Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the political instrumentalization of formal education as an aspect of the “global education crisis”. Using contemporary Uganda as an example, it illustrates how classrooms can be restricted sites of ideological instruction and spaces of vibrant political debate at the same time.

Paper long abstract:

In discourses on the "global education crisis", education is often discussed in terms of infrastructure, access or inclusion. However, when looking at education in postcolonial contexts, it is not only crucial to consider existing problems of inequality and underfunding, but also the implications of the fact that formal education systems were colonially designed and often continue to serve as a tool to consolidate specific structures of domination. This paper explores this aspect through the case study of Uganda. The starting point of my analysis is the currently dwindling power of the Museveni regime’s central legitimization narrative, which portrays long-term president Yoweri Museveni’s seizure of power in 1986 as a pivotal moment in Ugandan history and an act of national liberation. Among young people, however, this story finds little resonance, as it lacks an affective connection to their lives. One of the spaces in which the regime is trying to reach Ugandan youth and re-stabilize the discursive hegemony of its interpretation of the past and present are history classes in schools and universities. Yet at the same time, Uganda's ruling elite seems increasingly wary about the critical autonomous power of humanities subjects such as history – and with good reason, I argue. Drawing on 12 months of ethnographic research in Ugandan educational institutions, I show how instead of simply accepting the limitations of the history curriculum, students and teachers actively engage with and even challenge them, making classrooms both sites of ideological instruction and spaces of vibrant political contestation.