Integrated Education in Conflicted Societies: Is There a Need for New Theoretical Language?

Abstract

This article takes on the issue of ‘integrated education’ in conflicted societies and engages in a deeper analysis of its dominant theoretical concepts, approaches, and implications. This analysis suggests that the theoretical language that drives current approaches of integrated education may unintentionally be complicit to the project of hegemony and status quo, thus preventing social transformation towards shared and just societies. As the article discusses, present research on integrated education in conflicted societies — not only in the European context, but also around the world — suggests that the main theoretical traditions which seem to justify integration in the education sphere are those of social cohesion, contact hypothesis, and acculturation theory. The article analyses these traditions theoretically and looks at some of their empirical results in conflicted societies, highlighting the problematic implications of the language that essentialises group identities. In the process to find an alternative theoretical language, the ideas of Judith Butler and Julia Kristeva are used to reconsider integrated education along the lines of a renewed theorisation of the notion of ‘critical multiculturalism’.