Higher education as a tool of peacebuilding and decolonization: Ukrainian case and global perspective

Размещено на http://allbest.ru

Higher education as a tool of peacebuilding and decolonization: Ukrainian case and global perspective

D. Svyrydenko, C. Zou, W. Gao

Urgency of the research. The current postcolonial situation of Ukraine demonstrates the unexposed potential of higher education at the processes of society development on the principles of peace and cultural development.

ВИЩА ОСВІТА ЯК ІНСТРУМЕНТ МИРОБУДІВНИЦТВА: УКРАЇНСЬКИЙ ПРИКЛАД ТА ГЛОБАЛЬНА ПЕРПЕКТИВА

Актуальність дослідження. Сучасна постколоніальна ситуація в Україні демонструє невикористаний потенціал вищої освіти в процесах розвитку суспільства на засадах миру і культурного розвитку.

Постановка проблеми. Автори виходять з ідеї, що миробудівництво через вищу освіту може бути актуалізована шляхом реалізації принципів толерантності та примирення в соціальній практиці, а також шляхом розвитку рівня критичного мислення студентів як засобу протидії впливу пропаганди. Українська вища освіта повинна допомагати студентові інтерпретувати культурно- політичну ситуацію в сучасному глобальному світі в контексті вивчення основних курсів (політології, історії тощо). Автори хочуть поділитися своїми науковими досягненнями в розумінні поточної конфліктної ситуації в Україні, яка становить собою цікавий випадок для досліджень у сфері освітнього миробудівництва та

деколонізації.

Аналіз останніх досліджень і публікацій. Існує ряд досліджень, які обговорюють сучасну культурну ситуацію в Україні та роль вищої освіти у вирішенні існуючих у ній проблем (О. Базалук, О. Кивлюк, Л. Савенкова, Д. Свириденко та ін.). Другий блок публікацій містить міжнародний досвід освітнього миробудівництва та деколонізації (Х. Бер, З. Бекерман, Г. Данеш, Л. Герлінгс, Дж. Лавія, С. Метт- лер, С. Монаган, А. Олексієнко, Л. Стронгмен та ін.).

Постановка завдання. Український соціальний та культурний простір перебуває у стані, детермінованому викликами гібридної агресії в останні роки. Автори намагаються окреслити “порядок денний”, вектори модернізації вищої освіти в Україні, розуміючи її як чинник мінімізації та запобігання військових конфліктів, а також один із ефективних інструментів політики деколонізації.

Виклад основного матеріалу. Запропоновано концептуалізацію можливостей української вищої освіти як інструменту миробудівництва на основі багатовимірного підходу, який повинен плідно поєднувати підходи сучасної філософії освіти, освітньої політики, культурології, історії, права та політології. Досвід освітнього миробудівництва - це цілий потужний простір сучасних досліджень війни і миру, а освітні практики миротворчості, що пропонуються закордонними (ізраїльською та ін.) системою освіти, є цінними для низки суспільств, у яких відбуваються конфлікти. В якості однієї з таких освітніх практик ізраїльської освіти, які могли б бути реалізовані в українському конфлікті і, сподіваємось, постконфліктій реальності є школи миру, освітні табори для миру тощо.

Urgency of the research. The rhizome of hybrid war spread into all the spheres of social life including the humanitarian one. According to the statements of UNESCO Constitution, “Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed”. The current postcolonial situation of Ukraine demonstrates the unexposed potential of higher education at the processes of society development on the principles of peace. National Pedagogical Dragomanov University is an organizer of the annual conference “Challenges of Postcolonialism: Philosophy. Religion. Education” which is a platform for discussion of postcolonialism issues among the representatives of social sciences and humanities. It is challenging for Ukrainian and international discourses of philosophy, history, religion, political and education studies to analyze the problem of “dismantlement” of postcolonial (post-totalitarian) world-view orientations and styles of thinking as well as anthropological phenomenon Homo Soveticus using the heuristic potential of education and religion. As a participants of the Fifth Conference (May, 2019), author decided to apply the article with common vision of the higher education possibilities to become an effective instrument for realization of peace-building and de-colonization strategies. Taking into account, that Conference is aimed the discussion of theoretical and practical issues of overcoming of postcolonial challenges, authors want to share the specific features of project-based research in this field.

Target settings. National Pedagogical Dragomanov delivers the project “Ukrainian Higher Education as an Instrument of Peace-building Strategy” (2019-2021, financed by Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, project manager - Denys Svyrydenko). The project aims to formulate the theoretical statements as well as step-by-step plane (roadmap) for implementation of new peace-building model through the education policy. The problem of educational peace-building is a matter of international academic discussion, but all the offered effective strategies are culturally defined, so none of them can be successfully used for current Ukrainian contexts without `localization' procedure.

