Imagining Somaliland

In 2017, Somaliland published a new textbook on civic education for secondary school students. Although this textbook was released as part of a Somali-wide curriculum consolidation process, Somaliland retained the right in this process to develop its own education policy; their framework referred to Somaliland as a nation state, without integrating its education within any broader state system (the Republic of Somaliland, 2017).

One of the stated goals of the new curriculum was to promote a 'national consciousness and unity in the minds of children at an early age and enhancement of a spirit of patriotism for Somaliland as well as a desire for its sustained integration, stability and prosperity' (Ibid). Another goal was to assist the Somaliland people to develop 'skills and attitudes which foster the growth of social justice, responsibility and the value and virtues of peace'.

This research saw a need to understand the degree to which these goals of nationalism and peacebuilding were compatible within a wider Somali educational context, and investigated this question through interviews with teachers, teacher trainers, Ministry of Education staff, students, and journalists.

The project aimed to investigate the degree to which peaceful citizenship values underpinned the new curriculum, and the potential for that content to be accepted, based on the extent to which dominant public discourses, elite perspectives, media and media producers transmitted compatible values of peacebuilding and citizenship

• Dr Alexandra Lewis, UCL Institute of Education

• Dr Idil Osman, SOAS, University of London