Territorial peace education as responsive praxis: case analysis of education innovations in Colombia

ABSTRACT

This article explores responsiveness in peace education practice. It develops the concept of territorial peace education to emphasize the situated nature of responsive approaches in peacebuilding. With this conceptual framing, the study examines four case studies of pedagogical innovations for peace in Colombia. It describes how educators engaged specific and emergent conflict dynamics in their respective settings. The findings show the various ways in which territorial dimensions informed the design and implementation of these initiatives. They also highlight the role of relationality, resourcefulness and positionality as components of responsive practice. This study contributes to research on the role of the local in peace education and raises avenues for further research.

KEYWORDS:

• Peace education
• responsive design
• territorial peace
• Colombia
• Context-specific approaches

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The incumbent administration, led by President Gustavo Petro, centered ‘Paz total’ (total peace) in its national plan of action. This political platform, recently formalized into law, represents an important renewal for peacebuilding in Colombia. Yet, there are many conditions that temper expectations, including ongoing political polarization, a volatile economy, and the persistence of incidents of direct violence across the country.

2. This territorial variation is made evident in the recent Informe final de la Comisión para el esclarecimiento de la verdad, la convivencia y la no-repetición (Final report of the Colombian Truth Commission), released in June 2022, which included a set of volumes dedicated to territorial analyses of the Colombian armed conflict. For further detail, see https://www.comisiondelaverdad.co/colombia-adentro.

3. For further detail regarding the broader study, see Cifuentes and Aguilar Forero, forthcoming. The authors of the present chapter were part of the research team that implemented the broader study.

4. For further detail regarding these techniques, see Agudelo López et al. 2020.

5. Throughout the article, we use pseudonyms for all student names to safeguard confidentiality.

6. An important consideration here is that this study was not conducted under confidentiality, for teachers due to the public nature of publishing the systematizations-with their authorship. For future studies, confidential research would likely be better suited to examining how teachers relate to armed actors in their territories.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the Colombian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

Notes on contributors

Angie Benavides Castro

Angie Benavides Castro is an academic coordinator of Open Programs (Executive Education) in the School of Management at the University of los Andes. Previously, she worked as a junior researcher for the Educational Innovations for Peace study. She has an undergraduate degree in Social Communications and a Masters in Education. Her main interests are in educational research and peacebuilding.

Maria Jose Bermeo

Maria Jose Bermeo is an assistant professor in the School of Education of the University of los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. Her research and teaching interests focus on education policy and practice in settings affected by armed conflict and criminal governance, with special attention to teacher agency and wellbeing. She holds a Ed.D and Ed.M. in Comparative and International Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a M.A. in International Relations from St Andrews University.