Barbara Magalhaes Teixeira
Doctoral Student
Re-Imagining Peace Education: Using Critical Pedagogy as a Transformative Tool
Author
Summary, in English
Existing studies demonstrate that although peace and conflict studies (PCS) emerged from a deep connection between political activism and research, the field has increasingly moved toward promoting liberal ideals of peace that sustain the status quo. Amidst this trend, many scholars have pushed research and education programs to explore beyond a hegemonic liberal peace, for example by diversifying reading lists and drawing on decolonial frameworks. This paper adds to such efforts: through the case study of a higher education PCS classroom, we use narratives from two course conveners and a student to explore challenges and opportunities of realizing a critical pedagogy approach to peace education. This approach recenters the classroom not necessarily in terms of what students ought to think, but how; critical theory provides a basis for fostering curiosity, using query as a tool of learning, and focusing class structure on students’ needs. Our findings suggest that using critical pedagogy in PCS addresses calls for a greater understanding of peace beyond the absence of violence, fosters active envisioning of peace, and works toward decolonizing and demystifying peace work. Ultimately, we call for PCS classrooms to foster critical thinking and radical imagination for a pedagogy of peace praxis.
Department/s
- Department of Political Science
Publishing year
2023-11-09
Language
English
Publication/Series
International Studies Perspectives
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
Topic
- Educational Sciences
- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
Keywords
- Critical pedagogy
- Peace
- Education
Status
Epub
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1528-3577