Abstract

Schools are an important factor in constructing group identities and attitudes toward the other, yet are understudied by scholars of conflict and peacebuilding. This dissertation comparatively examines how the structure and content of ordinary education contributed to both ethnic conflict and peacebuilding in Rwanda. It suggests specific social-structural and psycho-cultural mechanisms that situate education among the causes of violence, and potentially and more tentatively, sustainable peace. Findings are based upon approximately 100 one-on-one interviews conducted in Rwanda and Belgium, and documentary analysis of curriculum and archival material.

I argue that in both the colonial period (1919-64) and under the two Republics (1964-1994), formal schooling contributed to laying the foundation for violent interethnic conflict. Access to schooling was unequal and competition took place along ethnic lines, history curriculum differentiated, collectivized and stigmatized ethnic groups, and classroom practices were ethnically-based and discouraged critical thinking. I further argue that while some positive strides towards peacebuilding are currently being taken, schools in post-genocide Rwanda (1994-2008) are dangerously replicating past trends. The final chapter examines how these findings extend to such other, quite diverse, cases as Germany, Yugoslavia, Northern Ireland and Israel and explores practical implications for efforts to build sustainable peace in Rwanda and elsewhere. This thesis draws education into political science analyses of conflict and peacebuilding and provides detailed empirical findings to better understand the processes of ethnic construction, politicization and the exacerbation and/or mitigation of violent interethnic conflict.