Reconstructing Somalia:a critical comparison between UNESCO’s 1968 and UNICEF’s 2013 policy documents’ approach to education

• Main Author: Saliari, I. (Ioanna)
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: University of Oulu 2016
• Subjects: Education
• Online Access: http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-201601151054; http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:fi:oulu-201601151054

This thesis focuses on the activities of two UN agencies, namely UNESCO and UNICEF, in the education sector of Somalia, in the first period of independence and the period of reconstruction after the long lasting civil war. It is a qualitative study based on critical discourse analysis using the theoretical lens of postcolonialism, executed through the constant comparative method applied on the following documents; the 1968 UNESCO document; Somalia; School Textbooks and Educational Materials, and the 2013 UNICEF document; Go-2-School initiative 2013–2016; Educating for Resilience. The objective is to locate the main thematic and conceptual differences between the 1968 UNESCO document and the 2013 UNICEF document, place those into a broader historical and societal context, and by doing so determine whether the two UN agencies demonstrate neocolonial tendencies in their approach towards Somalia’s education sector. The thematic differences; the Somali language, the unification of Somalia, women’s and girls’ education and Quranic education, are extracted through open coding. The theoretical and conceptual differences; education as human capital, education as a human right, and educating for resilience are extracted through axial coding. From the thematic and conceptual differences arise the core categories of state-building and nation-building. These are developed in a discussion before offering the alternative of social capital as a state- and nation-building strategy. Much of this thesis’ focus has been placed on the social capital of Quran schools for the rebuilding of Somalia as a State and its consolidation as a Nation. The exclusion of Quranic education, particularly by the 2013 UNICEF document, is considered a dismissal of its cultural, moral and national value and an omitted opportunity for the reconstruction of the Somali Nation-State. The comparison between the two documents offers a view on cultural hegemony applied by the two UN agencies on Somalia’s education sector and the shifts between them due to historical events and societal changes. Nevertheless, both documents demonstrate neocolonial tendencies. However, even though the 1968 UNESCO document makes no attempts of withholding this, the 2013 document veils these tendencies under an ambiguous, rhetoric language.