The Development of Adolescents as Ethical Civic Actors in Countries in Transition From Identity-Based Violence and Conflict

• In Event: Civic Learning in the Crux of Change: Citizenship and Belonging Amid Radically Transforming Contexts

Abstract

This paper presents research that explores the development of adolescents as ethical civic actors in three countries emerging from and coping with ongoing violence where identity based conflicts have played a critical role, Northern Ireland, South Africa and the United States. It explores two important areas of a larger research study: 1) how young people experience of transition from mass violence and identity based conflict, specifically, how students and their teachers navigate this process and the role that historical awareness plays. How does a greater understanding of a country’s history and its legacies assist students in their development as ethical civic actors? How does the absence of or confusion about the recent past and its legacies impair or impede the development of ethical civic action? 2) Looking deeper at critical incidents that show the fault lines of the division within the three countries, the paper explores how students approach these incidents and how they reveal some of the fault lines in their respective societies. From an exploration of Trayvon Martin’s killing in the US to the Marikana miners’ strike in South Africa to the dispute about the flags in Northern Ireland, we look at how each provides an invaluable lens for understanding persistent divisions and the implications for the development of ethical civic action and actors.

In each of the three countries, data include interviews students in a case study classroom, student writing, observations of their classes and interviews with their teachers. In addition, focus groups of students and teachers in each area add diversity, depth and breadth to the case study schools. For example, in South Africa, our case study school is in the Northern Suburbs of Cape Town and has a primarily coloured population of students.  Our focus groups are in the Southern Suburbs where the students are primarily white and middle-upper middle class and in a township where the students are primarily black and poor. The teacher focus groups include educators who also represent a diversity of schools and identity based positions themselves. Finally, we have collected surveys about issues of civic responsibility and learning to participate for an even larger sample of teachers and students in each country. In each of our sites, teachers and students have experienced Facing History and Ourselves’ content and methodologies.  This provides a constant for these otherwise different cultural, political, social and educational contexts.  

This research has the potential to make a contribution in several fields and areas of policy and practice, including the field of transitional justice which has thus far neglected to integrate education into its comprehensive approach to addressing the violent past; professional development for educators and administrators in societies where identity based conflicts and ongoing division exist; and wide scale educational reform in divided societies where schools are increasingly segregated.

Authors

• Sarah W. Freedman, University of California - Berkeley

• Karen L. Murphy, Facing History and Ourselves