(2018). Teacher Glenn: How a Political Scientist Educated a Peace Researcher. Journal of Peace Education, v15 n3 p255-266. This paper argues that the nonkilling political scientist Glenn D. Paige could be seen as an extraordinary peace educator. It will be organized through three words — reading, writing and talisman. It begins with a brief discussion of the method used in understanding political scientist Glenn D. Paige's life as a teacher. Then, the author's 'reading' and 'writing' experiences, from taking courses with him, and writing a PhD dissertation under him, will be examined. The way in which political science education could perhaps be considered a form of peace education will be discussed. The concluding section on 'talisman' advances Paige's central idea of politics in terms of making decisions, especially to choose alternatives which could mitigate the killing effects and enhance nonkilling possibilities…. [Direct]
(2020). Analysis of Popular Educational Manga on World War II for Students in Japan. Journal of Peace Education, v17 n3 p241-262. This paper critically examines how three educational manga texts render the history of World War II for upper elementary, middle, and high school students in Japan. Informed by critical theory, the authors analyzed both linguistic (words) and nonlinguistic texts (illustrations) related to two major World War II events in juxtaposition, namely, the Nanjing Massacre and U.S. attacks on Japan in each book due to their historical significance. We focused on whose perspective(s) and voice(s) are represented or silenced, which events were emphasized or minimized, and which information was dismissed or even possibly altered. The results suggest the constructed nature of the historical manga because each presents a different version of the two historical events. The creators of each manga employed several techniques including the use of different elements of texts and illustrations to convey their perspectives and point of view to their readers. This research calls for sound pedagogical… [Direct]
(2017). Critical Encounters in a Middle School English Language Arts Classroom: Using Graphic Novels to Teach Critical Thinking & Reading for Peace Education. Multicultural Education, v25 n1 p22-28 Fall. Graphic novels, which tell real and fictional stories using a combination of words and images, are often sophisticated, and involve intriguing topics. There has been an increasing interest in teaching with graphic novels to promote literacy as one alternative to traditional literacy pedagogy (e.g., Gorman, 2003; Schwarz, 2002). A pedagogy of multiliteracies using graphic novels can enhance reading engagement and achievement, reinforcing students' senses of their identities as readers who are learners and thinkers (Guthrie, 2004). However, there is scant mention in pedagogical literature of how such multimodal texts can be used for fostering students' critical thinking and reading skills for peace education. This article provides a case study of why and how middle school English Language Arts (ELA) teachers can teach critical reading and thinking in ways which promote education for peace and social justice. The author particularly focuses on the use of graphic novels to teach aspects… [PDF]
(2021). Teachers Talk about War and Peace. Curriculum and Teaching Dialogue, v23 n1-2 p37-56. This article reports an interview study focused on teacher beliefs about war, peace, and education. We use a conceptual framework that calls attention to the social and psychological factors that contribute to the meanings of war and peace. Data are presented in three composite cases to convey the range of beliefs and perspectives expressed by our participants. We also discuss themes drawn from across the cases, including the relationships of war and peace to understandings of patriotism, military service, gender, and religion. Finally, we discuss the study's implications through examples of war and peace as potential curriculum content…. [Direct]
(2018). History Education in Schools in Iraqi Kurdistan: Representing Values of Peace and Violence. Journal of Peace Education, v15 n1 p48-75. The Kurdistan Regional Government has implemented a wide range of reforms in Iraqi Kurdistan's education system since its establishment in 2003. This qualitative study utilises critical discourse analysis to investigate the content of History Education (HE) textbooks (grades five to eight) and to assess how far peace education values and principles have been integrated into the curriculum. The ME's top-down approach has faced significant resistance from teachers and it fails to consider the importance of hidden and null curricula. It focuses on the history of Iraq, Kurdistan, and Islam, glorifies war, excludes different narratives or interpretations, and fails to foster critical debate or enquiry. The curriculum appears to encourage violence and foster divisions between Muslims and non-Muslims, and the null curriculum is regulated to maintain the dominance of the group in power…. [Direct]
