Losing ground: a critical analysis of teachers’ agency for peacebuilding education in Sri Lanka

Abstract

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.

Keywords:

• Sri Lanka
• teacher agency
• peacebuilding education
• critical analysis

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank our respondents in Sri Lanka, and all the organisations and schools we visited for their time, their views and their great hospitality. We also appreciated the helpful commentary received while presenting earlier version of this paper during the CERES Summer School organised in August 2012 at the University of Amsterdam, at the International Development Dialogue Conference at the Institute of Social Sciences, The Hague, in October 2012 and at the ‘Education and Fragility Symposium’, Science Po, UNESCO and INEE, April 2013.