A considerable amount of research has been conducted on processes of educational reconstruction after conflicts.
Despite the research, there has not yet been a systematic identification of the conditions under which transformation of an education system might take place during and after conflict. Once that occurs, policy-makers can be equipped with tools which permit them to seize the opportunities that arise.
"An emergency can provide a ‘crisis situation’ in which immediate change is possible. In fact it may be much easier to introduce change into education systems as a result of an emergency than in peaceful, orderly times. Emergencies can thus provide an opportunity for transforming education..."
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Post-conflict reconstruction is a complex process of social, economic and institutional change, where typically a new government is at the same time proving its legitimacy, and its ability to meet the basic needs of its population and trying to lay the foundations of lasting peace and stability. Yet early reconstruction is also frequently characterized by lack of strong, unified central leadership authority. New political space has opened up, but governmental authorities are often weak and divided. This often leads to the debate of reconstruction being either a time of constraint or an opportunity for change.
As in other sectors, the challenges (especially financial and human resource) of merely re-establishing basic services in education, reopening schools and ensuring that teachers and students are in classrooms, might seem difficult enough, without thinking about radical reform in any areas of education.
However, this moment may also be one of possibilities for quite radical reform of education.In a post-conflict context, change and reform in education is connected to reform across government structures and systems. It is also connected to ideological changes in the ways in which ethnic, religious or other differences, which may have fuelled or contributed to the conflict, are dealt with at national, regional, and even community levels.
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The relationship between the political shifts and attitudinal changes which have to take place in order for peace to be established, and changes in the education system, are clearly complex. There are some radical changes in the education system that will be brought about by changes outside of the education system – such as new-found tolerance of ethnic diversity and the elaboration of policies of non-discrimination and equal access.
This research project will focus on two types of positive change that may occur within a post-conflict education system: radical shifts and scaling up incremental change.
Radical shifts: Emergencies and post-conflict reconstruction may provide the opportunity for major, radical even dramatic change in some aspects or sub-sectors of an education system, such as access, policy, curriculum or teacher training.
Scaling up incremental change: Relatively small changes may be leveraged into broader shifts in thinking and practice within the whole of the system. Small changes may constitute incremental steps towards large scale change.
This study will investigate a number of different examples of educational change within or in the aftermath of conflict-affected emergencies.
Focus will be placed on significant change within specific components or sub-sectors of the education system.
The main aim of this research is to discern how conflict-affected Ministries of Education and assisting agencies may take advantage of positive opportunities for reconstruction and secondly to establish what are the minimum conditions necessary for positive change in education systems in conflict and post-conflict reconstruction.
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