SCIENCE:

Call for Papers

International Summer School of the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research

The Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research is pleased to announce its Summer School on

The Janus Face of Education: Textbooks and Conflicts in Comparative Perspective which will take place in Braunschweig from 1st to 8th June 2008.

Political stakeholders have recently recognised that education as an important road to enforcing the sustainable prevention and solution of social and political conflicts. Education has been regarded as a means to help deliver decentralisation and democracy, build peace and promote economic and social development. The disarming of history or nurturing and sustaining an ethnically tolerant climate are examples of its positive impacts. Education, however, has a Janus face since it is not only a medium through which to prevent or come to terms with conflicts but also to encourage violent behaviour. Since conflicts are to a great extent the result of social perceptions, teaching material in general and textbooks in particular play a decisive role in constructing competing identities and interpretations, in shaping stereotypes and prejudices, and in creating conflicting images of the self and the other.

Although the role of education before, during, and after conflicts has recently been investigated in quite a number of studies, a comparative and systematic approach based on solid theoretical and methodological grounds is still lacking. Furthermore, as yet there are neither standards of pedagogical intervention nor general knowledge on the effects of educational politics in conflict and post- conflict societies.

The Summer School aims at addressing these questions and will be structured around the following issues:

* Theoretical and Methodological Approaches;
* Empirical Research on the Impact of Education in Conflict and Post-Conflict Societies;
* The Contribution of Education to the Generation of Conflicts;
* Education in Conflicts;
* Prevention and Management of Conflicts through Education;
* International Educational Regimes of Conflict Management;
* Conflicts on Curricula and Teaching Contents;
* Religion as Source or Instrument of Conflicts.

The Georg Eckert Institute invites contributions addressing one or more of these issues. The Summer School will be an opportunity for participants from different disciplines and contexts to enter into a dialogue. Contributions from doctoral and other researchers in the early stages of their academic career are welcome. The conference language will be English. The GEI will reimburse participants for accommodation and travel costs depending on the availability of funding.

Application deadline: September 30th, 2007

Please send a proposal in English of one page maximum as well as a CV (incl. list of publications) to:
PD Dr. Eckhardt Fuchs
fuchs@gei.de