As a project result, the changes of Ukrainian legal enactments must be developed as well as the training program for higher education institutions. Mentioned approach in not only a practically oriented attempt to overcome the contradictions of Ukrainian higher education modernization at globalization era. The project also fits the principle “Science with a mission” declared as a value horizon of European researches in the scopes of Horizon Europe Strategy which appears to replace Horizon-2020. From author's perspective, one of the most actual aims of contemporary Ukrainian higher education is a strengthening of one's potential at peace-building activity taking into account contemporary and future postcolonial challenges for territorial unity of Ukraine (smoldering conflicts at Transcarpathia, Odessa regions and so on).

Using postcolonial theory and hybridity one, project should propose new research instruments for understanding of historical and political analysis of Ukrainian and international experience of peace-building through higher education. The project participants aim to develop the ways of adaptation of effective foreign models of educational peacebuilding at contemporary Ukrainian cultural situation formulating the practical steps for ones' implementation. Authors understand that peacebuilding through higher education could be actualized now only by realization of tolerance and pacification principles at social practice, but also by development of students' critical thinking level as a propaganda prevention tool. Ukrainian higher education should help student to interpret cultural and political situation at contemporary global world at the context of learning of the basic courses (Political Studies, History, etc.). The authors of the article want to share their academic achievements and some project results globally understanding current Ukrainian conflict situation as a heuristic case for the researches at the field of educational peace-building and decolonization.

Actual scientific researches and issues analysis. The authors analyzed the series of publication aimed on the discussed problem from the local (Ukrainian) perspective as well from the global one. There are some researches that discuss contemporary cultural situation in Ukraine and role of higher education in one's problems solving (O. Bazaluk [1;2], O. Kyvliuk [9; 10], L. Savenkova [16], D.Svyrydenko [17], etc.). The second block of publications contains the international experience of educational peace-building and decolonization (H. Behr [3], Z. Bekerman [4], H. Danesh [5], L. Geerlings [6], R. Kenner [8], J. Lavia [11], S. Mettler [12], C. Monaghan [14], A. Oleksiyenko [15], L. Strongman [18], etc.). Mentioned international experience could be adopted to Ukrainian cultural situation after complex philosophical and cultural re-thinking and conceptualization.

The research objective. Ukrainian social and cultural space is in a state determined by the challenges of military hybrid aggression in recent years. Issues of promising reintegration of both temporarily occupied territories and the spheres of being of society (education, economy, etc.) are the problem for modern science and social practice. The analysis of the sources demonstrates almost complete absence of a scientific discussion on the role of education, especially the higher one, at the peace-building activity in Ukraine. Available studies suggest theoretical mechanisms of pacification, without a step-by-step strategy for restoring territorial integrity and the prospective reintegration of “divided” spheres of Ukrainian society.

So, there are some separate foreign and Ukrainian studies that offer their models of peace-building. However, these works are mostly descriptive, state the state of affairs without offering a road map of peace-building and decolonization. In addition, foreign studies describe reconciliation in other countries, such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the Moroccan conflict, which includes a valuable analysis, but it can not be completely transposed into our situation. Indeed, such approaches do not take into account the peculiarities of the hybrid confrontation in Ukraine for 2014-2019. In the article, the authors will try to outline the “agenda”, the vectors for modernization of higher education in Ukraine when one tries to be a factor in minimizing and preventing military conflicts, as well as one of the effective instruments of decolonization policy.

The statement of basic material. The authors proceed from the hypothesis, that Ukrainian higher education is not adapted to the conditions of the hybrid war. In the current conditions of hybrid confrontation in Ukrainian territories, there is a struggle between two antagonistic discourses: the expansion of the colonial ideology of the “Russian World” (Russian Federation) and peaceful coexistence (Ukraine). Moreover, the main field of confrontation is the humanitarian area, including its educational segment. The conceptualization of the possibilities of Ukrainian higher education as an instrument of peacebuilding is proposed to be based on a multidimensional approach that has to combine the approaches of modern philosophy of education, educational policy, cultural studies, history, law and political science fruitfully. In particular, the approaches to the theory of hybridity and post-colonialism one as part of modern globalization studies are heuristic for analyzing the current social and cultural situation in Ukraine, exploring the essence and direct content of military threats, taking into account a possible perspective.

Consequently, on the order of the day of the international and Ukrainian discourse of the philosophy of education, there are a number of issues that are part of the overall methodological framework for finding instruments to overcome current military threats, prevent their emergence in the future, and also revealing the potential of higher education at the strategies for decolonization. These issues acquire a specific conceptual design, given the fact that education and science have for many years demonstrated their own remoteness from the problems used in the context of the challenges of the hybrid war - higher education has never been an instrument for establishing the values of authentic Ukrainian culture and peace-building. One has not worked for approval ideals of critical thinking capable of counteracting the informational influences of propagandists nature, etc.

