from political behavior during work time. A teacher would not be allowed to print pamphlets for a pro-Palestinian demonstration on a school computer, for example, or seek to advance pro-Israel views during class time.

Still, experts said the rules can be murkier for a teacher’s speech online or out of school hours. Many districts have also previously given educators leeway to show support for certain political or social causes, like Black Lives Matter or Ukraine in its war with Russia.

Those issues of what’s permitted merged in a recent dispute in Montgomery County, Md., where the district was sued after it suspended three teachers who used contested language to describe the war in Gaza.

One of the teachers often wore “Free Palestine” buttons to school, and was put on leave after a staff member complained that she had put the contested phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” in the signature of her internal emails to colleagues, according to the suit . Some Jews see the phrase as antisemitic . The teacher viewed it as an “aspirational call to freedom and dignity for the Palestinian people,” the suit said.

Zainab Chaudry, the Maryland director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said she worried about a “clear double standard,” in which teachers who support the Palestinian cause do not receive the same due process rights as those who back Israel.

“We’ve never seen this level of suppression of free speech,” she said, adding that one major challenge “is that there are no clear-cut guidelines in terms of what’s acceptable and what’s not.”

Mr. Banks told a congressional subcommittee on education last week that the phrase “from the river to the sea” was not allowed in New York City schools. The New York Civil Liberties Union later said that many educators were unaware of the rule and that it believed a strict ban would most likely be unconstitutional.

As the chancellor testified in Washington, a group of pro-Palestinian teachers held a demonstration on the steps of the city’s Education Department headquarters. Among them was Pam Sporn, a retired teacher in the Bronx who said her mission as an educator was to expose her students to the world.

Ms. Sporn said she often dug “into controversial historical and current issues” in her classroom, and was fortunate to work in schools “where we had that freedom.”

Today, though, she said, “I would be in so much trouble.”

Olivia Bensimon contributed reporting.

Troy Closson reports on K-12 schools in New York City for The Times. More about Troy Closson