Education in Complex Environments

Description

This course is designed to explore the role of education in complex environments (conflict zones, protracted crisis, complex emergencies, natural disasters and fragile settings). Through engaging with different stakeholders, students will analyze how education can be used as a tool for preventing and responding to challenges of complex environments. Moreover, the course will also consider the 'contested role of education in conflict and fragility' (Gross, Z., and Davies L., 2015) and critically examine traditional roles of education in peace and conflict, such as peace education, conflict alleviation, trauma alleviation, social cohesion, and education for refugees. As well as this, it will go farther by questioning the power structures and asymmetric relationships in education that exist, particularly those Eurocentric and colonial knowledge systems that have been imposed through colonization and globalization to non-Western societies. In the second part of the course, attention will be drawn to understanding how education intersects with other social actors, such as social workers or health workers, in order to foster social resilience in complex environments; highlighting how vulnerable populations, exposed to high levels of various forms of violence, require a coordinated response from education, social institutions and actors. The topics of this class will address inter alia: introduction to complex environments, and to violence and education (such as conflict, trauma, bullying); approaches to education in complex environment; education and social resilience (social work, social actors); education and refugees; education and asymmetric relations (decolonization, power, inequality); ethical considerations in education in complex environments (cultural diversity, gender, protection, sustainability, localization, human rights). Through case studies and contributions from various stakeholders and sources, this course will provide a critical analysis of the role of education in complex environments and review existing practices of related international cooperation actors.