The authors are aware that mechanical copying of the educational experience of other conflicts is counter-productive, given the difference in the factors of its origin, cultural characteristics, educational traditions, etc., therefore, it is perceived by us only as a certain empirical basis of problems and instruments for its solution, which, after a thorough reflection in the disciplinary boundaries of the philosophy of education, cultural studies, etc., can be included to the strategy of modernizing education in the direction of acquiring it the status of an instrument of peace-building and de-colonization.

At the same time, we would like to demonstrate some examples of the fact that effective institutional innovations and understanding of the nature of the contradictions underlying the conflict can be borrowed from the experience of other countries. It is clear that this is not about mechanical copying, but about the adaptation of experience, which would rely on a thorough philosophical, educational and cultural reflection. Let us turn to the experience of implementing the idea of peace-building through education that arose in the context of the Arab- Israeli conflict. The experience of educational peace-building is an entire powerful area at modern war and peace studies, and the educational practices of peace-building offered by the Israeli education system are valuable to a number of societies included in conflicts.

As one of the mentioned educational practices of Israeli education, that could have been implemented in the Ukrainian conflict and, hopefully post-conflict reality, is the practice of educational camps, described by R. Kenner: the camp was divided 50 to 50 between Arab and Jewish students, but it was very diverse; some students were children of settlers and did not spend much time with the Palestinian people; some children were from liberally-progressive families; some of them were Arabs who did not spend much time with Jewish children [8]. These practices are trying to create an atmosphere of cooperation between the representatives of the opposing sides, seek to realize the idea of finding a commonality between them instead of finding and accentuating differences - the camp itself appears to be a real practice of intercultural non-conflict interaction, which can then be extended to other forms of social practices outside of the educational camp.

As another example of the effective implementation of the approaches to educational world-building, let's turn again to the experience of Israeli education. We deliberately do not turn to other examples of educational peace-building, in order to eliminate examples of eclecticism, as well as to demonstrate the multidirectional educational activities, that should act as a strategic reference point for Ukrainian educational policy. So, for example, about 20 years ago, G. Fuegverder published his well-known article entitled “An Educational Program for Peace: Jewish-Arab Conflict Resolution in Israel” [7]. Its key provisions have not lost theoretical and practical value for Ukrainian education, which, unfortunately, only begins to implement the ideas of peacebuilding. The article describes qualitatively an interesting educational phenomenon - School for Peace, a center that seeks changes in the educational environment, focused on solving the Arab-Israeli conflict in a multicultural environment (in particular, educational). The author of the study noted that the school offered activities to change teachers and students when education could act as a tool for developing social, cultural, religious cooperation on the principles of equality and mutual respect [7].

Conclusions. Based on the above materials, we have the opportunities to make the following generalizations. In order to open the higher education's peace-building and de-colonizing potential, it is expedient to analyze international and domestic normative acts on issues of peace-building, taking into account that the conflict situations in the world are not unique. Similarly, there are developed attempts to implement the ideas of peace-building. For example, Israel is the bearer of a powerful experience in preventing and minimizing military conflicts and their derivatives in the cultural sphere by means of education (schools of peace, educational camps, etc.). This experience itself, after a thorough philosophical and educational, socio-philosophical and cultural reflection and adoption to the current Ukrainian realities and the peculiarities of the military conflict, can be fruitfully used to realize the idea of peace-building for the current situation as well as for prevention of future challenges.

In the short term, it is necessary to generalize the experience of domestic and foreign scientists on the issues of conflict cessation and reconciliation in society. At the same time, the construction of an educational model aimed at realizing the ideas of peace and overcoming the colonial syndrome, should be based on the fact that the hybrid war in Ukraine does not have direct analogues; therefore, it is not possible to mechanically transfer the results of other scientists to our situation improperly.

It is advisable to offer a theoretical model for using Ukrainian higher education as an instrument of peace-building and provide recommendations to state authorities, local authorities and educational institutions on practical steps for its implementation. This will enable the proposed approaches to be implemented into educational practice, since Ukrainian society is interested in real modernization steps aimed at minimizing military challenges.

It is advisable to develop a model program for peace-building for students of all specialties. Taking into account international experience (schools of peace, education camps for peace, etc.), there is a need for the introduction of a special training course on the foundations of peacebuilding in universities. Also, it is necessary to offer separate educational modules in the curriculum of disciplines: “Politics”, “Law”, “History of Ukraine”, “Philosophy”, “Philosophy of education”, “Educational policy”, etc. These modules for existing programs on various humanitarian disciplines will increase the reach of potential participants in the peacebuilding process. The proposed changes in the content of education will comprehensively cover the problems of internally displaced persons, mediation, non-violent interaction, education of tolerance, opposition to propaganda, development of critical thinking, etc.

