What, Why, and How: Teachers as Makers of Peace in South Sudan

Within post-conflict and conflict-affected settings, as a national identity is contested, shaped, negotiated, and re-negotiated, history and social studies education can serve to develop a sense of unity among a nation's citizens and a shared vision for the future (Bekerman & Zembylas, 2011; Korostelina, 2019). At the same time, history and social studies education can maintain or exacerbate existing inequalities (Bellino, 2016; Bentrovato et al., 2016; King; 2014; Vanner et al., 2017). Contestation and efforts to control the historical narratives are especially important in South Sudan, a new country that endured decades of civil war. How the narrative of South Sudan's violent past is communicated to young people will profoundly impact political and cultural attitudes and the country's emerging nationhood. South Sudan is in the process of reconciling and establishing spaces for peacebuilding and the Government of South Sudan has named history and social studies classrooms as an important space for peace education. In considering curriculum, scholarship demonstrates that there is an explicit and implicit curriculum (Eisner, 1985; Bickmore, 2004; Bickmore, 2005). The formal curriculum is visible through written textbooks and learning materials; however, the implicit curriculum, the lived curriculum, including pedagogy, school context, and systems of governance, is equally important for understanding what students are learning from schools about their civic and national identity. Teachers play a fundamental role in enacting both implicit and explicit curricula to students and thus are the focus of this dissertation. This dissertation analyzes the explicit and implicit history and social studies curricula in South Sudan across three papers. It explores the written history curricula, the classroom practices and activities teachers use to teach the social studies curriculum, and the influence of teachers' values, beliefs, school policies, and the overall school environment on their ability to build peace in the classroom. Throughout the dissertation, I explore how the history and social studies classrooms at two schools serve as a platform for promoting peacebuilding with the overarching research question: How and why do teachers at two schools in South Sudan teach the history of conflicts in the ways they do? To answer this research question, this dissertation draws on 101 qualitative interviews with government staff, education stakeholders, school leaders, and teachers, as well as 67 classroom observations, and over 350 general observation hours. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]