WORKSHOP 2
Social exclusion and violence: Education for social cohesion

Introductory video document: "40 School Project" (South Africa)

Summary: This video presents the activities of the Centre for Survivors of Violence and Reconciliation based in South Africa. The report deals particularly with the ‘Forty Schools Project’, a programme to prevent and manage school violence during the unsettled period following the abandonment of apartheid in the country. Several activities involved pupils and teachers (drama, cleaning, caring for victims of injuries or shock, etc.) in identifying or in defusing frequent conflict situations.

 

WORKSHOP 2 DISCUSSION PAPER

Introduction

Compulsory, standardized, public schooling has traditionally been a central vehicle for the creation and consolidation of a common sense of belonging, identity and social cohesion within the model of the nation-state. Yet, schooling sometimes fails in this essential function, reflecting and even exacerbating existing social and political tensions and conflicts. The efficiency of formal education as an instrument of integration and social cohesion is thus being increasingly called into question as rapid structural changes associated with the multiple processes of globalization weaken traditional models of social, political and economic organization. Concerns with the deterioration of social cohesion are most often related to observed increases in inequalities in income distribution both within and across countries, increasing social exclusion and an apparent rise in the incidence of violence in all societies. Indeed, the combination of socioeconomic disparities, social exclusion, and easily politicized cultural factors such as ethnicity, language, and religion, often lead to violence and to the breakdown of social cohesion. It may be argued that manifestations of physical violence are indicative of the breakdown of social bonds associated with the multiple processes of social exclusion at the cultural, political and economic levels. How do the content and processes of formal education relate to processes of social exclusion and to patterns of violence associated with the breakdown of social cohesion?

After the necessary epistemological clarifications of the terms ‘social exclusion’ and ‘violence’, this paper sketches out some ideas relative to the causes and consequences of diverse manifestations of violence from the perspective of their dialectical links with the content and process of education. More specifically, the discussion will be organized around the following clusters of guiding questions :

Epistemological issues

Any attempt at identifying and exploring these interrelations, however, requires clear definitions of what is meant by such terms as social exclusion and violence. As a multidimensional notion conceived to capture the various political, social and economic processes of social disadvantage, the notion of social exclusion may be seen as encompassing a series of exclusions that may be economic in nature (exclusion from employment, means of production, land...), political (denial of security, representation, citizenship, rights...), or social (exclusion from education, health services, or housing...). Although the concept of social exclusion clearly overlaps with more conventional conceptual frameworks such as poverty, inequality, and deprivation, educational exclusion is often seen as being central to other processes of exclusion. As far as violence is concerned, a wide definition covers a wide array of human interactions ranging from the use or the threat of the use of force, to armed conflict and even to other forms of denial of human dignity associated with extreme poverty. In addition to the crucial distinction between the overt forms of violence of gangs and armed struggles, and covert forms of structural and symbolic violence, it is necessary to distinguish between patterns of violence at interpersonal and inter-group levels.

Armed conflict and educational exclusion

A significant number of countries in which declining school enrolments were observed during the 1980s were already recognized as being affected by chronic political instability, insecurity and armed conflict (Berstecher & Carr-Hill 1990). During the past decade of international efforts toward EFA, political violence was progressively recognized as an "emerging challenge" (Amman 1996) and the "needs of (...) children and adults affected by armed conflict" came to figure in the Dakar Framework for Action (2000).

Education as a catalyst for violence

What role does education play as a catalyst to the multiple socio-economic, cultural and political processes that may be associated with the weakening and general breakdown of social cohesion and the outbreak of violence? The growing recognition that education is often a target of political violence, has prompted a greater concern with the ways in which the content and process of education may actually contribute to precipitate the outbreak and development of violent conflict. The Dakar thematic assessment study on education in emergencies (2000) recognized that "weaknesses in education structures and content may have contributed to civil conflict" and that "an education system that reinforces social fissures can represent a dangerous source of conflict".

Education and social exclusion

How does formal education contribute to the multiple social processes of exclusion at the economic, political and cultural levels? Authoritarian education systems, for example, are explicit instruments of political domination and exclusion often based on discrimination and denial of cultural and political rights. However, education systems also contribute to perpetuating economic disparities and inequalities as is illustrated by the continued denial of access to basic education for a significant proportion of children in many regions of the world. The recent shift in focus from supply to demand- side considerations when dealing with the issue of access to basic education, indicates that issues pertaining both to household poverty and to the quality of education have become key to understanding why over 110 million primary school-age children in the developing world continue to be denied access to school. Exclusion from education may be seen as "part of an intricate web of human rights violations" (Dakar 2000), and the widespread and increasing failure of schooling to ensure socio-economic integration of individuals and groups to the labour market, to adequate levels of consumption, for example, questions the efficiency of formal education as an instrument both of redistribution and of upward mobility.

School-based violence

Although not new, the phenomenon of school-based violence points to a social problem of increasing importance in countries both in the North and South as is reflected in the increasing media coverage of this complex phenomenon. Physical and symbolic manifestations of school-based violence are multiple and include bullying between youngsters, intimidation and physical aggression towards teaching personnel, vandalism, racketeering, and sexual violence. Any serious attempt to understand this particular category of violence goes well beyond the confines of the school itself to include wider social considerations relative to the strains of economic crisis and transition, cultural alienation and social exclusion. The symbolic and cultural violence of schooling largely reproduce and perpetuate structural inequalities. Learners from minority, immigrant, and other possibly disadvantaged groups are often less-well equipped to adjust to the normative and social demands of school culture that is anchored in middle class values. In this perspective, anti-school violence may be interpreted as a response to the violence of the educational process itself and to the inability of schooling to adapt to changes in the wider social environment. Finally, school-based violence may also be a reflection of violence in wider society, as active or passive participation of youth in domestic and political violence has direct repercussions on their learning experience in school.

Education for social cohesion

While the content and unintended consequences of schooling may act as precipitating factors in the breakdown of social cohesion and in the possible outbreak of violence, formal education also has an important role to play in strengthening or rebuilding social cohesion. Differences must, however, be made between educational systems as victims of social and political violence and the potential role of education in the reproduction of exclusion and social and political violence.

In the case of school-based violence, measures taken to prevent or reduce the incidence of violence are commonly articulated around information, prevention, and repression. In addition to the necessary external controls of repressive measures, preventing violence aims to develop a commitment to norms and values imbedded in social networks may inhibit the recourse to violent behaviour.