Curriculum Change And Social Cohesion In Conflict Affected Societies: Project Team

BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA

Philip Stabback is an experienced Australian education administrator who was attached to the UNESCO field office in Sarajevo as a senior education expert from August 2001 to June 2002, and was then the interim director of education in the Organisation for the Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) during July and August 2002. In this latter role, he was responsible for establishing the inclusive consultation structures and mechanisms that led to the development of the Education Reform Strategy Paper (November, 2002).

GUATEMALA

Manuel de Jesús Salazar Tetzaguic is the national coordinator for the Project to Mobilise Support for Mayan Education (PROMEM) and, in this capacity, is now contributing to the development of the curriculum proposal requested to PROMEM by the Ministry of Education for the inclusion of Mayan culture and language in the National Curriculum of Basic Education. He is a member of the Parity Commission in charge of the implementation of the peace accords, as well as a member of the Parity Commission for Educational Reform, and he is a well-respected Mayan scholar.

 

He is supported by his colleague, Katherine Grigsby, UNESCO chief technical adviser for PROMEM, in charge of the implementation of innovative practices of Mayan bilingual and intercultural education and of the preparation of the curriculum proposal to include Mayan culture and language in the National Curriculum of Basic Education. She has collaborated with UNESCO in various positions since 1994 and has authored education materials and several articles.

LEBANON

Nemer Frayha was the president of the Educational Centre for Research and Development (ECRD) in Beirut during the implementation of the Civics Education Project and the development of the history curriculum, from February 1999 to January 2002. The ECRD was established in 1971 and is in charge of educational planning, educational research and statistics, the revision and development of school curricula, and the writing of textbooks, as well as the in-service training of teachers. The centre was responsible for framing the Plan for Educational Revival in 1994 following the end of the civil war in 1989. Dr. Frayha is currently a professor in the Faculty of Education at the Lebanese University.

MOZAMBIQUE

Juvenal Balegamire Bazilashe is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo. Previously, he lectured in the Teachers’ Training College of Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, for eight years, and in the Education Institute of the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, for three years. He has prepared critical analyses of African educational systems for the UNESCO International Bureau of Education in Geneva and for NGOs such as Christian Aid and ActionAid. He has written a text on the educational system of Mozambique, proposing a bridge between education, literacy, and vocational training, where leaders freely chosen or coopted by the peasants would use an integrated management of the different resources and initiatives (such as training, health, sources of energy, and water management) in sustainable villages aimed at self-reliance.

 

Adelaide Dhorsan  is an educational officer at the National Institute for the Development of Education (INDE) in Maputo and is in charge of designing the new curriculum and overseeing its implementation. The institute was created in 1978 as a specialised institution, under the authority of the Ministry of Education, but with academic and administrative autonomy. The institute is responsible for translating policy decisions through the development of curricula, syllabi, textbooks, and other teaching and learning materials. Adelaide Dhorsan is actively involved in projects related to the Bilingual Education program involving teacher training, the selection of experimental primary schools, and the implementation and monitoring of bilingual education. She also teaches general linguistics and applied linguistics with a focus on education in the French Department, Faculty of Languages, at the Pedagogical University in Maputo. Adelaide Dhorsan holds a master’s degree awarded by the University Paul Valérie–Montpellier III in sociolinguistics and is working on her PhD thesis relative to Diglossic Bilingualism in Southern Mozambique.

 

Cristina Augusto Tembe lectures in the Curriculum Development Department of the Faculty of Education at the Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo. Previously she lectured on reading and writing techniques in the Faculty of Education at the Pedagogical University in Maputo for two years. She has also worked on curriculum planning at the National Institute for Development of Education, participating in the writing of Portuguese-language textbooks and teachers’ guides for thirteen years. She has authored an article entitled “The Acquisition of Portuguese as a Second Language.” In addition, she has been involved in planning and training at the teacher training colleges for three years. She is a former member of the Technical Committee for Basic Education at the SADC level (serving for two years) and for two years was national director for basic education in Mozambique.

NORTHERN IRELAND

Michael Arlow holds a teaching and research post in the Graduate School of Education at Queen’s University, Belfast. Until recently, he was the principal officer for Citizenship Education at the Northern Ireland Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment. He was formerly the director of the Social, Civic and Political Education Project at Ulster University.

RWANDA

John Ruyatisire is the director of the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) in Kigali. Established by the Ministry of Education in 1996, the NCDC is responsible and accountable for curriculum development and endeavours to consult and liaise with other departments and organisations. Its work is closely linked with that of the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission. Within the context of the tremendous effort in policy development in the early 2000s, the NCDC has been the lead institution in the process of development of the textbook policy, curriculum policy, and ongoing language policy in addition to participation in all other MINEDUC policy development processes. John Rutayisire was formerly a senior lecturer in education at the Tonota College of Education in Botswana. 

 

John Kabano, PhD, is a lecturer at the Kigali Institute of Education in the Department of Special Education. His fields of interest include pedagogy, citizenship education and social cohesion, children’s rights in education, human rights issues in education, a human rights–based approach to programming, community capacity development, minority issues in education, HIV/AIDS education, and special education. 

Jolly Rubagiza, MA, is a lecturer at the Kigali Institute of Education in the Department of Educational Foundations. Her fields of interest include curriculum issues in education, gender and education, and HIV/AIDS education.  

SRI LANKA

Lal Perera, Swarna Witjetunge,  and S.S. Balasooriya are senior professionals who have been associated with the development of school and teacher education curriculum over the last three decades. Two members of the study team, professor Lal Perera, dean of the Faculty of Education, and Swarna Wijetunge, professor of Educational Psychology in the Faculty of Education, are senior academics at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, who have worked very closely with the National Institute of Education and the Ministry of Education. Mr. A. S. Balasooriya is a former chief project officer of the National Institute of Education whose contribution has been in the areas of education management development and curriculum development in peace and values education. All three authors have been closely associated over the years with both general education and teacher education curriculum development. They served in advisory and curriculum development capacities in the formulation and implementation of the 1997 curriculum reforms. Professor Perera, in his capacity as the additional secretary of the Ministry of Education responsible for School Education, spearheaded the 1997 curriculum reforms’ implementation. Professor Wijetunge has served continuously as a curriculum consultant for the subject of social studies in secondary grades. The authors are following through with their work in the area of social cohesion and civic education by playing a key role in current national initiatives. The National Education Research and Evaluation Centre, headed by Professor Perera, will shortly be conducting the IEA Civic Education study with ninth graders in Sri Lanka. Professor Wijetunge will serve as team leader of this research project. The NEREC, affiliated with the Faculty of Education at the University of Colombo, designs research to investigate (among others) conflict-related issues, the impact of teacher education programmes on conflict resolution, the importance of the hidden curriculum, and the role of nonformal approaches in pursuing ethnic harmony. Mr. Balasooriya will also lead a study titled “A Review of Current School Level Initiatives to Promote Respect for Diversity, Peace Building, Good Citizenship and Democratic Governance.”