Education and Social Cohesion

Presentation to the Conference on Religion, Peace, Security and Co-Existence

Yangon, MyanmarSeptember, 2013

Stephen P. HeynemanProfessor

International Education PolicyVanderbilt University

Nashville, Tennessee, 37138s.heyneman@vanderebilt.edu

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/peabody/heyneman/

Social cohesion – a community’s ability to withstand shock without turning on itself

Examples: • South Africa transition from apartheid• the concession of Al Gore• the peaceful change of government in Ghana

Human capital

Social capital

SocialCohesion

Organizations and Social Cohesion

Political organizations

Economic organizations

social cohesionSocial organizations

Educational organizations

Economic Prosperity

Trade

Social Cooperation

Effective Organizations

Types of

Organizations

• Social

• Economic

• Educational

• Political

Social Contracts ‘without tyranny’

Institutional rules across organizations

Stabilizing traditions within organizations

FIGURE 1

The Relationship of Social Cohesion to Economic Prosperity

Relationship of Social Cohesion to Economic Prosperity

Figure 3The Contribution of schools and Universities to

Social Cohesion

Educational Functions:

Formal CurriculumSchool ClimateAdjudication of differencesFair opportunity

Understanding:

‘Strangers’Reasons for social contractsReasons for sanctionsRights and responsibilitiesObligations on those power

Behavior contracts

Social Cohesion

Curriculum

School Climate

Perception of Fair Treatment of one’s children

Mechanisms to Adjudicate Community Differences

SocialCohesion

Influence of Education on Social Cohesion

Readings• “Educational Choice in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union,” 1997 Education Economics Vol.

5 No. 3 (December), pp. 333 – 39.• “Education and Social Stabilization in Russia,” 1997 Compare Vol. 27 No. 1 pp. 5 – 18.• “The Transition from Party/State to Open Democracy: The Role of Education,” 1998 International

Journal of Education Development Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 21- 40.• “From the Party/State to Multi-Ethnic Democracy: Education and Social Cohesion in the Europe and

Central Asian Region,” 2000 Education Evaluation and Policy Analysis Vol. 21 No. 4 (July), pp. 345 – 61.

• “A Renewed Sense of Purpose of Schooling: Education and Social Cohesion in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe and Central Asia,” 2000 UNESCO Prospects Vol. XXX No. 2 (June), pp. 145 – 66 (with Sanja Todoric-Bebic).

• Education: A Passport to Social Cohesion and Economic Prosperity. 2001Riga: Soros Foundation.(with Indra Dedze and Guntars Catlaks)

• “Education, Social Cohesion and the Role of International Organizations,” 2003 Peabody Journal of Education Vol. 78 No. 3 pp. 25 – 38.

• “Education and Social Cohesion,” 2003 Encyclopedia of Education James Guthrie (ed.) New York: Macmillan Publishers, Vol. 6 pp. 2242 – 2250.

• “Defining the Influence of Education on Social Cohesion,” 2002/3 International Journal of Educational Policy, Research and Practice Vol. 3 No. 4 (Winter), pp. 73 – 97.

• “Organizations and Social Cohesion,” 2005 Peabody Journal of Education Vol. 80 No. 4 pp. 1 – 8.• “Education and the Crisis of Social Cohesion in Azerbaijan and Central Asia,” 2007 Comparative

Education Review Vol. 51 No. 2 (May), pp. 159 – 80. (with Iveta Silova and Mark Johnson).• Education and Social Cohesion: Three Universities in Georgia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan,” 2006

Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, Anaheim, California, (November).