The right to education in protracted conflict: teachers’ experiences in non-formal education in Colombia

ABSTRACT

The challenges of ensuring the right to education are numerous, especially when working with marginalised populations in fragile contexts. Despite having the legislation, strong constitutional support, and even educational innovations designed to guarantee the right to education, a major gap exists in Colombia between political intentions and the reality in flexible non-formal educational models designed for children affected by conflict. This article highlights the experiences of teachers working in this context amidst limitations in the programme design and, often, inadequate training and support. This article explores the prospects of and challenges to guaranteeing the right to education amidst fragility.

KEYWORDS:

• Education and conflict
• teacher training
• Latin American education
• right to education
• human rights
• Colombia
• education and marginalisation
• fragile contexts

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

This work was supported by grants from Columbia University to the Principal Investigator, Laura Vega, from the Institute for Latin American Studies, the Office of the Vice President for Diversity and Community and the Dean's Grant for Student Research (Columbia University Teachers College).

Notes on contributors

Laura Vega holds an EdD from Teachers College, Columbia University in International Educational Development with an emphasis on Peace Education. Laura currently directs Fundación Escuela Nueva's community of practice that brings together a variety of partners and stakeholders in the aim of creating new knowledge regarding active, cooperative and personalized learning based on the Escuela Nueva model. She has previously served as a consultant for the Ministry of Education of Colombia.

Monisha Bajaj is Associate Professor of International and Multicultural Education at the University of San Francisco, where she directs the MA program in Human Rights Education. She is also Visiting Professor and Research Fellow at the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice, University of the Free State, South Africa. Dr. Bajaj is the editor and author of multiple books, including Schooling for Social Change: The Rise and Impact of Human Rights Education in India (winner of the 2012 Jackie Kirk Outstanding Book Award of the Comparative & International Education Society), as well as numerous articles. She has also developed curriculum—particularly related to peace education, human rights, anti-bullying efforts and sustainability—for non-profit organizations and inter-governmental organizations, such as UNICEF and UNESCO.

Notes

1. For example, the US-funded ‘Plan Colombia' increased military capacity to counter leftist guerrillas and drug trafficking (UNDP 2003), but also aggravated internal displacement and created critical situations regarding food and health safety due to fumigations (Ceballos 2003); homicide rates (Barón 2009); and a humanitarian crisis that extended beyond Colombian borders (Montúfar and Whitfield 2003). To date, the results of the Plan Colombia specifically and US foreign aid more broadly, totalling approximately US$7.5 billion between 1996 and 2006, are highly contested (Montúfar and Whitfield 2003).

2. All of the fieldwork was carried out by Laura María Vega-Chaparro as part of her doctoral dissertation. Monisha Bajaj participated in a pre-dissertation pilot phase of the project in Colombia (2011), and offered ongoing advice and guidance throughout the project as the dissertation sponsor.

3. In Colombia, the estimated age range for primary school in a traditional school is from 6 to 10 years of age. In CA, the average age in each grade was approximately 3 years higher than the expected age; for instance, in second grade, students should be around 7 years old; while in the CA programme, the average age was actually 10 years of age.

4. All names used are pseudonyms.