(1524) THE ROLE OF EDUCATION FOR IDENTITY FORMATION AMONG ALBANIANS AND SERBS OF KOSOVO

摘要

As a result of striving accession to the EU, all states in southeast Europe have as precondition tosolve inter ethnic conflicts and to balance the system in a way that makes the relations betweendominant group and minorities one of the mutual respect, based upon the principle of nondiscrimination. In Western Balkans some of the most controversial issues in the past decade haverevolved around the educational rights. The fragile society of Kosovo faces many challenges, and thesystem of education is just one of them. The ongoing dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo andpainful process of state building often overshadows important educational issues. The educationalsystem of Kosovo is segregated, extremely divisive and highly politicized.It is widely accepted that education has strong impact on individual's identity formation. In this contextethnicity, nationality and citizenship constitute just a few of the possible identities within the individual'sself-conception being the most relevant to the relationship between citizen and the state. In theanalyses of the theoretical foundations of multiculturalism the role of education in a culturally diversesociety is very important for identity formation based on the concept of the citizenship as identity.By constitution Kosovo is a multicultural society but the meanings and expressions of this arecontested both within the dominant Albanian majority and Serbian minority. Conceivingcomprehensive discussions if Albanians and Serbs of Kosovo in the future could potentially accept toidentify themselves through the citizenship of the new state before their ethnic and national basedidentities (cross linked with Albania respectively Serbia), it is a broad topic and beyond the scope ofthis paper, but for the purpose of this study the concept of the citizenship as identity is considered onlyin a narrower context - that of the role of education in identity formation.