Education in Post-Conflict Transition

This book offers vivid insights into policies of religious education in schools since the series of wars in former Yugoslavia in the 1990's. It traces the segregation among members of different ethnic groups in Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia, which has never been greater or more systematic. It aims to be a necessary step in understanding the origins of this systematic segregation and how it is reproduced in educational practice, asserting that the politicization of religion in the school textbooks is one of the motors responsible for the ongoing ethnic segregation. It also deals with complex aspects of this issue, such as the general situation of religion in the different countries, the social position of churches, the issues of gender, the reconciliation after the Yugoslav Wars, and the integration of the EU.

Gorana Ognjenovic is Research Fellow at the University in Oslo, Norway. She is contributing editor of an anthology Responsibility in Context (Springer 2009) and contributing co-editor with Jasna Jozelic of Politicization of Religion, The Power of Symbolism (Palgrave 2014) and Politicization of Religion, The Power of State, Nation, Faith (Palgrave 2014), Revolutionary Totalitarianism, Pragmatic Socialism, Transition (Palgrave 2016), Titoism, Self-determination, Nationalism, Cultural Memory (Palgrave 2016). Jasna Jozelic is Advisor at Norwegian Center for Human Rights and Dr. philos candidate at the University in Oslo, Norway. She is contributing editor with Gorana Ognjenovic of Politicization of Religion, The Power of Symbolism (Palgrave 2014) and Politicization of Religion, The Power of State, Nation, Faith (Palgrave 2014), Revolutionary Totalitarianism, Pragmatic Socialism, Transition (Palgrave 2016), Titoism, Self-determination, Nationalism, Cultural Memory (Palgrave 2016).

1. Introduction.- 2. Changing Faces Swapping Places, Oh Sister, Where Art Thou?.- 3. The Politicization of Education in Conflict-Affected Countries: The Legitimization of a Divided Society.- 4. Islamic Religious Instruction in the Context of EU Integration and Education Reform.- 5. Slovenia: Social Changes and (Adjustable) Politicization of Catholic Church.- 6. From Vrhbosna to Brussels, Catholic Religious Education between Local and European Perspectives.- 7. Analysis of Catholic Religious Instruction Textbooks in Croatian Primary School: How Do They Teach Atheism?.- 8. Politicization of the Religious Textbooks in Slovenia.- 9. Religious Education and Large Group Identity.- 10. Religious Education in Serbia as a Litmus Test for Church-State Relations.- 11. Education and Politicization of Religion in Post-Conflict Countries: Orthodoxy in School Textbooks, Desecularization and Ethnic Distance in Serbian Textbooks.- 12. An Analysis of the Religious Education Textbooks in Serbia.- 13. The Analysis of the Textbooks for Orthodox Religious Education in Serbia.- 14. Afterword: Religion at School: To Teach or Not to Teach? The Case of Kosovo.