A MULTICULTURAL DYSTOPIA: THE ETHNICIZATION OF EDUCATION IN POST-INDEPENDENCE KOSOVO
Abstract
Taking the unilateral declaration of independence as an historical milestone, this essay investigates the role of education within Kosovo’s current national system questioning whether education and, in particular, educational decentralization complemented by enhanced non-majority rights for the Kosovo-Serb community, has contributed to fostering a multicultural society or has, by contrast, reinforced the ethno-cultural divide between Kosovo-Albanians and Kosovo-Serbs. This will be done through an analysis of the gap between multicultural policies and effective practises over aspects of language, curriculum, teachers’ attitude and textbooks within the Kosovo-run system. The second part of the essay will address the response of the K-Serb community through the use of education as a tool of ‘resistance’ in the reiteration of its political stance in line with the UN Security Council Resolution 1244 with implications for social cohesion and the future of Kosovo. The “conceptualization” of these two parallel systems may be either indicative of future integration or conversely the expression for a call of full autonomy on the part of the K-Serbian inhabited north or, even worse, symptomatic of a return to violence.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v0i0.2718
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