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The Prospects for Peace Education in Cyprus: Exploring the Potential for Future Unified Education Through the Examination of a Bi-Communal School

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The Prospects for Peace Education in Cyprus: Exploring the Potential for Future Unified Education Through the Examination of a Bi-Communal School View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Carolina Digital Repository THE PROSPECTS FOR PEACE EDUCATION IN CYPRUS: EXPLORING THE POTENTIAL FOR FUTURE UNIFIED EDUCATION THROUGH THE EXAMINATION OF A BI-COMMUNAL SCHOOL Marios Antoniou A dissertation submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate of Education in the School of Education. Chapel Hill 2015 Approved by: Lynda Stone Rebecca Bryant Madeleine Grumet George Noblit James Peacock ABSTRACT Marios Antoniou: The Prospects for Peace Education in Cyprus: Exploring the Potential for Future Unified Education through the Examination of a Bi-Communal School. (Under the direction of Dr. Lynda Stone) This dissertation is the product of the investigation of an educational institution in Cyprus, where supposed enemies share a classroom and a unifying school identity. In 2003, following the opening of a few checkpoints along the dividing line of the island that keeps apart Greek Cypriots in the south and Turkish Cypriots in the north since 1974, “The English School”, a prestigious public-private school in the south welcomed the enrollment of Turkish Cypriot students, thus becoming the island’s first and only bi-communal public-private secondary school. Schooling has historically been utilized as a tool for constructing unifying national identities. The British colonial exit strategy left Cyprus in confusion between the ethnos and the nation. Cypriots are trapped in an intractable conflict that is rooted in nationalism and education systems contribute to the perpetuation of the conflict. The data collection process was based on a case study that employed the use of an ethnographic research approach within the school, both in and out of the classroom. The research methodology was designed in a manner that placed emphasis on the relationships between Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot students and the interactions between them in their everyday student life. Furthermore, research attention was placed on the curriculum, the school’s leadership, instructional practices and the school building itself. This dissertation ultimately seeks to analyze this school as an educational institution in its effort to find its ii path towards change and adaptation to an integrated bi-communal character while being at the intersection of pedagogy, standardized testing, identity, elitism, politics, and legacy. Despite the school’s mission to promote respect for all ethno-religious groups, it has failed to accommodate Muslim students’ religious needs while it continues to hold commemorations of Greek national holidays. The research findings suggest that a forced integration agenda has resulted to negative effects, while a laissez-faire approach towards integration does not yield increased communication, understanding and social relationships between the students of the two communities. Therefore, the conclusion calls for an approach based on a carefully planned integration engineering process that would naturally embed the practices of peace education in the existing curriculum. iii To my family; the immediate, and the extended. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am thankful to everyone who supported me throughout the journey of my doctoral studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Many wonderful people have gained my eternal respect and have come to be members of my extended family. I am grateful to Barry and Diana Phillips, Serge Dihoff, Ken Morgan, Don Buckner, Mack Parker, Bart Cleary and the Rotary Club of East Chapel Hill for their precious help during difficult times. I want to thank my friends at the Center for Human Science who offered me their support and a sense of community. A special note of appreciation goes to Florence and James Peacock who have always offered me their knowledge and support and who always believed in me and my work. A well-deserved acknowledgement goes to Anne and Jan Sassaman for their friendship and to Jan in particular for inspiring me to conduct this study. I am eternally grateful to my committee and especially to Dr. Lynda Stone for her guidance throughout the years of my doctoral studies. Finally, I dedicate this dissertation to all the members of my family in response to their unconditional love, and to Helena for the gift of happiness. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS…………………………………………………………….......xi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………..…1 Cyprus…………………………………………………………………………………3 Education Responsible for Conflict Regeneration………………………........4 The English School in a Pioneering Role amidst Reactions…………………………..5 Research Rationale…………………………………………………….