Sara Clarke-Habibi, PhD – University of Cambridge
Presented at the 2018 Congress of the Swiss Society for Educational Research and the Swiss Society for Teacher Training, 27-29 June 2018, University of Zurich
Meeting the needs of the foreign labour market has become a main priority for the secondary education sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Answering the question, ‘How do education policy borrowing behaviours in BiH affect young people’s attitudes towards economic migration?’ my study finds that the country’s education authorities appear to have resigned themselves to both the interminable stagnation of the domestic economy and to the continued exodus of the country’s youth. With their vision now anchored on supplying the demands of foreign markets, BiH policymakers have been readily adopting EU-aligned reforms in teaching and certification to facilitate the international economic migration of graduates. This in stark contrast with their resistance to implementing education reforms that would support much-needed domestic economic mobility and interethnic social cohesion—two conditions that BiH youth have indicated would incentivize their choice to stay in their country. Despite signed commitments dating back to the 2002 Education Reform agreement and the 2003 Education Framework Law on Primary and Secondary Education, the resisted EU-aligned reforms include depoliticization of school governance, de-segregation of schools, provision of minority ethnic rights, state-wide harmonization of core curriculum standards, and more recently, anti-corruption measures[SH1] . Building on Komatsu's (2013) analysis, I draw on Weiler's (1983, 1990) political utility theory to examine the reasons behind BiH authorities’ contrary policy borrowing behaviours.
The second part of this paper then addresses the question surrounding ‘What factors have enabled BiH authorities to resist educational policy lending related to the global promotion of pluralism and peacebuilding?’ Evidence is drawn from a larger research project that analysed key policy documents and research reports on education reform in BiH over the 2000-2017 period, as well as interviews conducted in 2014 with 60 international and domestic education actors including policymakers, teacher educators, NGO educators, secondary School Directors and teachers, as well as focus groups with 60 secondary school youth in BiH. Based on the findings, it is argued that three early post-war policy errors were committed by the international brokers and backers of the new state: firstly, a failure to recognize education as a security issue and to extend transitional justice lustration measures to that sector; secondly, a failure to focus discourses and policies regarding ‘quality’ education on the realities of the conflict context and to insist on the rigorous integration, monitoring and evaluation of peacebuilding standards and competences across primary and secondary schooling alongside those of literacy, numeracy and life-skills; and thirdly, a failure to adopt financing models that would support long-term and system-wide consolidation of peacebuilding reforms in education, instead of the prevailing patchwork of largely ineffective and uncoordinated, ‘multiplier’ and trickle-up intervention models . Together, I argue, these failures have enabled ethnonationalists to maintain ideological and political control over education in ways that sustain social division and prevent economic development and mobility in the country.
The paper contributes to ongoing research into educational ‘push’ factors influencing migration from post-conflict and transitional societies. It also offers recommendations for improved education reform interventions in conflict-affected and transitional societies to incentivize educated young people to remain in their home countries and contribute actively to the development of stable, inclusive, democratic and prosperous societies.
Presented at the 2018 Congress of the Swiss Society for Educational Research and the Swiss Society for Teacher Training, 27-29 June 2018, University of Zurich
Meeting the needs of the foreign labour market has become a main priority for the secondary education sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Answering the question, ‘How do education policy borrowing behaviours in BiH affect young people’s attitudes towards economic migration?’ my study finds that the country’s education authorities appear to have resigned themselves to both the interminable stagnation of the domestic economy and to the continued exodus of the country’s youth. With their vision now anchored on supplying the demands of foreign markets, BiH policymakers have been readily adopting EU-aligned reforms in teaching and certification to facilitate the international economic migration of graduates. This in stark contrast with their resistance to implementing education reforms that would support much-needed domestic economic mobility and interethnic social cohesion—two conditions that BiH youth have indicated would incentivize their choice to stay in their country. Despite signed commitments dating back to the 2002 Education Reform agreement and the 2003 Education Framework Law on Primary and Secondary Education, the resisted EU-aligned reforms include depoliticization of school governance, de-segregation of schools, provision of minority ethnic rights, state-wide harmonization of core curriculum standards, and more recently, anti-corruption measures[SH1] . Building on Komatsu's (2013) analysis, I draw on Weiler's (1983, 1990) political utility theory to examine the reasons behind BiH authorities’ contrary policy borrowing behaviours.
The second part of this paper then addresses the question surrounding ‘What factors have enabled BiH authorities to resist educational policy lending related to the global promotion of pluralism and peacebuilding?’ Evidence is drawn from a larger research project that analysed key policy documents and research reports on education reform in BiH over the 2000-2017 period, as well as interviews conducted in 2014 with 60 international and domestic education actors including policymakers, teacher educators, NGO educators, secondary School Directors and teachers, as well as focus groups with 60 secondary school youth in BiH. Based on the findings, it is argued that three early post-war policy errors were committed by the international brokers and backers of the new state: firstly, a failure to recognize education as a security issue and to extend transitional justice lustration measures to that sector; secondly, a failure to focus discourses and policies regarding ‘quality’ education on the realities of the conflict context and to insist on the rigorous integration, monitoring and evaluation of peacebuilding standards and competences across primary and secondary schooling alongside those of literacy, numeracy and life-skills; and thirdly, a failure to adopt financing models that would support long-term and system-wide consolidation of peacebuilding reforms in education, instead of the prevailing patchwork of largely ineffective and uncoordinated, ‘multiplier’ and trickle-up intervention models . Together, I argue, these failures have enabled ethnonationalists to maintain ideological and political control over education in ways that sustain social division and prevent economic development and mobility in the country.
The paper contributes to ongoing research into educational ‘push’ factors influencing migration from post-conflict and transitional societies. It also offers recommendations for improved education reform interventions in conflict-affected and transitional societies to incentivize educated young people to remain in their home countries and contribute actively to the development of stable, inclusive, democratic and prosperous societies.