(2016). The Everyday Peace Project: An Innovative Approach to Peace Pedagogy. Journal of Peace Education, v13 n1 p79-104. A critical task for peace pedagogy is to challenge views of peace as primarily responses to declared war. Crisis-based politics tend to focus on exceptional situations and fail to capture the entire spectrum of violence. Premised on the idea that peace cannot be understood in isolation of larger structural problems, this paper proposes the concept of "everyday peace" as a framework for peace education. Drawing from a pedagogical initiative, we examine how students engage with the concept of everyday peace and present our findings in three related domains: (1) definition of everyday peace, (2) application of everyday peace principles and (3) role of collaboration in everyday peace approaches. Our analysis underscored two important themes in participants' definitions of everyday peace: (1) peace as a value-based praxis and (2) individual-level and systemic components of everyday peace. Applying these principles to a violent event in the local community, participant responses… [Direct]
(2016). Multiculturalism and Peace Studies for Education Provision in Time of Diverse Democracies. Bulgarian Comparative Education Society, Paper presented at the Annual International Conference of the Bulgarian Comparative Education Society (14th, Sofia, Bulgaria, Jun 14-17, 2016). The aim of the study is to examine how multiculturalism and peace studies have been viewed in Brazilian and North American literature as gleaned both from Brazilian research studies and articles presented at Peace Education Special Interest Group (SIG) in American Education Research Association (AERA), within the scope of 2010-2014, which concludes that multiculturalism and peace studies may offer groundbreaking venues to promote education provision to every one, civilian and military students together with reforms in higher education. [For the complete Volume 14, Number 1 proceedings, see ED568088.]… [PDF]
(2015). Losing Ground: A Critical Analysis of Teachers' Agency for Peacebuilding Education in Sri Lanka. Journal of Peace Education, v12 n1 p56-73. This paper aims to explore the "agency" of teachers for peacebuilding education in Sri Lanka through a critical multiscalar analysis of the interplay between "context"–education policies and governance–and "agent"–teachers as strategic political actors. It draws on two studies conducted in Sri Lanka in 2006 and 2011 to give insight into a changing context from conflict to post-conflict. While peace education and social cohesion were high on the political agendas before the official ending of the conflict, the need for a continuous and integral peace education approach seems to be losing political ground in present-day Sri Lanka. The paper seeks to contribute to the broader debate on the complex role of education and teachers in conflict and post-conflict situations…. [Direct]
(2021). Education at the Intersection of Conflict and Peace: The Inclusion and Framing of Education Provisions in African Peace Agreements from 1975-2017. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, v51 n3 p375-395. International actors have called for greater inclusion of education provisions in peace agreements given the important symbolic and practical roles peace agreements play post-conflict. Yet, the inclusion, framing, and roles of education in peace agreements remain understudied. This paper investigates the trends in education's inclusion in African peace agreements from 1975-2017. We provide a descriptive quantitative analysis of education trends over time, test several hypotheses that may explain these trends, and apply these findings to a qualitative case study in Burundi to illustrate key factors in implementation. We find that education is present in 46% of agreements, that the presence of international actors and disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration provisions increases the likelihood of inclusion, and that educational structure and content clauses are equally likely to be included. These findings have implications for international education practise and forward a… [Direct]
(2024). The Politics and Pitfalls of Academic Enthusiasm in Peace Building: Examining Researchers' Role in a Rural Education Development Project in Colombia. Globalisation, Societies and Education, v22 n3 p489-504. This article is an effort to unveil how colonialism gets inscribed in research education initiatives during peace-building. To this end, we look behind the scenes of an education development project that sought to support a rural school in consolidating high-quality education during Colombia's recent peace process. We examine how, in our roles as principal investigator and research assistant, our enthusiasm inadvertently contributed to perpetuating the colonial rule of the state in an area traditionally controlled by revolutionary groups. To do so, we follow the project from its design and negotiation to the delivery of results. By depicting how enthusiasm may shape a researcher's reasoning, we aim to complicate our understanding of the research process and the enthusiasm that underpins peace efforts…. [Direct]
