Education in Kurdistan Region at the Intersection of Nationalism and Democracy

This dissertation studies the condition of formal education in Kurdistan Region-Iraq by taking a critical theoretical approach to examine major educational policy documents in both K-12 and higher education. The critical examination of the documents reveals major policy frameworks, which are related to the Kurdish nationalist agenda of establishing a nation-state. These policy frameworks in education are: Kurdish nationalism, democratization and bureaucratization. Analyzing the documents reveals the intricate relationship among these policy frameworks in forming the overall national agenda of state building of Kurdistan Regional Government, as well as their relationship with developing and perpetuating various educational issues in Kurdistan Region. By analyzing the documents through a critical democratic lens, I elaborate on the ways in which Kurdish ethno-nationalism, a titular, rhetorical and institution- and market-friendly notion of democracy, and an overriding, top-down bureaucratization, all within the political context of establishing a Kurdish nation-state for the past 25 years, have rendered a non-democratic, socially unjust and oppressive educational system. The main argument in this dissertation concerns presenting a transformative democratic framework in education as an alternative to the current pervasive nationalist paradigm. Rather than framing education and society within the paradigm of Kurdish ethno-nationalism, which depends on the exercise of power, hegemony, violence and indoctrination within the parameters of a modern nation-state, the transformative democratic framework, which promotes democratic relationships based on substantive moral values, such as equity, inclusion, empathy and human relatedness, can become the basis for establishing a more equitable and just society in Kurdistan Region.Ph.D