Learning from Conflict-Book Review

‘Learning from Conflict’ – Book Review

In his book Learning From Conflict (Hyderabad, India: Orient Longman Ltd.: 1996), Professor Krishna Kumar examines the way schooling in India distorts and/or avoids conflict. He argues that learners are not developing the skills necessary to deal with opposing viewpoints or to peacefully negotiate conflicts that arise in their everyday lives.

Children Want to Discuss Conflict but Schools Don’t

Kumar explains that "Children are deeply aware of social conflicts, and this awareness makes them anxious about the future, but they seldom find opportunities to express their anxiety." He argues that Indian schools do not make an effort to discuss dissonant or traumatic events with students, despite every child’s innate desire for uncertainty reduction and deeper understanding. Adults prefer to avoid discussing conflict with children. They often believe that children are innocent and should be protected from complexities of adult life. They fear that open discussion of various sides of conflicts will politicize education.

He cites an example of the Indian school system’s response to Indira Gandhi’s assassination and the ensuing riots. Teachers were instructed not to discuss the assassination, thinking that avoiding the topic would instill a sense of normalcy. Yet, as Kumar points out, "The tension and insecurity of the people were so obvious in every locality that it was hardly necessary for children to guess why political leaders were asking people over television to stay calm. . .[the children] wanted to know from their elders why such violence had suddenly erupted, why innocent people were being killed, why police were not stopping the killers, and so on." Such forms of silence not only prevent students from seriously thinking about conflict in a meaningful way but also potentially lead to a great deal of misinformation and misunderstanding.

Kumar argues that the design of textbooks also prevents students from developing a deeper understanding of conflict. He gives the example of history books in which continuous, chronological information is densely packed into a limited space with no prioritization of content. As such, "the syllabus aims at exposure to basic information about a period as opposed to analysis of a few major events with the help of details. The result? Children do not have the opportunity to deeply explore issues of how conflicts begin, grow, and erupt, thereby lessening their grasp of a huge part of everyday life."

Kumar believes that the school curriculum is also a source of conflict in society today. For example, in science, there is a move towards environmental studies (EVS). However, this creates a strong tension between science, which is traditionally seen as a ‘conquest’ or ‘control’ over nature, vs. socio-environmental concerns of nurturing and protecting it. Kumar explains, "EVS materials attempt, mostly tacitly, to develop the idea of co-habitation or adjustment with nature; not just animals and plants, but even with physical objects, such as rivers, mountains, and the ocean. The value-premise underlying this idea is that all human acts need to be reviewed in terms of the impact they might have on living as well as non-living components of nature. This is incongruent with the personality of school science as it is presently constituted." Students and teachers have no space to make sense of and negotiate these two opposing value systems.

Kumar also faults language instruction with increasing the barrier between and among classes i.e., between those who learn English and those who do not. Kumar describes, "Competence in the use of English is the single most important marker of a young person’s eligibility for negotiating the opportunity structures that the modern economy has made available . . . Those who lack competence in English have remarkably limited scope for moving into higher income and higher status roles in society." The learning of English points to a long process of social stratification and dislocation. Those who do not learn English may suffer from various forms of marginalization. Those who learn English often develop confusion about their identities in terms of losing a part of their ‘Indian-ness.’ There are several consequences of such a division of people into two streams including "a deep imbalance and chronic conflict. It also implies a disbalancing force which, on one hand, serves to create a cultural climate suitable for neo-colonialism, and on the other, drains the society’s stamina for fighting neo-colonial control."

Some Suggestions for Transformation:

• We must re-examine what we refuse to tell children and why. Kumar says there are unconscious modes of repression at work: "Conflicts get erased in the desire to discover harmony, tragic events are often forgotten in the search for heroic stories, histories of failures disappear in the grand narratives of success." Thus, adults should openly discuss conflicts with children and assist them in framing the complexities that surround conflict. At the same time, adults must also reflect on their own conceptions of conflict and their own negotiation skills.

• We must create more local spaces for inquiry, open-ended discussions, and sharing of different perspectives on the same event and genuine learning of topics rather than memorizing facts. Kumar discusses that, "From a pedagogical point of view, no moment can be more suitable for studying conflict than the one immediately following the eruption of conflict, when pent-up feelings, anxieties, and questions are sharp, and when the child’s desire to encircle a traumatic experience by means of dialogue is strong." This implies the need for teachers to open up spaces for in-depth discussion and dialogue on both the existing curriculum and current events.

It may be noted that the author Prof. Krishna Kumar was till last year the Director of National Council for Education Research and Training, New Delhi. He is also very passionate about Indo-Pak issues especially education and identity. He has written a book called ‘Prejudice and Pride’, which compares history text books of India and Pakistan. His most recent book ‘Battle for Peace’ is also says a lot on Indo-Pak conflict.