GCRF Development award: Contextualising Peace Education
Lead Research Organisation:
The Open University
Department Name: Faculty of Arts and Social Sci (FASS)
Abstract
This project uses storytelling as method to further a contextually sensitive understandings of everyday gendered peace in two countries facing conflict: Nigeria and Zimbabwe. The project has two foci: networking and contextualising peace.
Networking: First, we focus on fostering partnerships and knowledge exchange between civil society organisation (NGOs, INGOs, research centres, arts organisations), local communities, government bodies and schools, including higher education; between local, national and international peace workers and educators and across countries to identify best practice in peace education. We will begin with networking meetings and early engagement workshops to deepen our engagement with stakeholders in each country and critically review the current local peace and intervention practices in Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Secondly, we will carry out three storytelling workshops in each country to explore how community based practices of peace are understood, created and inherited. The stories will be used to produce educational resources for peace education that we will trial in Global South and North. These 2 'proof of concept' projects will, later on, be connected across the network and compared through an international networking meeting in Nigeria and a local meeting in Zimbabwe to broaden knowledge about local peace building and to strengthen teaching materials. We will evaluate the networking methodology through interviews with stakeholders and with the community.
Contextualising peace: The project particularly highlights the importance of understanding locally embedded peace practices. This contextualisation is essential to creating resources for learning materials that can disrupt hegemonic narratives of peace and to reverse the knowledge transfer from north to south. Peace can sometimes be seen as a Eurocentric project with the underlying knowledge and methods for peace arising from the West. There are, nevertheless, local meanings and mechanisms for peace but they are overlooked in peace education although demands to address this lacuna are growing. This is part of a wider trend to use African concepts and knowledge in teaching there, and thus to decolonise education. However, there has been no attempt to systematically collate, compare, evaluate and draw out lessons from these existing peace practices or to see how these can be incorporated into peace education. Likewise, there have also been limited initiatives to investigate gendered constructions of peace from a decolonial perspective. This project addresses these two gaps. The overall aim of the proposed research is to understand: a. what are the different meanings and mechanisms attached to peace, with particular attention to gender differences in creating everyday peace in our 2 case study countries - Nigeria and Zimbabwe; b. how can these practices be connected and compared across countries to create peace education content and mode of delivery in Higher Education in order to decolonise peace education? In responding to these questions, we will use the arts-based methods of storytelling to unearth the locally embedded stories and meaning of peace. Building on our previous funded projects, this network will offer an intersectional analysis of gender, religion and ethnicity to explore meanings of peace and how to embed this into peace in Higher Education through co- designing and co-producing two lesson plans and trialing it across the three countries: Nigeria, UK and Zimbabwe. We will later on collate the feedback from the students to assess the effectiveness of learning materials and make necessary improvements based on the experiences of student.
Networking: First, we focus on fostering partnerships and knowledge exchange between civil society organisation (NGOs, INGOs, research centres, arts organisations), local communities, government bodies and schools, including higher education; between local, national and international peace workers and educators and across countries to identify best practice in peace education. We will begin with networking meetings and early engagement workshops to deepen our engagement with stakeholders in each country and critically review the current local peace and intervention practices in Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Secondly, we will carry out three storytelling workshops in each country to explore how community based practices of peace are understood, created and inherited. The stories will be used to produce educational resources for peace education that we will trial in Global South and North. These 2 'proof of concept' projects will, later on, be connected across the network and compared through an international networking meeting in Nigeria and a local meeting in Zimbabwe to broaden knowledge about local peace building and to strengthen teaching materials. We will evaluate the networking methodology through interviews with stakeholders and with the community.
