Abstract
This study examines how education can disrupt threats of conflict, specifically in the presence of ethnic diversity. We present a historical analysis of Botswana, using methods of process tracing drawing on documents, in-depth interviews, and Afrobarometer survey data. Postindependence Botswana engaged in redistribution of educational access across ethnic groups and promotion of common civic principles of social harmony. At the same time, it constructed through schools ethnically based national identity, which excluded many minorities. Lack of recognition for ethnic minorities remains a persistent challenge, yet it exists in a context of high commitment to unity and the nation-state, even among minority groups, which may have allowed recent dissent to happen peacefully. The article defines mechanisms by which educational redistribution and recognition can disrupt resource-based and identity-based inequalities that often lead to conflict. This model holds promise for conflict avoidance and mitigation in multiethnic states globally.
Highlights
This study examines how education can disrupt threats of conflict, in the presence of ethnic diversity
Through the lens of resource-based and identity-based inequalities, and their corollaries of redistribution and recognition, we examine the ways in which Botswana has negotiated national unity and ethnic diversity in education and how these experiences have informed its pathway to peace
We conducted interviews until we reached saturation, in other words we began to hear similar perspectives on the issues under study; we further tested the emergence of themes in ongoing analysis and, when we ceased to find new ideas and explanations, we developed confidence that our data represented the existing range of patterns to sufficiently answer the research question (Guest, Bunce, and Johnson 2006)
Summary
This study examines how education can disrupt threats of conflict, in the presence of ethnic diversity. Post-independence Botswana engaged in redistribution of educational access across ethnic groups and promotion of common civic principles of social harmony. Lack of recognition for ethnic minorities remains a persistent challenge, yet it exists in a context of high commitment to unity and the nation-state, even among minority groups, which may have allowed recent dissent to happen peacefully. The paper defines mechanisms by which educational redistribution and recognition can disrupt resource-based and identity-based inequalities that often lead to conflict. This model holds promise for conflict avoidance and mitigation in multiethnic states globall
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