Teachers as transformative agents in protracted conflict: The case of Cameroon

• In Event: Prioritizing Teachers in Fragile and Crisis Contexts: Contextually-Grounded Approaches to Understanding Teacher Well-being in a Digital Age - Part 1

Proposal

Teachers are essential actors in providing quality education, the purpose of which is magnified in conflict-affected contexts (Burns & Lawrie, 2015; Mendenhall, 2017). A consistent message in the literature on teachers in conflict is that the way they teach is as essential as what they teach in fostering the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that build toward or deter from peaceful futures for students (Burde et al., 2017; Richardson et al., 2018). Teachers interact continuously in the spaces that connect education to conflict or peacebuilding. They shape pedagogical, curricular, and cultural processes, translating textbooks and curricula to students’ lived experiences inside and outside the classroom in a way that facilitates mutual understanding or furthers stereotypes and societal inequalities (Richardson et al., 2018). Teachers also adopt extended roles within and outside of schools during conflict (Davies, 2004; Falk, 2023; Pherali, 2019).
Yet, teachers’ capacities and willingness to support these initiatives are often assumed, rather than carefully explored. The literature that does exist tends to idealize teachers’ roles as “saviors” and capable of “solving” protracted conflicts, without acknowledging that teachers often carry out their responsibilities in environments where it may not be fully safe for them to do so, all while navigating their own conflict-related challenges (Kuppens & Langer, 2020; Mendenhall, 2017; Shah, 2023; Zembylas & Loukaidis, 2021). Due to different constraints and opportunities in their roles, teachers make critical choices every day. Teacher agency manifests in those proactive actions, decisions, and initiatives that teachers make in a given situation (Imants & Van der Wal, 2020). During conflict, teachers may choose to resist change as well as facilitate change, promote peacebuilding, stoke conflict, or disengage entirely. The same teacher may play dual roles simultaneously depending on the complex contexts they teach within (Horner et al., 2015; Richardson et al., 2018).
This paper presents preliminary findings from a qualitative study that explores how secondary school teachers in Cameroon navigate the complexities of teaching during ongoing and intersecting conflicts. The study responds to the following questions: How do secondary school teachers perceive their roles during protracted conflict? In what ways do secondary school teachers enact their perceived roles during protracted conflict? What opportunity and risk factors do secondary school teachers associate with adopting those roles during protracted conflict? The study aims to contribute a greater understanding of teachers’ experiences in protracted conflict, from the perspective of teachers themselves. It does so specifically in relation to secondary school, with the goal of increasing the currently limited research about emergency education at that level (Cahill et al., 2010; Oddy, 2020).

Author

• Whitney Hough, IREX