To read this content please select one of the options below:

When intolerance means more than prejudice: Challenges to Lithuanian education reforms for social tolerance

Post-Socialism is not Dead: (Re)Reading the Global in Comparative Education

ISBN: 978-0-85724-417-8, eISBN: 978-0-85724-418-5

Publication date: 13 December 2010

Abstract

In 1991 Lithuania reclaimed its independence from the Soviet Union and subsequently enlisted its education system as a tool for imparting the democratic skills and worldviews necessary for EU accession. However, the internalization of new democratic norms proved to be more complicated than the unidirectional transmission expected by many elites, as students, parents, and politicians played a part in the way that educational reforms were understood, implemented, embodied, and even resisted. Although tolerance education was initially included in Lithuanian reforms with little fanfare, there has been an increasingly visible backlash against it, as some now see its existence as an encroachment on the right of “Lithuanians” to develop a strong national identity after 60 years of occupation. By analyzing key educational policies in Lithuania, as well as international barometers for social tolerance, this chapter finds that the embrace of intolerance by many individuals and elites in Lithuania is not just a proclivity for prejudice, but a tool for challenging the boundaries of EU expectations to define the values and norms of an independent nation-state.

Keywords

Citation

Beresniova, C. (2010), "When intolerance means more than prejudice: Challenges to Lithuanian education reforms for social tolerance", Silova, I. (Ed.) Post-Socialism is not Dead: (Re)Reading the Global in Comparative Education (International Perspectives on Education and Society, Vol. 14), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 247-269. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-3679(2010)0000014012

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2010, Emerald Group Publishing Limited