Date of Award
2019
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelors
Department
Social Sciences
First Advisor
Hicks, Barbara
Area of Concentration
Philosophy and Political Science
Abstract
This thesis explores the relationship between national identity conflict and education. After considering various dynamics of national identity formation and analyzing Hannah Arendt’s position on facts, education, and segregation, and how those components relate to social trust, this study examines education in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The first chapter identifies factors that may cause shifts in national identity through a review of the literature. The second chapter constructs a framework to understand and critique how facts and models of education function in Arendt, through close readings of “Truth and Politics”, “The Crisis in Education”, and “Reflections on Little Rock”. The third chapter analyzes the effect that national identity conflict has had on the educational system in Bosnia and Herzegovina and finds that the decentralized mode of governance has enabled segregation of students, physically and in curricula. In reinforcing exclusive social ties and understandings of national history, the current system is not only not building the common ground necessary for an inclusive national identity; it may also be setting the foundation for future conflict. The fourth chapter explores models for how a post-conflict society like Bosnia and Herzegovina's might move forward to rebuild the social trust needed to construct an inclusive national identity.
Recommended Citation
Lee, Michelle, "STANDING ON COMMON GROUND: APPLYING ARENDT’S THEORIES OF HISTORY AND EDUCATION TO THE EFFECTS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY CONFLICT ON EDUCATION POLICY IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA" (2019). Theses & ETDs. 5737.
https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/5737