The Impact of the Marginalization of Social Cohesion in Secondary Schools on Students’ Political, Social and Civic Views in Lebanon

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Posted on Sep 01 2016 8 minutes read
There has been plenty of discussions in Lebanon on the importance of strengthening social cohesion following the civil war and the need to introduce values of democracy and human rights in the official Lebanese curriculum. The Taif Agreement in 1989 emphasized the importance of education in promoting social cohesion.

The Educational Centre for Research and Development (ECRD) developed in 1997 a new official curriculum focusing on fostering national unity, strengthening the sense of national belonging and promoting cultural and religious openness through citizenship education and unification of textbook. The state succeeded in developing new unified textbooks for all subjects except history, while the teaching of religious education became optional and to be decided by the principal of each school. The Taif Agreement and the educational policies emphasized the discourse that sectarianism is the key cause of war and conflict in Lebanon, while there was little mention of the role of social justice and the economic and class aspects in strengthening social cohesion. This leads us to consider the definition of social cohesion.

In their definitions, academics agree that social cohesion can be summed up as a bond that brings individuals of a community together and influences their behavior. In spite of this general definition, there is no consensus among academics on the components of social cohesion. One view focuses on the fact that social cohesion represents the shared values and narrowing disparities in wealth and income (source), that it is the ongoing process of society development and the creation of common values and challenges (source), and that social justice is an essential factor in social cohesion. Another view diminishes the importance of the need for having common values in society to achieve social cohesion, given that this trend could lead to injustice towards marginalized groups and minorities that do not necessarily share the values of the majority of the members of society. The latter focuses on the importance of social justice to achieve social cohesion.

With regard to Lebanon’s experience in promoting social cohesion after the Taif Agreement, more than 20 years have passed since this experiment; which calls for examining the role of schools in promoting social cohesion and its influence on students’ attitudes. Thus, this research study titled “The Impact of Marginalization of Social Cohesion in Secondary Schools on Students’ Political, Social and Civic Views in Lebanon” was conducted by the Centre for Lebanese Studies in 2010 and whose results we summarize in the present article. The full paper can be consulted on the Centre’s official website. The study aimed to investigate the approaches practiced in secondary schools in Lebanon for promoting social cohesion and their possible impact on students’ political and religious opinions and and social values. The study sample included 24 Lebanese private (faith and secular) and public schools with various confessional and religious components. Interviews were conducted with students, teachers and principals, in addition to a survey in the form of a questionnaire administered to students relating to their political views and to learn about their values, attitudes and civic knowledge.

Research methodology

The study surveyed the views of 24 principals, 62 teachers and 900 Grade 11 students in 24 public and 14 private secondary schools, both secular and religious. Schools were selected to represent the entire religious and political spectrum in Lebanon. Interviews were conducted with principals and teachers of national and citizenship education, history and social studies to explore how the schools addressed the mentioned subjects and to learn about pedagogies, school environment, extra-curricular activities as well as the school-community relationship and the extent of the participation of students, teachers and parents in the school. A questionnaire targeting students was carried out to learn about their values, attitudes and citizenship knowledge. The questionnaire included several dimensions that examined young people’s view on the current pedagogies and school environment to exploretheir role in influencing and shaping the young people’s social and political attitudes.

«Why do we kill each other?» - © Artwork by Lebanese illustrator Nadine Feghaly
 

Approaches to social cohesion in Lebanon practiced in secondary schools

Five different approaches to social cohesion were identified: passive, avoidance, extra-curricular, multidimensional and paradoxical.

The passive approach was identified in nine of the 24 surveyed schools. It is an approach that does not emphasize the topic of social cohesion, as, according to the principals of those schools, it was not important for the management since all students belonged to the same sect. These schools limited their concept or understanding of social cohesion to multi-sectarian communities while other influencing factors, such as equality and justice, were absent. The prime objective of these schools was achieving high success rates in official exams. They also restricted social cohesion to teaching the subject of citizenship education. Their teaching methods were primarily didactic and focused on rote learning. The school-community relationship was limited and sometimes non-existent.

The avoidance model was identified in schools where the students population belonged to different confessional or political backgrounds as the school management opted for suppressing or avoiding any potential sectarian or political conflict amongst students as a means for promoting social cohesion. Classroom discussions and debates were banned in classroomsand playgrounds. The pedagogies were characterized by teaching social studies bynarration, didactic teaching and rote learning. Extra-curricular activities were also limited in order to avoid any potential politicization.

On the other hand, schools that adopted the extra-curricular approach relied on extra-curricular activities as their prime means for promoting social cohesion. This included organizing trips to various regions in Lebanon, community services and social clubs. However, there were some shortcomings in the way these schools undertook these activities. These activities were random and not organized, and their goals were not set out or followed up. The pedagogy applied in the teaching of citizenship education and sociology was predominantly didactic and focusing on rote learning. The school’s priorities were achieving good results in examinations.

A small number of schools (three) practiced the multidimensional approach, which focused on inclusiveness as one of the conditions for strengthening social cohesion. These schools implemented a policy that admitted students from different social groups, allocates a budget for scholarships and integrated students with special needs. They also coordinated a program of extra-curricular activities and promoted the culture of democracy through elected student councils. They also established a school-community relationship as a mean to spread social cohesion. The pedagogy in teaching sociology was characterized by critical thinking as well as didacticism. The managements of these schools reflected the characteristics of democracy and participation by providing students with opportunities to express their opinions and applied a multidimensional approach for school development.

The schools that followed the paradoxical approach were faith schools where students and the teaching staff were of the same sect, meaning that students did not get chances to mingle with other denominations. These schools stressed the social cohesion program withinthe same community, developing a program for developing students’ citizenship skills through classroom and extra-curricular activities that were mostly didactic.

The impact of the different approaches on students’ social and political views

After surveying the various approaches followed by these secondary schools in Lebanon to reinforcing social cohesion, the students’ political, social and citizenship attitudes were surveyed. It was revealed that in the schools that adopted the passive, avoidance and paradoxical approaches, young people were more inclined towards sectarianism and less willing to socialize with students from other sects. They also showed a tendency to support politicians who belong to their own sect and confidence in sectarian parties. In comparison, their peers in secondary schools that adopted the comprehensive and extra-curricular approaches demonstrated secular views and were more reluctant to join sectarian parties. The analysis did not reveal any differences between state and private schools on the surveyed issues. The study showed that the passive approach was prevalent in the largest number of state schools, while the paradoxical approaches was mainly adopted in the private faith schools sampled in the study.

Conclusion

The study showed that most of the teachers and principals have a narrow understanding of social cohesion that is limited to sectarian pluralism and citizenship literacy and does not include the concept of justice. The study found that the approaches adopted by schools have an effect on the political and social attitudes of students. The schools following the passive approach are characterized by a hierarchical and undemocratic structure and have limited approaches for promoting social cohesion. In addition, their students have sectarian tendencies and show loyalty to parties and leaders belonging to the same sect. On the other hand, schools that follow the extra-curricular and multidimensional approaches are characterized by a more democratic environment and encourage the students’ intellectual development, which can help them face the challenge of the sectarian heritage in their communities and can strengthen social cohesion more so than the other approaches
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