Community-based school governance and social cohesion in fragile societies

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26590219
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Sociology of education
• Research Institution: Sophia University
• Principal Investigator: Komatsu Taro 上智大学, 総合人間科学部, 教授 (20363343)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 住民参加型学校運営 / SBM / 社会的結束 / 紛争 / 平和

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The research examined the role of community-based school governance in promoting social cohesion in conflict-affected societies. More concretely, the study investigated how schools affect social cohesion in a multi-ethnic community and how multi-ethnic school boards promote such a school’s role in post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The study found that school boards were not functioning actively because of the lack of incentives and political interference. Nevertheless, interviews with minority youth in post-genocide Srebrenica revealed that schools appeared to build inter-ethnic trust by providing the opportunity for inter-ethnic interaction. Interviews with school board members in the highly multi-ethnic Brcko district suggested that the multi-ethnic member representation on school boards enhance school legitimacy which was critical in drawing students of different ethnic groups, thereby facilitating school role of promoting social cohesion.

Free Research Field

国際教育開発学