Multiculturalism and the Scars of War

 Elizabeth Sherman Swing, CIES Historian
Professor Emerita
St. Joseph's University 
 

       I have recently returned from the conference of the World Congress of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES), in Sarajevo, Bosnia/Herzegovina, a newly independent nation. For our readers who did not get to Bosnia, I suggest orientation through a visit to the WCCES Website (www.wcces2007.ba). I attended this WCCES conference in order to give a paper, “The Multicultural Dilemma,” the dilemma being the difficulty of suspending disbelief in order to live peacefully with people whose values are incompatible with one’s own, an Enlightenment exercise that has fallen into disuse. The paper was part of two panels in memory of David Wilson, a former CIES President whose interests intersected the themes of the conference. I also participated in the “book launch” of a publication on the 35 comparative education societies now in existence. (Common Interests, Uncommon Goals. Histories of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies and its Members, edited by Vandra Masemann, Mark Bray and Maria Manzon. Springer/ Comparative Education Research Centre, University of Hong Kong). My chapter in this book explores the fifty-year history of the United States-based Comparative and International Education Society.

       Why Sarajevo for a conference? A short answer is based on pragmatism. The WCCES looks for global outreach in its meeting places. The Mediterranean Comparative Education Society (MESCE), of which the faculty of the University of Sarajevo is a member, offered to host the 2007 conference of the WCCES, with the University of Sarajevo and the Council for Intercultural Education its on-site hosts. A longer answer is embedded in the history of Sarajevo, a city whose roots go back to the Ottoman and Hapsburg Empires; a city where the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria in 1914 ignited World War I; a city that has known Nazi occupation during World War II, socialism under Tito, and in 1984 the Olympic Games.

     Sarajevo is a city that in the past proudly pointed to its multicultural population of Bosnian Croats (Roman Catholics), Serbs (orthodox Christians), Muslims, Jews, and others. From 1992 to 1995, however, it experienced the longest siege in modern military history, 1400 days of bombardment by its Serbs. Evidence of violence from this siege is omnipresent: war-scarred buildings beside new and renovated structures, a booklet for tourists cautioning hikers not to stray from well-marked paths because of landmines, and a refugee population still not ready to return. That the theme of this conference could be “Living Together: Education and Intercultural Dialogue” is evidence that the 600 professional educators from thirty-five countries who came to Sarajevo last month believe that healing is possible in spite of “ethnic cleansing,” in spite of a breakdown of civilization during the Serb siege.  

       The University of Sarajevo faculty put their best multicultural face forward. Registration was handled by cheerful graduate students, young women wearing headscarves side by side with the bareheaded. The organizing committee showed a short documentary film about the dedication of a school teacher in a central Bosnian village. In fact, dedication and optimism were underlying themes. Among items on sale was a book with the provocative title, Confronting Islamophobia in Educational Practice, a book addressing a concern found throughout Europe. A multicultural chorus gave a wonderful concert featuring music by Roman Catholic Christians, Orthodox Christians, Protestants, Muslims, and Jews. Conferees visited a newly restored multicultural school in Dobrinja, where they learned about teachers whose concern for a lost generation led them to conduct classes in basements, stairwells, and street corners during the siege. The story of this school can be found in The War Schools of Dobrinja by David M. Berman (Caddo Gap Press). That this school is confidently experiencing a multicultural healing is cause for hope. That its teachers are looking to the future is cause for optimism. That WCCES can hold its conference in this milieu is cause for double optimism.