On becoming Bridge Citizens: Exploring Agency within Civic Identities for promoting social justice in Liberia and a Divided Korea

• In Event: Highlighted Session: Education for Social Justice: Comparative Perspectives

Proposal

Regarding the process of African countries’ nation-building efforts post-conflict, Amira Kheir (2010) points out that the African nation-state is an “inherited system” that is an “exogenous model of governance carried on from European occupation”. In many African nations with the exception of Ethiopia and Liberia, it was Europeans who colonized different locales for their respective motherlands, bringing with them their style of governance, religion, and aspects of their culture. In Liberia, colonial governance presented itself with hues of black faces, but from a group of people who were not allowed to fully participate in the land they left. Yet, these freedmen would come to govern Liberia as they themselves had been governed in the United States. Thereby leading to social divisions between descendants of settlers and indigenous Liberians that would eventually lead to war. Time, marriage, and education have weakened the tensions brought about through special designations within these groups. In the meantime, since the national division of Korea in 1948, the Korean peninsula has been longing for building a unified nation-state for over the past 70 years, yet it has not come true. As a result, the territorial division has caused the division of civic identities, which is a central characteristic of the intractable conflicts in the Korean context, nonetheless, unification education which is promoted by the Korean government that focused on national identities has exacerbated the division between the civic identities of the two groups. As different as these two settings are, both of them have been characterized by social divisions related to identities shaped by personal and national histories. In both cases, however, these identities are malleable, indicating the potential of a new citizenship education focused on helping individuals and collectives imagine their identities differently, and further, agency within civic identities that can contribute to promoting social justice and social change in both conflict-affected contexts. Building on the previous work of one of the authors’ concept of 'bridging civic identities' (Cheong, 2022), we explore the agency within civic identities in both Liberia and Korea that might contribute to promoting social justice and societal transformation in both settings. This paper draws from interview data conducted among North Korean migrants in South Korea and among respondents in Liberia, as part of larger research projects conducted by authors to identify the salient characteristics of civic identities in both Liberia and a divided Korea. The data reveal how they transform their civic identities, how personal and societal aspirations stimulate strengthening the agency and how institutional supports such as education contribute to (re)constructing bridging civic identities. The paper concludes that a potential remedy for promoting social justice in these settings is to establish a new civic identity that can create bridges and facilitate interactions across group boundaries. Furthermore, the paper proposes the development of a citizenship education curriculum around the concept of ‘bridge citizens’ as a potential way to foster citizens who will be willing to engage in establishing more just, compassionate and inclusive societies.

Authors

• Stella Micheong Cheong, University College London, Institute of Education

• Kamille Beye, University College London, Institute of Education

• Rowena Azada-Palacios, Ateneo de Manila University