C&E

Conflict & Education

Informed Policy. Improved Schools

Engaged Research.

-An Interdisciplinary Journal -

Conflict, Education and Democracy

Learning the Power of Dissent
Lynn Davies
University of Birmingham Birmingham, UK

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Abstract
The triangle of Conflict, Education and Democracy throws up complex intersections. This article simplifies this firstly by collapsing two sides to say that democracy equals conflict in terms of the positive conflict of argument, debate and dissent. It then focuses on three urgent issues: political critique, religious critique and communications technology. Recent events in the Middle East are demonstrating the power of protest in the political demands for democracy. It is equally important that there can be free critique of religion without fear. Social networking is providing unheard of avenues for pro- as wll as anti-democracy engagement. The task of education is to provide skills in positive conflict, negotiation, compromise, responsible use of free speech and critical recognition of rights and claims. Dissent and challenge are patriotic duties, as is satire. Research is still needed to provide more examples of students engaging in such positive dissent. Keywords: conflict, democracy, education, protest, free speech, religion _____________________________________________________________________________________

Introduction

he intersection or triangle of conflict, education and democracy (C-E-D) constitute a long debated set of relationships. It is not the intention of this short piece to provide a literature review or even a snapshot. Just on their own, the different axes of the triangle provide a wealth of both assumptions and research. For D-C, these include the view that democratic countries are less likely to be conflictual, with democracy a way out of conflict, or conversely that democracy is inherently conflictual, exacerbating ethnic or other tensions and with peace and stability better achieved by an authoritarian regime. For C-E, the conventional view now is also of two faces, that education both contributes to and mitigates conflict; but also indisputably that conflict negatively effects

education, causing physical and psychological damage. The D-E axis relates to assumptions that a democracy will be more likely to provide equitable education, and/or that educated people will be more likely support democracy and active citizenship.

Seeing how the three axes then intersect makes for an even more complicated picture, with a far greater range of causal connections posited. For this short article I want to explore what happens when you collapse two sides of the triangle to say that democracy equals conflict. One of the basic principles of democracy is argument, dissent, the possibility for opposition. All these are usually labelled positive conflict, or as I called it, interruptive democracy the hands up, excuse me reflex when injustice or wrong is perceived

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(Davies 2004). Then the triangle becomes a relation: (D=C)/E, or to get really Einsteinian looking, E=DC2.

Three Urgent Issues

suspicion from non-Muslims who stereotype all Muslims as terrorists. Experts in deradicalisation are calling for public debate and discourse to discredit incendiary theology but also to challenge far-right groups who feed on anti-Muslim prejudice. Thirdly, public deliberation on all this takes new forms. Twitter, Facebook, blogs, Wikileaks and internet forums mean instant communication across time and space, for rallying as well as debate. I forget who said The problem with socialism is that it takes too many evenings but that problem is fast receding. Now that the notion of going to a meeting is being replaced by posting something on-line, the potential for democracy (and anti-democracy) appears limitless. In Egypt, Google has created Speaktotweet to get round the Egyptian government shutdown of internet. Young (and older) people will continue to devise new, powerful ways of influencing public opinion and public demonstrations of that opinion.

here are of course myriad definitions and types of democracy, so to simplify further, I want to focus specifically on deliberative democracy, and within that on just three contemporary and urgent issues: political critique; religious critique; and communications technology. First: political critique. Authoritarian governments keep the peace through repression and military support, just as in schools, authoritarian regimes keep order and control through repressive rules and silencing. They both can do this interminably it seems. Yet authoritarian governments are fragile: as I write, there are anti-government demonstrations in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen. The protestors apparently cut across social and educational divisions; in Egypt, the protests are not orchestrated by the Muslim Brotherhood, although they are taking part. The joy in all this is that education did not appear to have done harm. At whatever level, the protestors were not brainwashed into acceptance of autocracy. Yet the preference would be for opposition not to take violent forms, not be the last resort of the oppressed or the silenced.

The Role of Education

Second: religious critique. The contemporary concern here is specifically about Islam, relating to two sides of the coin: what Muslims think of democracy and what non-Muslims think of Muslims. There is Islamist extremist rejection of democracy as the acceptance of man-made rule over divine rule, regarding supporters of democracy as non-Muslims. The majority of Muslims will not hold this view, but the refusal of the tiny minority to accept mainstream politics and replace it with violence has aroused fear and

Education enters these three linked areas around one key aspect of democracy that of freedom of speech and freedom of expression. Ironically, anti-Muslim prejudice is fed by political correctness and the reluctance to challenge, which creates backlashes and isolationism. The Quilliam Foundation1 insists that the freedom to criticise religions is preserved, as long as this is not used or understood to incite religious hatred. It is important for a liberal, democratic society that people are able to publicly criticise Islam and aspects of it, just as they are able to criticise Christianity, Buddhism or Scientology if they wish to do so (Readings et al 2011:15)

A UK based organisation started by ex-Islamists who advise government on anti-terrorism

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Immediately, grey areas and slippage can be perceived. The job of education is to provide the skills to enact the principle of free speech without this harming individuals or inciting violence and negative conflict. Such skills include knowledge of rights (absolute and restricted), with freedom of opinion being an absolute right, but freedom of speech being a restricted right, in that it should not violate the rights of others. Freedom to practise religion is an absolute right, but religious expression can also be a restricted right if it again leads to others being harmed or converted into persecution through blasphemy laws. Religions do not have rights, people do (Davies 2008). Religions do not and must not have special treatment, somehow different from politics, if abuse of rights and therefore negative conflict is to be avoided; for a citizen, a patriotic duty is not to tolerate but to question and to dissent.

