Citizenship and Education in the Post-Yugoslav States

Abstract

This paper explores interactions between citizenship and education in six post-Yugoslav contexts. The aim is to map out policies shaping the intended young citizens’ identities, which might differ from their lived experiences of citizenship. Focusing on the ethnocentric, multicultural, and civic dimensions of citizenship, the paper looks at how education governance structures and policies promote inclusive and exclusive citizenship by adopting and adapting international norms protecting group and individual rights. Universal and consociational education systems have been distinguished, with the ethnocentric and exclusive citizenship concepts reflected in the context-dependent status of different minorities, and in the language policies that perpetuate dominant ethnic groups. Inclusive elements have been recognised in the anti-discriminatory measures for inclusion of Roma students in mainstream education. Minority language instruction options reflect multicultural approaches to linguistic and cultural rights in education, although ethnocentric motives can be discerned behind their territorial implementation. Observance of the EU membership criteria and relevant norms are an important driving force for adopting social inclusion and minority rights in education-relevant legislation and policy documents. The study illustrates how the domestic consolidation and limited implementation of these norms created tensions between ensuring group rights in education and protection of individual human rights and non-discrimination.

Keywords:

• Citizenship
• education governance
• minority rights
• education policy
• former Yugoslavia

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ These include the European Convention on Human Rights (1950); the UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in Education (1960); the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989); the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (1995); the revised European Social Charter (1995); and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (1992).

² The study covers primary and secondary education which is granted as free and universally accessible in these countries. Primary education is also legally compulsory, while secondary is compulsory only in Macedonia.

³ It is sometimes suggested that there is no majority ethnic group in the region as a whole and that all groups should be regarded as minorities in some sense (OECD, 2003).

⁴ Recently, the first court decision ruled that the segregation in ‘two schools under one roof’ is a violation of the Law against discrimination in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

⁵ Recently, heated debates over the name of this common language produced a composite name for the school subject called Montenegrin-Serbian, Bosnian and Croatian Language and Literature.

⁶ A supervisory body established by the Brčko Arbitration Tribunal and administered by a Deputee High Representative for Brčko.

⁷ At the time teachers’ salaries in Brčko were twice the average teacher salary elsewhere in Bosnia and Herzegovina.