Peace education in the present: dismantling and reconstructing some fundamental theoretical premises

Abstract

In this article, we sort through various fundamental premises about peace education to figure out how those premises operate to normalize particular meanings for peace, conflict, education, and other related concepts. We argue that peace education may often become part of the problem it tries to solve, if theoretical work is not used to interrogate the taken for granted assumptions about peace and peace education. For this purpose, we make explicit our own proposition of critical peace education through explicating the openings that are created by putting forward some alternative premises about peace, educational reform, and schooling. In particular, we put forward a proposition consisting of four elements aiming to reclaim criticality in peace education: reinstating the materiality of things and practices; reontologizing research and practice in peace education; becoming critical experts of design; and engaging in critical cultural analysis.

Keywords:

• critical peace education
• critical experts of design
• educational reform
• critical cultural analysis