![Sample our Education journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5932/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Education.jpg"})
Abstract
Research on peacebuilding has mushroomed over the last decade and there is a growing interest in the role of education in supporting peacebuilding processes. This paper engages with these debates, UN peacebuilding activities and the location of education initiatives therein, through a case study of Sierra Leone. In the first part, we explore the complex and multi-dimensional nature of violence in post-conflict Sierra Leone. In the second, we critically address the role of education in the conflict and post-conflict period, highlighting education’s centrality as a catalyst to conflict, and then reflect on the failure of the post-conflict reconstruction process to adequately transform the education system into one that could support a process of sustainable peacebuilding. Finally, we conclude by exploring the ways that greater investment and focus, both financial and human, in the education sector might, in the long term, better contribute to a sustainable and socially just peace.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their sincerest thanks to participants at the BAICE 2014 conference, where a version of this article was presented. We would also like to thank Dr Brent Edwards Jr, Drexel University, for reviewing in detail an earlier version of this article. Finally, we would like to express our thanks to the two peer reviewers whose inciteful comments and critique helped to transform the article.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