(2018). Teachers' Perspectives on Educating for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Journal of Peace Education, v15 n2 p144-168. What does it mean to educate for peace after witnessing one's community being devastated by war? And what impact, if any, does educating for peace have amidst the complexity of post-war reconstruction? To explore these questions, a phenomenological study was conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2012 with eight ethnically diverse educators who participated in a programme of Education for Peace (EFP) which began a decade earlier in the cities of Sarajevo, Mostar, Banja Luka and Zenica. Through semi-structured interviews, the study (1) explores meanings and experiences associated by participants with their role as post-conflict peace educators, (2) examines the extent and limits of their sense of peacebuilding agency and (3) elicits evaluations of the longer term impacts of educating for peace in the Bosnian context. The study finds that meanings associated with educating for peace are nuanced by educators' personal histories of conflict, professional identities and the country's… [Direct]
(2013). Doing "Leftist Propaganda" or Working towards Peace? Moving Greek-Cypriot Peace Education Struggles beyond Local Political Complexities. Journal of Peace Education, v10 n1 p67-87. This paper investigates the interference of local politics with a peace education initiative in Greek-Cypriot education and the consequent impact on teachers' perceptions and responses. Focusing on a recent educational attempt to promote "peaceful coexistence", the authors explain how this attempt was seen by many teachers as being a part of a local leftist agenda and was therefore often rejected. When though the same initiative was positioned–through a series of teacher training seminars organised by the authors–within the global field of "peace education", and was grounded in humanistic ideals, the teachers appeared much more comfortable to engage with it. Taking the local political complexities into consideration, the authors argue that despite the existing thorough critiques of the humanistic discourse of peace education, a seemingly "neutral" humanistic discourse of peace education can be legitimised on the basis of two arguments: first, a… [Direct]
(2013). Toward a Critical Peace Education for Sustainability. Journal of Peace Education, v10 n3 p242-258. This article proposes the need for peace education as a field to embrace critical power analysis of place in efforts toward social and environmental sustainability. Rather than status quo reproduction, a critical peace education for sustainability should both elucidate and transform the power dynamics inherent in structural violence and cultural violence. The inherent rights of people, plants, and ecosystems to live with dignity and to prosper are proposed. Practically speaking, the article offers perspectives from a critical pedagogy of place and an earth connections curriculum unit as vehicles for transformative education…. [Direct]
(2019). Israeli Teachers Make Sense of Global Citizenship Education In a Divided Society–Religion, Marginalisation and Economic Globalisation. Comparative Education, v55 n2 p243-263. Global citizenship education (GCE) has recently been promoted by national education systems and supranational organisations as a means for facilitating social cohesion and peace education. We examined the perceptions of GCE held by teachers from the three main education sectors in Israel: secular-Jewish, religious-Jewish, and Palestinian Arab, and found stark differences in the way teachers from each sector interpreted the term. For marginalised groups (Palestinian Arab), GCE is seen as offering a way of securing a sense of belonging to a global society. For already well-resourced social groups (Jewish secular), GCE is viewed as a way of promoting global futures. Meanwhile, for the Jewish religious minority in Israel, GCE is seen as a threat to national identity and religious values. Our findings cast doubt on the unifying potential of GCE, and we conclude by calling upon scholars and policymakers to examine unique obstacles facing GCE in their various contexts…. [Direct]
(2017). Understanding Sierra Leonean and Liberian Teachers' Views on Discussing Past Wars in Their Classrooms. Comparative Education, v53 n3 p418-441. Various curricular and textbook initiatives exist to aid in the national processes of coming to terms with past violence, often serving the political goals of the victors, sometimes supported by international transitional justice institutions. Sierra Leone and Liberia each experienced a devastating civil war during the 1990s and into the 2000s, and each is struggling to rebuild shattered education systems. In addition, each country has experienced a set of post-conflict transitional justice initiatives: Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in each, and a Special Court for Sierra Leone. Although their respective ministries of education have attempted to address peace education through UNICEF-sponsored curriculum revision processes, those efforts have not yet reached the majority of serving teachers, so a discussion of teachers' actual practices is vital. This article uses interviews with teachers in rural and urban Sierra Leone and Liberia to discuss whether and how teachers talk… [Direct]