Genocide education in Cambodia
Creators: name: Dy, Khamboly
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2015

description: The content and pedagogy of genocide education in Cambodia has been effectively connected to the changing patterns of the country’s political regimes. This relationship clearly demonstrates the link between history, politics and pedagogical practices in schools. Not only do history and national politics shape the way the Cambodian genocide is taught, but the teaching is also influenced by the flows of global education philosophies in general and certain segments of global genocide education ideas and strategies in particular.   This dissertation primarily asks two core questions: In what ways do history and national political changes determine the ways Cambodia teaches about the genocide? In what way does Cambodian genocide education adopt and adapt global genocide education practices? Responding to these two primary questions, the dissertation examines how history and political changes in Cambodia bring about the changes in the statuses of its genocide education. Further, the dissertation explores the local initiatives and global connections that help in mainstreaming Cambodian genocide education. From this perspective, the dissertation examines how global genocide education practices have manifested, vernacularized, transmitted and circulated into the context of Cambodia.   The dissertation argues that the prevailing national political developments have constrained, or at certain junctures dictated, the content of Cambodian genocide education: the way teachers convey messages in the classrooms; the choices of historical content; the methods used to teach about the genocide; and the way people view, discuss and debate the Khmer Rouge (KR) period. Based on the theory of vernacularization developed by Peggy Levitt and Sally Merry, the dissertation further argues that global genocide education practices find their way into Cambodia and influence and intersect with local genocide education initiatives through a vernacularization process in which global ideas and strategies are translated, appropriated and harmonized with the local context and culture. These intertwined global-local genocide education practices provide overall parameters for the approach to be taken and are applied to a variety of relevant teaching models and materials that enrich the existing local genocide education content.   Theoretically, the dissertation research contributes to an understanding of global genocide education in general and Cambodian experiences in particular, as well as to an understanding of how globalization and localization function in this important area of education. In particular, the dissertation contributes to an understanding of how and why certain dominant global genocide education practices have arisen in genocide education efforts around the globe; how and why these dominant global practices have affected genocide education in post-conflict Cambodia; and how and why local Cambodian initiatives have adopted, modified and reconciled those dominant global genocide education practices to adapt to the local educational contexts and the local country conditions. It also shows how the choice to adopt particular features of prevailing dominant global practices has great consequences for the local genocide education programs and their social impacts.  The dissertation uses multiple research methods including qualitative study (semi-structured interviews), archival research, secondary research, and classroom observations in order to provide both comprehensive and in-depth analyses.