From Classrooms to Conflict in Rwanda

This book questions the conventional wisdom that education builds peace by exploring the ways in which ordinary schooling can contribute to intergroup conflict. Based on fieldwork and comparative historical analysis of Rwanda, it argues that from the colonial period to the genocide, schooling was a key instrument of the state in contributing to the construction, awareness, collectivization, and inequality of ethnic groups in Rwanda - all factors that underlay conflict. The book further argues that today's post-genocide schools are dangerously replicating past trends. This book is the first to offer an in-depth study of education in Rwanda and to analyze its role in the genesis of conflict. The book demonstrates that to build peace, we cannot simply prescribe more education, but must understand who has access to schools, how schools are set up, and what and how they teach.

Author: Elisabeth King
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 08/06/2015
Pages: 226
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.74lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.52d
ISBN: 9781107557550

About the Author
King, Elisabeth: - Elisabeth King is Associate Professor at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, New York University. Her work focuses on conflict, peace building, and development in sub-Saharan Africa. King's work has appeared in such journals as African Studies Review, the Journal of Genocide Studies and Prevention, and the Journal of Development Effectiveness, as well as several edited volumes. King has conducted fieldwork in Croatia, India, Kenya, Liberia, Rwanda, and Tanzania. She has worked with NGOs and policy makers on the global land-mine crisis, education issues, and community-driven development. King uses a variety of research methods to examine how development and peace-building interventions really work (or not) for people in the global south.