Research places spotlight on peace education in Kenya
Solvor Mjøberg Lauritzen While studying towards a PhD with the Institute for Effective Education at York, Solvor Mjøberg Lauritzen spent five months in Kenya working as an intern for the UNICEF country office.
Her PhD thesis on Building a Culture of Peace: Peace Education in Kenyan Primary Schools investigated the role of education in peace building in Kenya following the 2007/08 post-election violence.
Solvor (28), from Norway, says: “I would have loved to say that Kenya was solely a good experience, but it was also rough. Doing research in traumatised, poor neighbourhoods exposed me to so much evil and hopelessness. As I was there for five months I got close to the communities I was working in, making it even harder to witness the situations the children and communities were in.
“I was there digging into the traumatised history of the country and I like to think that I got to the truth: a very ugly truth of how colonialism, poverty and war can destroy communities. But also a truth representing hope. I found a generation of children who wanted to build a Kenya with a more stable democracy. And I found teachers who were dedicated to teaching the children what they needed in order to do so. I found high-level stakeholders - Ministry of Education, UNESCO, UNICEF - who were working to aid the teachers in carrying out this task. My research was therefore very much about transformation – about moving from darkness to light.”
Solvor in a school in Kenya
Solvor’s analysis played a central role in UNICEF’s evaluation of the peace building programme being implemented in all primary schools by the Ministry of Education. Her study found that education can indeed build peace, and that the Kenyan peace education programme can play a role in this.
Solvor’s time at York began with a one-term exchange from Norway as a 19-year-old undergraduate. She then returned to York to do an MA in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) with the Department of Education, followed by her PhD.
She says: “I loved York from when I first arrived as an undergraduate student. One thing I particularly enjoyed was meeting people from all around the world. I now have friends from China, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Mexico and Sri Lanka to mention a few. I feel extremely privileged to have been allowed such connections and the friendships have really broadened my perspectives. This has also influenced my academic perspective. Doing my PhD with the Institute for Effective Education was also a privilege, as I was allowed to work with experts in their fields.”
Since finishing her PhD, she has worked as a Lecturer at Telemark University College in Norway in the Department of Teacher Education. From August she will take on a new role with the Department of Social Sciences at the Norwegian School of Theology in Oslo where she will continue her research into peace education.
Solvor graduated with a PhD in Education on 16 July. Six of her closest relatives flew out from Norway to attend the ceremony.