Border Thinking Pedagogy: Learning Possibilities and Teaching Practices in (post)conflict environments

• In Event: Education across the globe: Facing conflicts and challenges

Proposal

Education is seen as a powerful resource within the context of armed conflict, transition, and post-conflict reconstruction, and more generally in situations of fragility (Davies & Talbot 2008; UNICEF, 2011). According to the Save the Children’s Rewrite the Future campaign, “of the 37 full peace agreements signed between 1989 and 2005 that are publicly available, 11 make no mention of education at all” (UNICEF, 2011, p. 26). Within this context, UNICEF (2011) argues that efforts to use education to support conflict and post-conflict spaces should not be stereotyped and reduced to peace education alone, but should rather encompass the broader role of education and reflect the specific context of the conflict. Of importance, is the need to provide support for teachers, schools, redefining curriculum and working collaboratively (across borders or divides) through an inclusive approach. What are some of the ways in which teachers can serve as agents of change in (post)conflict settings? What are some of the best teaching practices from conflict and crisis environments that can move beyond peace and tolerance education and human rights education, towards pedagogical practices that allow for more learning possibilities?
Drawing on my dissertation research, the purpose of this paper is to highlight how border thinking pedagogical practices can contribute to education in (post)conflict environments and support reconstruction and rebuilding relations. Weaving together insights from critical ethnography and border epistemology, this dissertation foreground both empirical data as well as knowledge that embedded within the body and extends beyond the cognitive aspects, including feelings, affect, and emotions. Border thinking and decolonial approaches informed my research both theoretically and methodology. My theoretical framework builds on Walter Mignolo and Madina Tlostanova’s (2012) border thinking and expands across several disciplines and geographical locations in order to understand how delinking and unlearning apply within the context of post-Soviet Armenia and the Istanbul Armenian Community.
Fieldwork for this study was conducted in Armenia between June 2019 and March 2020 with a one-month site visit in Turkey. I interviewed 39 current and retired teachers, completed fieldwork in Yerevan, the border villages of Shirak, and the Tavush regions of Armenia. In Turkey, I interviewed 17 current and 3 retired teachers and focused on four different school sites. My interviews were semi-structured based on three key theme areas: demographic background that can inform general information about the interviewee and contextualize the experience; memories that can offer a direct and explicit approach to soliciting information about their childhood and what they recall; and finally, exploring the experiences of crossing borders and coexistence that helped me to understand how the individuals experienced, learned, or witnessed the act of coexisting with “others.” This study also includes textbook analyses, fieldwork observations, as well as document and visual analyses.
A brief note on the historical background in the context of my research. Beginning with the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh where both Armenia and Azerbaijan countries claim historical rights to the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh erupted into war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 1991 and ended with a ceasefire agreement in 1994. As a result of the outbreak of war, 20,000 people were killed and more than a million people lost their homes. When the first Nagorno-Karabakh war erupted, the borders between Armenia and Turkey were closed. Negotiations to reopen the borders for Armenians have been blocked by the politics of memory and history regarding the Ottoman campaign of forced displacement and genocidal violence against the Armenian population in 1915. At the time of writing, more families from Nagorno-Karabakh are being displaced and cease violations by Azerbaijan continue in the background of government officials discussing the opening of borders between Armenia and Turkey and borders between Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Nagorno-Karabakh are currently redrawn.
The need to support teachers on all sides of the borders are important now more than ever considering the recent events since the second Nagorno Karabakh war in 2020. This paper will highlight examples of border thinkers’ pedagogical practices for delinking and unlearning in school settings which can contribute to opening space for learning possibilities and studying histories, identities, and conflicts beyond the South Caucasus. This study aims to contribute to a significant gap on education in (post)conflict studies where emphasis on peace education and human rights education alone cannot resolve the deeper issues associated with memory and personal experiences.

Author

• Garine Palandjian, Arizona State University