………7 Research Methodology………………………………………………………….…….7 Research Questions……………………………………………………………8 Social Network Questionnaire………………………………………………...9 Classroom Observations……………………………………………………..10 Fieldnotes…………………………………………………………………….11 Interviews and Verbal Exchanges…………………………………………....12 Limitations of the Study……………………………………………………...13 Research Quality Control…………………………………………………………….15 Dissertation Structure………………………………………………………………...16 CHAPTER 2: THE STORY OF THE ISLAND – THE STORY OF THE SCHOOL …..…18 A Brief History of Cyprus……………………………………………………………23 Modern History and the Cyprus Conflict…………………………………….28 The English School in Nicosia, Cyprus……………………………………………...28 vi Mission Statement……………………………………………………………31 Academic Structure………………………………………………………….32 Reflecting on Histories………………………………………………………………33 CHAPTER 3: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK…………………………………………...35 Whoever Controls Education, Controls the Nation-State……………………………35 Education as a Method for Constructing the Nation-State…………………..39 From the Intrastate to the Interstate………………………………………………….40 A Conflict Grounded in Nationalism………………………………………………..42 The Cypriot Ethnogenesis…………………………………………………...43 Culture, Ethnos, Nationalism and Conflict………………………………………….44 Figured Worlds of Conflict Creation in Cyprus…………………………………….46 Symbols……………………………………………………………………..47 Omadogenesis and the Refugee as an Intimate Identity………………….....48 From Religious Groups to a Renewed Ethnogenesis and a New Nationalism………50 If Many Control the Education System, then Who Controls the Nation-State?.........52 The Dissemination of the Nationalist Rhetoric in Schools…………………..54 Nation Building in Education……………………………………………….55 Chosen Victories and Chosen Traumas……………………………………..59 A Conflict Perpetuated Through Schooling………………………………....60 Teaching History in Regions of Intractable Conflicts……………………….62 Peace Education……………………………………………………………………...64 Shifting away from Conflict through Peace Education……………………...66 Three Categories of Peace Education………………………………………………..68 vii Peace Education in Regions of Intractable Conflict…………………………69 Peace Education in Regions of Experienced Tranquility……………………70 Peace Education in Regions of Interethnic Tension…………………………70 Five Types of Peace Education………………………………………………………71 Global Peace Education……………………………………………………...71 Conflict Resolution Programs………………………………………………..72 Violence Prevention Programs………………………………………………73 Development Education……………………………………………………...74 Nonviolence Education………………………………………………………74 Integrated Education in Areas of Intractable Conflicts………………………………75 CHAPTER 4: THE SCHOOL IN THE PAST…………………………………………….....77 The English School in the 1950s…………………………………………………….77 The English School in the 1960s…………………………………………………….81 The School’s Transformation between 1974 and 2003……………………………...83 Maintaining an Elitist Character……………………………………………..85 A Shift in Character………………………………………………….………87 The Return of Turkish Cypriot Students…………………………………………….87 School Climate Survey of 2006……………………………………………………..90 The Researcher as a Research Tool………………………………………………….95 Self-Identification of Subjectivity and Position……………………………..97 My First Day at The English School, 2014…………………………………………102 CHAPTER 5: THE SCHOOL IN THE PRESENT DAY…..…………...…………………109 Obstacles to Integration…………………………………………………………….110 Economics of Integration…………………………………………………..113 viii Quality Schooling in Isolation……………………………………………..116 Bullying…………………………………………………………………….117 Romantic Relationships…………………………………………………….117 Curriculum and Instruction…………………………………………………………118 Test Scores Lead Instruction………………………………………………..118 Staff and Training…………………………………………………………..121 Staff Divided………………………………………………………………..122 Global Perspectives with a Local Focus……………………………………124 Physical Education in Self-Segregation…………………………………....128 Institutional Conflicts over the Prioritization of Institutional Needs………………129 Governance…………………………………………………………………129 National Holidays and Commemorations…………………………………..131 Conflict over Muslim Religious Holidays………………………………….132 English School Parent Association…………………………………………133 The School Premises ……………………………………………………….134 Exam Fever…………………………………………………………………………136 CHAPTER 6: CONNECTIONS WITH THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK.……...…138 The New Nation…………………………………………………………………….138 The Opposing Struggle for the Control of Education………………………141 Adapting to History and Politics……………………………………………143 Re-adapting to the Past in Search of the Future…………………………….145 Hyperbolic Zeal for Integration…………………………………………….149 Invented Traditions of Never Forget………………………………………………..150 ix CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION ………………….………………………………………....153 Synopsis of Findings………………………………………………………………..153 Peace Education at The English School…………………………………………….157 Promoting the Mission Statement…………………………………………..160 The School’s Approach towards
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