References:

1. Bazaluk, O., Fatkhutdinov, V., Svyrydenko, D., 2018. `The Potential of Systematization of the Theories of Education for Solving of Contradictions of Ukrainian Higher Education Development', Studia Warminskie, Vol. 55, P. 63-79.

2. Bazaluk, O., Svyrydenko, D., 2017. `Philosophy of War and Peace : In Search of New European Security Strategy', Anthropological Measurements of Philosophical Research, №.12, P. 89-99.

3. Hartmut, B., Megoran, N., Carnaffan, J., 2018. `Peace Education, Militarism and Neo-Liberalism : Conceptual Reflections with Empirical Findings from the UK', Journal of Peace Education, 15:1, P. 76-96. (DOI: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17400201.2017.1394283).

4. Bekerman, Z., Zembylas, M., 2017. `Mediating Collective Memories and Official Histories in Conflict-Affected Societies : Pedagogical Responses to “Individual” Narratives and Competing Collective Memories', International Perspectives on Teaching Rival Histories, P. 133-153.

5. Danesh, HB., 2008. `The Education for Peace Integrative Curriculum : Concepts, Contents and Efficacy', Journal of Peace Education, 5:2, P. 157173. (DOI: DOI: https://doi.org/i0.i080/i7400200802264396).

6. Geerlings, LRC., Lundberg, A., 2018. `Global Discourses and Power/Knowledge : Theoretical Reflections on Futures of Higher Education during the Rise of Asia', Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 38:2, P. 229240. (DOI: DOI: https://doi.org/i0.i080/02i8879i.20i8.i460259).

7. Feuerverger, G., 1997. `An Educational Program for Peace : Jewish-Arab Conflict Resolution in Israel', Theory Into Practice, Vol. 36, № i, Teaching Conflict Resolution : Preparation for Pluralism, P. 17-25.

8. Kenner, R., 2018. `The Challenges and Opportunities of Peace Education in Israel'. Available at : <https://jewishstudies.washington.edu/israel-hebrew/challenges-opportunities-of-peace-education-israel-camp- harmony/> [Accessed 29 May 2019].

9. Kyvliuk, O., Polishchuk, O., Svyrydenko, D., Yatsenko, O., 2018. `Educational Management as Education Diplomacy : Strategies for Ukraine', Naukovyi Visnyk Natsionalnoho Hirnychoho Universytetu, Issue 3, P. 139-144.

10. Kyvliuk, O., Svyrydenko, D., 2017. `Academic mobility as “brain drain” phenomenon of modern higher education', Studia Warminskie, Vol. 54, P. 361-371.

11. Lavia, J., 2007. `Repositioning Pedagogies and Postcolonialism : Theories, Contradictions and Possibilities', International Journal of Inclusive Education, ii:3, P. 283-300. (DOI: DOI: https://doi.org/i0.i080/i3603ii070i237548).

12. Mettler, S., 2005. `Soldiers to Citizens : The Gi Bill and the Making of the Greatest Generation', Oxford University Press, 252 p.

13. Milton, S., Barakat, S., 2016. `Higher Education as the Catalyst of Recovery in Conflict-Affected Societies', Globalisation, Societies and Education, Vol. i4, Issue 3, P. 403-421.

14. Monaghan, C., Spreen, CA., 2016. `From Human Rights to Global Citizenship Education : Peace, Conflict and the Post-cold War Era', International Journal of Educational Sciences, i3:i, P. 42-55. (DOI: DOI: https://doi.org/i0.i080/0975ii22.20i6.ii890439).

15. Oleksiyenko, A., 2019. `Why Is Governance Research Important for University Reforms in Ukraine?', Ukrainian Policymaker, 4, P. 27-35. (DOI: DOI: https://doi.org/i0.29202/up/4/5).

16. Savenkova, L., Svyrydenko, D., 2018. `Academic Mobility and Academic Migration Issues : the Case of Ukrainian Higher Education', Interdisciplinary Studies of Complex Systems, № i3, P. 57-65.

17. Svyrydenko, D., Yatsenko, O., 2018. `Dialectics of Nominal and Real Power in the Ukrainian and World Politics', Ukrainian Policymaker, Volume 2, P. 33-40.

18. Strongman, L., 2014. `Postcolonialism and International Development Studies : A Dialectical Exchange?', Third World Quarterly, 35:8, P. 13431354. (DOI: DOI: https://doi.org/i0.i080/0i436597.20i4.946248).

Размещено на Allbest.ru