Symposium: Curriculum and Civil Society in Afghanistan

Although research has traditionally discussed the ways in which societies in conflict develop educational practices, only recently have scholars begun to examine the role of education in creating or sustaining conflict. In Afghanistan, changing regimes have had an impact on state-sanctioned curricula over the past fifty years, drastically altering the purpose and ideology of education. In this article, Adele Jones traces the changing nature of Afghan curricula since the 1960s, highlighting the conflict surrounding curricula during the Soviet regime. She posits that resistance to state-sanctioned curricula was seen as resistance to the state regime, often putting schools at the center of conflict. This continues today, as Taliban groups resist the Western-influenced curricula of modern Afghanistan. Jones argues that understanding this cycle of resistance is critical for Western agencies aiming to support educational efforts in the country.

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Adele M. E. Jones is a professional educator with twenty-five years of international development experience. She has worked at universities in Australia, the South Pacific, Asia, and the Middle East and is now a research associate at Arnold Bergstraesser Institute for Socio-Cultural Research, Freiburg University, Germany. From 2004 to 2007 she worked in Afghanistan, heading the Aga Khan Foundation education program and evaluating the German Technical Cooperation education program. Her research areas include educational planning, management and teacher training, community participation, conflict, and education. She has published a number of journal articles on Afghanistan; a book on education in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan, Educational Planning in a Frontier Zone (1993); and a collection of poems, Afghanistan—waiting for the bus (2007).