Child soldiers have received increasing attention over the last 20 years. The phenomenon does not occur as isolated aberrations but is interwoven in complex economic, political, religious and ideological conflicts (Drumbl, 2012; Wessells, 2006). These conflicts often appear to relate to what Huntington (Huntington, 1996a) described as a clash of civilisations, although analysts have tended subsequently to emphasise a clash of cultures (e.g. (Hauk and Mueller, 2015; Malitza, 2000). In effect, international culture wars see boys and girls entangled in a wide variety of roles from active combatants to auxiliaries. Nonetheless, while child soldiering is global, local occurrences are embedded in place, in systematic and complex processes of recruitment and induction within particular social structures and cultures (Honwana, 2006).

The phenomenon of child soldiers provides a metaphor for the role of pupils in ‘developing' country classrooms who are cast in the frontline of the culture wars implicit in progressive educational reforms that project a worldview which often runs counter to local educational cultures. This commentary will use this perspective to explore some traps through which comparative education studies of classroom reform can become intellectually caged by culture-bound value judgements embedded in cultural imperialism.

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