Michelle J. Bellino

So That We Do Not Fall Again: History Education and Citizenship in "Postwar" Guatemala.

This vertical case study applies a transitional justice approach to analyzing curricular reform, as intended, enacted, and experienced in the aftermath of Guatemala’s civil war. Drawing on ethnographic data, I juxtapose the teaching and learning of historical injustice in one urban and one rural classroom, examining how particular depictions of war are positioned as civic narratives for different identity groups, while set against the backdrop of particular ways of understanding the “postwar” period. This study illustrates how young people construct the role and relevance of a history of violence and authoritarianism in relation to their civic identity in a postauthoritarian democracy. It also illuminates how the educational sector addressed legacies of war and how these legacies have been reproduced and challenged through an unequal education system.

Civic engagement in extreme times: The remaking of justice among Guatemala’s ‘postwar’ generation

In recent years, there has been a dramatic growth in the field of youth civic engagement, although little of this work has been conducted in fragile democracies contending with legacies of war and authoritarianism. This study explores how Guatemalan postwar generation youth develop as civic actors under extreme conditions of violence, social and political distrust, and a dwindling space for public expression. Drawing from ethnographic research conducted in rural and urban Guatemala, this study demonstrates how young people’s sense of civic efficacy interacts with their interpretations of historical injustice and the civic messages mediated by teachers, families, peers, and communities. Young people struggle to define and enact appropriate civic action, at times working outside unjust systems as a means of fostering change.

Whose Past, Whose Present?

In Gladis’s social studies classroom, rows of uniformed 10th graders concentrated on the blackboard at the front of the room, where I displayed a photo of the mural that was painted on the walls outside their school.i The mural depicted Mayan history, from ancient times to present day, and it stretched nearly 200 feet from the neighboring cemetery to the school entrance, an intentional crossroads between youth and their Mayan ancestry.

(Re)Constructing Memory: Education, Identity, and Conflict

Foreword to the Series: (Re)Constructing Memory: School Textbooks, Identity, and the Pedagogies and Politics of Imagining Community -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Section 1: Nation-Building Projects in the Aftermath of Intimate Conflict -- What Framing Analysis Can Teach Us about History Textbooks, Peace, and Conflict: The Case of Rwanda -- Ideologies Inside Textbooks: Vietnamization and Re-Khmerization of Political Education in Cambodia during the 1980s -- Construction(s) of the Nation in Egyptian Textbooks: Towards an Understanding of Societal Conflict -- Section 2: Colonialism, Imperialism, and Their Enduring Conflict Legacies -- Creating a Nation without a Past: Secondary-School Curricula and the Teaching of National History in Uganda -- From “Civilizing Force” to “Source of Backwardness”: Spanish Colonialism in Latin American School Textbooks -- The Crusades in English History Textbooks 1799–2002: Some Criteria for Textbook Improvement and Representations of Conflict -- History Education, Domestic Narratives, and China’s International Behavior -- Section 3: Interaction and Integration in Divided Societies -- Addressing Conflict and Tolerance through the Curriculum -- Learning to Think Historically through a Conflict-Based Biethnic Collaborative Learning Environment -- Section 4: The Democratic Role of Schools as Mediating Institutions in Society -- Living with Ghosts, Living Otherwise: Pedagogies of Haunting in Post-Genocide Cambodia -- When War Enters the Classroom: An Ethnographic Study of Social Relationships Among School Community Members on the Colombian–Ecuadorian Border -- From Truth to Textbook: The Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Educational Resources, and the Challenges of Teaching about Recent Conflict -- Nation, Supranational Communities, and the Globe: Unifying and Dividing Concepts of Collective Identities in History Textbooks -- Index.

Working through difficult pasts: toward thick democracy and transitional justice in education

Five teenagers found guilty for defacing an historic black schoolhouse in the Southern United States with swastikas receive their sentence: a history lesson. The judge orders them to read a list of classic novels that examine themes of race, conflict and injustice in the US and beyond, as well as to visit several memorial sites, then to write an essay demonstrating what they learned. (Hauser 2017)

Truth commissions, education, and positive peace: an analysis of truth commission final reports (1980–2015)

ABSTRACT Transitional justice and education both occupy increasingly prominent space on the international peacebuilding agenda, though less is known about the ways they might reinforce one another to contribute towards peace. This paper presents a cross-national analysis of truth commission (TC) reports spanning 1980–2015, exploring the range of educational work taken on by one of the most prominent forms of transitional justice. We find that TC engagement with education is increasing over time and that TCs are incorporating the task of ‘telling the truth about education’ into their work. However, when TCs engage with education, they tend to recommend forwards looking reforms, for instance decontextualised human rights and peace education. We argue that this limits the contribution that TCs might make towards positive peace by failing to use their backwards looking, truth telling work to insist on transformation in the educational sector.

Youth aspirations in Kakuma Refugee Camp: education as a means for social, spatial, and economic (im)mobility

ABSTRACT This study documents the aspirations and apprehensions of youth as they complete secondary schooling in Kakuma Refugee Camp. Navigating contradictory discourses about the value of education, school-leavers approach postsecondary opportunities with attention to social status hierarchies, economic viability, and collective expectations for nation-building goals. This work contributes to understandings of formal education interacting with culturally bounded expectations for normative adulthood, examining how youth respond when they are unable to adhere to a linear trajectory of success. I argue that foregrounding democratic purposes of schooling in exile can expand conceptions of nation-building and successful adulthood, opening and de-stigmatizing multiple future pathways.

Wait-citizenship: youth civic development in transition

Abstract This paper builds a theory of wait-citizenship, wherein the lack of opportunities for structural inclusion has contributed to young people’s liminal positioning in society and their struggles to become social adults while seeking equality, democratic freedoms, and a sense of belonging. Two decades after civil war, Guatemalan youth are routinely reminded of the fragility of their democracy and instructed not to make demands for inclusive and transformative citizenship. As young people become ‘wait-citizens’ they develop strategies for navigating precarious openings between dangerous actions and coercive structures, often in ways that do not conform to Western, liberal expectations. The paper argues for broader conceptions of civic agency to account for how young people make decisions about exercising their civic voice, particularly in settings where legacies of authoritarianism constrain long-awaited democratic freedoms.

Pursuing Higher Education in Exile: A pilot partnership in Kakuma Refugee Camp

As we innovate, it is important to keep in mind what might be the next stage for the recipients of our efforts on their behalf. This is particularly true when innovating in response to crisis circumstances. As we address the immediate challenge of ensuring children in refugee situations have their right to education met, we need to remember that innovation will also be required to support a transition into productive adult lives.

Closing Information Gaps in Kakuma Refugee Camp: A Youth Participatory Action Research Study

This study explores the role of academic and social support on young peoples educational pursuits in Kenyas Kakuma Refugee Camp. Pairing ethnographic methods with youth participatory action research, we find that support often manifests as abstract, decontextualized encouragement with little grounding in the educational opportunity structure. We argue that this motivational discourse generates information gaps, fueling aspirations that neither prepare youth for understanding, nor navigating the constraints they will encounter. In response, we designed a social media platform orienting Kakuma youth to the opportunity structure, while encouraging them to set realistic goals and plan accordingly. Designing a resource by, for, and with Kakuma youth, we illustrate that refugees have the rights and means to access information on which their everyday well-being and futures depend. This study illustrates that critical understanding of local and global opportunities can empower, rather than demoralize, young people as they shape their futures in exile.