Peacebuilding through Pre-school Education and Media Programmes in Macedonia

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter presents the findings from Macedonia. It sketches the contextual background around interethnic relations and educational segregation to explore the role of early years’ educational interventions in managing intergroup conflict. The chapter then analyses the tensions between the donor emphasis on integrated education, as reflected in national policies, and the reality of monolingual instruction following the Ohrid framework agreement (2001). The implementation of the Mozaik bilingual immersion groups and the various regional and national media projects by the Macedonia country office are analysed next. The story of the adaptation and institutionalization of the Mozaik groups into the national pre-school curriculum offers critical insights for understanding the benefits and drawbacks of institutionalization in the area of peace education. The chapter concludes with some noteworthy findings around norm resonance and retention, and their interaction with social capital dynamics in shaping long-term attitude change among children and young people.