Peacebuilding and education : international interventions in the reconstruction and reform of Kosovo's post-war education system

Abstract

Despite increasing recognition of the role of education in peace and conflict, critical peacebuilding literature and post-war education literature rarely converge. However, as international peacebuilding projects increasingly address the reconstruction and reform of post-war education systems, international education interventions merit examination from a critical peacebuilding perspective, moving beyond problem-solving and technical approaches to investigate the politics of education initiatives and explore alternatives. Therefore, this thesis assesses international interventions in the reconstruction and reform of Kosovo’s post-war primary and secondary education systems from a critical peacebuilding perspective. Despite the direct role of education in Kosovo’s conflict, leading international actors approached educational reconstruction and reform as a secondary issue in the liberal peacebuilding framework, operating under the assumption that international development norms and EU standards for education promote security, democracy, a market economy, and human rights. However, by limiting the peacebuilding potential of education to the parameters of the liberal peacebuilding framework, international education interventions prioritized stability, governance institutions, and development standards and encountered local resistance and cooption that transformed intended outcomes, enabling the education sector to maintain the underlying structural and affective dimensions of the conflict and promote a negative hybrid peace. Through comparatively examining alternative approaches to educational reform beyond the liberal peacebuilding framework, the thesis explores possible opportunities and challenges for education interventions to support a more transformative and emancipatory peace in Kosovo, demonstrating the potential of localizing education agendas and practices through a local-liberal hybrid peacebuilding approach.