If you build it, they will learn: Non-state actors envisioning and implementing sustainable schooling and curriculum amidst conflict in Myanmar

• In Event: Schooling in conflict & post-conflict societies: the politics of knowledge

Proposal

Relevance to Education, Conflict, and Emergencies
Despite recent progress, national governments in low and middle-income countries have fallen short in providing truly universal access to quality education for all people. The context for children in areas with conflict is far worse (UNESCO, 2018). Regardless of why, how, or to what extent state actors have been unsuccessful in providing these opportunities, the non-state response has grown steadily in various forms and the privatization of schooling has become a global phenomenon (Steer, Gillard, Gustafsson-Wright, & Latham, 2015). Households in the developing world are now a major financial contributor to education (Huebler & Legault, 2017) indicating the rise in private schooling and decrease in governmental support. This trend is even more pronounced in conflict affected areas where public services, like schooling, are no longer provided by a central government but instead by non-state groups, organizations, or companies if at all.

However, not all private or non-state schools are created equal, and differences in organizational structure, motives, pedagogy, and learning outcomes are stark. Indeed, non-state schooling can be delivered by multi-national for-profit companies, local community based not-for-profit organizations, and everything in between. These types of schools are being created faster than empirical research can be conducted to inform best practices, so this study examined one type of community based non-state education system that began in 2011 in the face of ongoing civil war in Myanmar. The goal of this study was to understand how these communities envision, implement, and provide meaningful and relevant educational opportunities using curriculum amidst conflict.

Theoretical Framework
This study was informed by Freirean pedagogy and globalization theory. The participants in the study were actively engaged in creating their own pedagogy in spite of violent conflict and genocidal oppression. Accordingly, Freirean liberation and emancipatory perspectives of pedagogy and community-based curriculum development were used as a lens through which to view this study where education services were a tool for empowerment and peace (Freire, 1968). Given the desire of participants to use curriculum and education to engage the broader world outside their local community, globalization theory was also employed to understand schooling as an institution that stretches across space and time in the age of globalization (McGrew & Held, 2007). Taken together, this study analyzes the role of pedagogy to fulfill community needs in a local and global context.

Methodology
The setting of this study was sixty non-state schools throughout conflict affected areas of Myanmar. The schools employed over four hundred teachers and enrolled over five-thousand students. A local Community-Based Organization (CBO) served as the central administrator for these schools by operating a teacher training center, developing curriculum, monitoring schools, and managing administrative and financial operations.

In total, 57 participants for this study were recruited from the CBO in addition to teachers, parents, international consultants, and community leaders in order to comprehensively understand the system from a broad range of perspectives. Data collection took place from late June to early October 2018 using qualitative methods to foster a truly in-depth understanding of the education system. In total, 34 semi-structured interviews, four observations, and a document analysis were conducted. A participatory action research framework was also employed to conduct this study, so the time given by participants led to direct contributions for their work and benefits to the education system. Accordingly, I took part in meetings, workshops, and teacher trainings while collecting data, so my role as a researcher blended with that of a curriculum resource for the participants. The findings below are intended to help inform ongoing activities for participants and are based on preliminary results of coding, which is currently ongoing using Atlas.ti software analysis tools.

Findings
The participatory framework and Freirean development of generative themes allowed for conclusions to emerge throughout the data collection and analysis process, especially through dialogue with participants. Initial findings specifically suggest implications across four categories. First, creating a non-state education system was originally motivated by public failures to provide education. However, the lasting and meaningful vision resulted not from a common dislike of the governmental failures, but rather a shared view that education offers a transformational opportunity for posterity, the best chance for ending the civil conflict, and tangible positive student results. Second, a bottom-up curriculum development process that drew on input from teachers and community members resulted in a significantly stronger product than a top-down approach that relied on outside experts. Moreover, the curriculum product was more useful in classrooms when viewed as a living set of materials that could be adjusted based on teaching experience rather than a static document. Third, the education system has achieved true sustainability without dependence on foreign aid because of a core foundation of local ownership, funding, and management. Despite this impressive result coupled with a clear and long-term vision, many operational decisions were made based on short-term needs which could undermine the level of sustainability realized thus far. Finally, foreign involvement played a role throughout the entire process of envisioning and implementing the schools in this study. However, the results of foreign participation were mixed, at times providing much needed technical assistance, especially at the startup stage, but also undermining local ownership and sustainability.

Original Contribution
The conclusions here are not meant to promote non-state or private schooling as a sustainable solution to public shortfalls but rather meaningfully interrogate one new form and space for education delivery. Given the reality of conflict affected areas, this is important because non-state schooling offers an alternative pathway for many vulnerable people across the globe. Moreover, the community-based case analyzed in this study offers a unique and potentially more sustainable bottom-up model based on local ownership compared to the top-down structure that foreign aid organization too often rely upon. Aside from the findings above, perhaps the most important results are potential research questions uncovered surrounding tuition fees and access, effective strategies for engaging community knowledge, building local organizational capacity, and the role of foreign aid.

Author

• Andrew Swindell, University of California, Los Angeles