Introducing Research on Education & Conflict at the Centre for International

Education

Mario Novelli, CIE, Sussex December 15th, 2014

Background to Research In Education & Conflict

• Since 1990 Jomtien Education For all Conference, there has been a global push to promote access, particularly at basic level

• In 2000, EFA follow-up meeting. Half of the world’s out-of-school children live in conflict-affected countries (2013/4 EFA Global Monitoring Report).

• In parallel we saw post-Cold War increase in UN humanitarian interventions, which meant Education (and humanitarian and development assistance) was being delivered in contexts of conflict rather than around the borders

• During this period we have seen increased international development assistance directed towards conflict affected contexts

• This posed a range of challenges/questions• How does education intersect with conflict?• How does education contribute to peace/war before, during, after conflict?• Does education programming and practice look different in conflict contexts?• How can we ensure ‘education systems’ are more conflict sensitive/peace

promoting• What are the competing logics, motivations, trajectories of key actors within the

field, and with what effects on the promotion of sustainable peace?

Research Trajectories

Current Education & Peacebuilding Research Projects

• Engaging Teachers in Peacebuilding in Post-Conflict Contexts, ESRC/DFID with University of Bristol (September 2014-September 2016) and local partners.

• Research Consortium on Education & Peacebuilding, UNICEF HQ with University of Amsterdam, University of Ulster (July 2014-January 2015) and local partners in six countries

• Education Sector Governance, Inequality, Conflict and Peacebuilding in Kenya and South Sudan, UNICEF Easter & Southern Africa Regional Office, Sussex Centre for Conflict and Security Research (September 2014-October 2015) and local partners in Kenya and South Sudan

• Currently have 6 Doctoral Candidates research related education, conflict & peacebuilding issues.

Beyond a ‘Liberal Peace’ to a ‘Peace with Social Justice’

• Underpinning all of the current work lies both a critique of contemporary peacebuilding logics and a vision of peace with social justice that emerged from earlier and ongoing work with Professor Alan Smith, University of Ulster

• Current ‘global’ peacebuilding agendas and actors priorities security, markets, democracy and relegate social sectors to something that can come later

• Commitment to Positive vs. Negative Peace, long term and sustainable peacebuilding processes, Recognition of the role of horizontal and vertical inequalities in underpinning conflicts.

• Peace with Social Justice has multiple dimensions, and we draw on Nancy Fraser’s 3 R framework and add Reconciliation as a 4th R to provide our analytical ‘4 R’ lens to think through what might a socially just and peacebuilding education system look like.

Research Consortium on Education & Peacebuilding

THANK YOU

Three Research Areas, two transversal themes

Research Area 1

Coordinator research methodologies, partnerships and capacity buildingProf Mario Novelli, University of Sussex

Research Area 2

Research Area 3

Research questions:1. To what extent do these policy discourses include a focus on youth agency for the realization of

sustainable peace? 2. To what extent do education programmes focused on youth promote agency for the realization of

sustainable peace, and in how far are issues of gender (in)equality and violence addressed?3. For both youth who are in- and out- of formal and non-formal education programmes, what are their

perceptions of their needs and agency as social, economic and political/potential peacebuilders?

1. Music, arts, sports and faith-related education programmes

2. Citizenship education3. History education4. Work-related programming5. Cross-sectoral programming

Literature Review: focus on specific (non)formal education interventions for youth

Website: http://learningforpeace.unicef.org/partners/research-consortium/

Research Briefings 6 major deliverables:

3 literature reviews3 synthesis reports

Communication PBEA teams UNICEF Dissemination event Amsterdam

Communication strategy

Thank you