home - on_education

no. 15_december 2022

On Education

editorial: education in times of war

The 15th issue of On_Education deals with the history and present of wartime education in different times, sociopolitical contexts and geographical spaces, such as Ukraine, Japan, Sri Lanka, Cyprus, post-socialist Poland, post-civil war Lebanon, post-apartheid South Africa or post-fascist Germany. The issue focuses on the different – often Janus-faced and highly ambivalent – roles and functions that education systems tend to play in societies’ responses to wars, in the preparation for war, as well as in the educational and sociopolitical dynamics that tend to shape educational systems before, during, and after wars (including so called ‘cold wars’). We have invited analyses of these complex issues from different methodological perspectives, disciplines, and research fields (such as philosophy, history of education, comparative education, and others).

Sigal Ben-Porath

revisiting “citizenship under fire”

This short essay relates the impact of war on democratic and civic education to similar impacts generated by persistent polarization and extremism. Some misguided responses to both are discussed, especially those that entrench nationalistic sentiments and undermine democratic attitudes, as well as responses focused on singling out some identity groups as suspect. A normative case is made for addressing conspiracism and polarization through an intentional effort to build a civic community committed to sound epistemic practices.

Linda Chisholm

‘total war,’ ‘people’s war,’ ‘wars’ of inequality and education in South Africa

Wars, whether of full-scale invasion and military aggression or on a lower scale of intensity, destroy educational infrastructure and aspirations. But during war, education can also hold out the possibility for alternatives. Using South Africa in the 1980s as a case of low-intensity war, this article shows how parts of the system became militarised but also how an alternative vision was created through and in education. Nationalism, militarism and gendered identities romanticising war and violence were closely linked in white schools. For black youth, militarism became a defence against state violence. Apartheid was defeated, but the violence produced by the conflict has lived on in the society in different ways. Redrawing the boundaries of the nation after apartheid has created new Others. Education can and must continue to create the possibilities for thinking about different ways of organising society and looking to a future without war.

Esther Berner

educating the new soldier in post-fascist Germany: the example of “the soldier’s everyday life” (1957)

The article deals with the role that the military should play as a socialization instance in the decades immediately after World War II. Even today, as the example of the German Federal Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) shows, armies claim not only to train but also to educate their soldiers. The Bundeswehr as well as other military organisations, however, have only received little attention in research in the history of education. The case of the Bundeswehr is interesting with respect to issues and concepts of military education, socialization, and discipline because rearmament in the postwar West German context was in particular need of political justification. Above all, after 1955 it was necessary to recruit volunteer soldiers. To this end, the Bundeswehr resorted to films as well as other media. One such promotional film, entitled “The Soldier’s Everyday Life,” will be used to show how the idea of the new democratic armed forces was presented to the population.

Toshiko Ito

history and myth in times of war: elementary school history textbooks in imperial Japan

Education in times of war has to contribute to the engagement with military conflict. Historical description in history textbooks of Imperial Japan did so effectively by fostering readiness for mobilization and self-sacrifice. This article focuses on the interplay between historical description and myth, and discusses the possibility of making historical description into a tool of resistance against tendentious historical description predicated on the provision of rationales for war.

Denise Bentrovato

wartime citizenship education, discourses of global norms and the contingency of rights in Sri Lanka

This short article aims to add to ongoing debates on the nature of citizenship education in wartime and its aftermath, against the backdrop of the worldwide ascendancy of a donor-driven, rights-based “global” model, considered in various circles as a panacea for local and global peace. Drawing on the case of Sri Lanka, the article casts light upon the discursive tensions, visible in externally-funded wartime citizenship textbooks, that may accompany the local adoption and adaptation of “global” norms in societies torn by protracted civil war and its legacies. The findings explore a case of the political harnessing of a global type of citizenship education, intertwined with and undermined by a more traditional approach, with liberal concepts of peacebuilding discursively championed, yet effectively rejected. The study thus raises questions around the implications for national reconciliation in a broader context of imposed “negative peace”.

Joanna Wojdon

the war in Ukraine and history education of refugee pupils in Poland

The article presents the process of developing history teaching material for Ukranian refugee pupils in Poland in the months immediately following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Initiated as a small-scale contribution to the aid for Ukrainian refugees in Poland, thanks to the support of EuroClio – European Association of History Educators, it developed into a project that combined humanitarian aspects with inter- and transnational history education, able to build upon the concepts of multiperspectivity and historical thinking and help teachers and students address the challenges of multilingual and multicultural classrooms. Written from the author’s personal perspective of the project coordinator, it discusses the achievements and difficulties of the work of a group of educators, translators, sponsors and web-publisher with an aim to encourage reflection and discussion on history education of war refugee children in the school system of a receiving country.

Eleni Christodoulou and Michalinos Zembylas

dismantling myths and teaching controversial issues in conflict-affected societies: insights from Cyprus

In this short piece we argue that although theoretically in times of war and protracted conflict, it is particularly crucial for teachers to engage with controversial issues, doing so in praxis is fraught with ethical, practical, political, contextual and emotional dilemmas and challenges. Informed by our research on and teaching of the Cyprus conflict (and the associated peacebuilding process) as a controversial issue itself, we posit that merely replacing ‘war education’ with ‘peace education’ can fail at best and be counterproductive or solidify essentialist positions at worst. Instead of focusing primarily on replacing one form of knowledge with another and on developing fixed skillsets as part of peace education manuals, we argue that meaningful engagement with difficult conversations requires new modes of being that can only materialise through long-term processes of self-reflection, affective engagement and enactment of critical pedagogies. Here, we focus on three such pedagogies, namely, ‘pedagogies of discomfort’; ‘pedagogies of desecuritisation’ and ‘pedagogies of empathy’.

David Aldridge

education for peace and the selection of a literary canon for war remembrance

‘Peace forever’ is a desirable curriculum aim for schools, and a legitimate principle for the selection of curriculum content. In this article I consider a tension between humanistic and hermeneutic motivations for the selection of a literary canon for educational purposes. I conclude that teachers do well to consider the selection of curriculum content within a broader context of moral and spiritual development, but this should be accompanied by letting go of the hope that a specific literary text or other curriculum object will transform a student in any particular or predetermined way. This insight applies to the presentation of war poetry but is also relevant to the project of character education more broadly.

Bassel Akar

the destructive silence of corruption and authoritarianism in education

Education research and development initiatives have mostly approached poor or weak practices of governance as consequences of armed conflict. Moreover, education reform strategies have often overlooked the political and historical roots to governance issues that impede education reform and development. Drawing on the case of Lebanon, we observe how governance practices of corruption and authoritarianism emerge as destructive expressions of conflict. I focus on two of many areas that have jeopardized the safety of children and their rights to quality education: the failure of rehabilitating school infrastructure that has led to the death of a student in November 2022 and the stalemate of history curriculum reform since 1970. In this paper, I argue that authoritarianism and corruption should be regarded in education research and development work as expressions of conflict rather than consequences.

education in times of war

subscribe now