Skills and duties also attach to the use of humour and satire. If dissent is an act of patriotism, satirising government and government leaders is an absolute duty. The skill in using humour is distinguishing between gratuitous offence and purposeful humour which is to show up folly, hypocrisy, corruption, double standards, pomposity and avarice. Cartoons may have an impact that a complaining letter does not, and politicians as well as religious leaders fear being pilloried which is why authoritarian regimes will ban or imprison journalists and cartoonists. Education is about teaching appropriate ways to enact ones democratic, patriotic duty of parody and satire.

Research Priorities

Skills in deliberation around conflict also relate to negotiating skills. A rights-based education is not just about demanding rights, but being able to compromise, to recognise the rights and claims of others. Significant comparative research has shown that conflicts are less likely to be resolved if they are based on religious claims - to land, government or legal systems (Svensson 2007). It is much more difficult to negotiate over religion, as this impinges on the sacred and incontrovertible, as well as core identity. There is no notion of exchange: one cannot say Ill give you the book of Genesis if you give me three hadiths. Negotiating with religious extremists is even more difficult. Yet the language of compromise is the only way to solve conflict on a permanent basis. In Sri Lanka currently, the war is said by the government to be over. Yet the military solution is not a political solution, demands have not been met, and the peace is fragile.

hat then are the research priorities for education? There are some interesting macro studies which look at the relationship of education to the support for democracy and how to achieve this peacefully. Glaeser et al (2006) finds schooling raises the benefits to individuals of civic participation, including voting and organizing. This then raises the support for more democratic regimes relative to dictatorships, in turn increasing the likelihood of democratic revolutions against dictatorships, and reducing that of successful anti-democratic coups. In a study of five Muslim countries, Shafiq (2010) discovers that support for democracy is a social benefit of education in Jordan, Lebanon, and Pakistan (although curiously there is no statistical relationship between belonging to the richest groups and supporting democracy). In Iran, Lutz et al (2010) find education impacts on democracy indicators of gender equity and fertility decline, as well as, at the individual level, being a determinant political participation. Yet the study does not mention social networking as a potent tool for democratic engagement, central to the Green Revolution in Iran after the 2009 election. More research is needed on this.

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At the micro level, it could be assumed that it is not just level but type of education that would be critical, and whether this is itself democratic. We need far more black box studies of how education can lay the foundations for the subversion of autocracy. More studies of schools which stress student voice in micro-political ways (such as UNICEF UKs Rights Respecting Schools) are called for, in terms of how they give practice in political participation, dissent and positive conflict. Specific examples to inspire others would be good. One nice illustration of participative democracy emerged in a study we did

on pupil democracy in Europe (Davies and Kirkpatrick 2000). A school in the Netherlands had wanted to ban the wearing of headscarves for Muslim girls. The Pupil Council argued against this, but the school continued its ban. So one day all the pupils turned up wearing headscarves, just to show that it did not impede their learning. They won their case. In our concern about conflict, it would be good to have parallel examples of effective protests against institutional violence or gender violence, or ways in which democracy was both used and cemented in the interests of peace. Please send in examples to build a corpus of literature on this!

References
Davies, L (2004) Education and Conflict: Complexity and Chaos London: Routledge Davies, L (2008) Educating Against Extremism Stoke on Trent: Trentham Davies, L and Kirkpatrick, G (2000) The EURIDEM Project:A Review of Pupil Democracy in Europe London: Childrens Rights Alliance Glaeser:, E, Ponzetto, G and Shleifer, A (2006) Why does democracy need education? Cambridge MA National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 12128 Lutz, W, Crespo, J, Abbasi-Shavasi, M (2010) Demography, Education and Democracy: Global Trends and the Case of Iran Population and Development Review, 36,2, pp253-282 Readings, G, Brandon, J and Phelps, R (2011) Islamism and Language: How Using the Wrong Words Reinforces Islamist Narratives London: Quilliam Shafiq, M (2010) Do education and income affect support for democracy in Muslim countries? Evidence from the Pew Global Attitudes Project Economics of Education Review. 29, 3, 461-469 Svensson, I (2007) Fighting with Faith: Religion and Conflict Resolution in Civil Wars Journal of Conflict Resolution 51, 930-949

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