Contextualising peace: The project particularly highlights the importance of understanding locally embedded peace practices. This contextualisation is essential to creating resources for learning materials that can disrupt hegemonic narratives of peace and to reverse the knowledge transfer from north to south. Peace can sometimes be seen as a Eurocentric project with the underlying knowledge and methods for peace arising from the West. There are, nevertheless, local meanings and mechanisms for peace but they are overlooked in peace education although demands to address this lacuna are growing. This is part of a wider trend to use African concepts and knowledge in teaching there, and thus to decolonise education. However, there has been no attempt to systematically collate, compare, evaluate and draw out lessons from these existing peace practices or to see how these can be incorporated into peace education. Likewise, there have also been limited initiatives to investigate gendered constructions of peace from a decolonial perspective. This project addresses these two gaps. The overall aim of the proposed research is to understand: a. what are the different meanings and mechanisms attached to peace, with particular attention to gender differences in creating everyday peace in our 2 case study countries - Nigeria and Zimbabwe; b. how can these practices be connected and compared across countries to create peace education content and mode of delivery in Higher Education in order to decolonise peace education? In responding to these questions, we will use the arts-based methods of storytelling to unearth the locally embedded stories and meaning of peace. Building on our previous funded projects, this network will offer an intersectional analysis of gender, religion and ethnicity to explore meanings of peace and how to embed this into peace in Higher Education through co- designing and co-producing two lesson plans and trialing it across the three countries: Nigeria, UK and Zimbabwe. We will later on collate the feedback from the students to assess the effectiveness of learning materials and make necessary improvements based on the experiences of student.
Organisations
- The Open University (Lead Research Organisation)
- National Open University of Nigeria (Collaboration)
- Neem Foundation HQ (Collaboration)
- Association of Commonwealth Universities (Collaboration)
- University of Abuja (Collaboration)
- Sharing Prosperity Primary School (Collaboration)
- ILERA Community Health Initiative (Collaboration)
- Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (Collaboration)
Publications
Marovah T
(2023)
The Pedagogical Value of Museums in the Teaching and Learning of Secondary School History: A Historical Thinking Perspective
in The Social Studies
Marovah T
(2023)
Decolonising participatory research: can Ubuntu philosophy contribute something?
in International Journal of Social Research Methodology
Panganayi More
(2021)
Decolonizing peace education: Theoretical and methodological insights from Zimbabwe
| Description | The project in Nigeria worked to decolonise education for peace by exploring locally embedded meanings of peace through storytelling workshops in New Kuchinguro IDP camp Abuja. We adopted a decolonial participatory action community led approach when listening and collecting the stories of peace and the effects of displacement. We gave particular emphasis to the elders and women's voices in storytelling as they are often neglected. Storytelling was used as an informal learning platform and tool for intercultural and intergenerational learning. Adhering to contextual differences, the local knowledges of peace came from migrants from the North East of Nigeria displaced by Boko Haram. Two network, learning and engagement workshops were held with 20 organisations attending including, arts-based practitioners, civil society groups, national peace building organisations and academic institutions. These learning exchange meetings were an opportunity for the partners and NGOs in Nigeria to network with each other and learn from good practices. Through these events, we engaged with gender, peace and sectoral scholars to consider gender and intersectional conceptualisations of peace. Our storytelling workshops focused on a group of 25 elders. We provided a safe space for interaction enabling the elders to reflect upon the practices, memoirs and stories of peace and conflict embedded in their everyday lives. We have extended this engagement work to ensure the elders receive psycho-social counselling to support their mental health and manage their post traumatic stress. We have provided nutritional and healthcare support to ensure the elders were strong enough to participate in the session. Individual stories were collected in Glavda language and stored using digital audio recording (MP3) where interviewees permit (requested during the informed consent process). COVID 19 caused delays to the implementation of this work. |
| Exploitation Route | The outcomes from the Development Award have already had direct impacts on how the research activity is being conducted in the Main Award. This can be evidenced by how the Proof-of-Concept teams, particularly in Nigeria and Zimbabwe, are conducting their research activity because of their experiences from the Development Award. The Development Award enabled the teams to trial storytelling as a research methodology, but it quickly became apparent that, in some cases, the approach of storytelling could potentially retraumatise some participants and was thus halted. Alternative methodologies were explored with the participating communities, which resulted in the participants receiving mental health support and new groups being identified to participate in the research. The Development Award has also helped the teams discuss methodologies, such as storytelling, and share experiences to ensure that appropriate safeguarding measures are implemented and that the research is not extractive, but instead beneficial to the participants and their communities. This sharing of practices and experiences is occurring throughout the network, with the newly commissioned, Phase II projects also benefiting. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy Education |
| Description | It has led to exposure of local meanings of peace to both community organisations in Zimbabwe and Nigeria. It is also leading to increased collaboration between the NGO and academic sectors in both countries. It has drawn on and developed local community organisation work during COVID, working with teachers and health-workers to learn from them on how to institute meaningful change. The project enabled us to expand our academic and professional networks across the country with individuals, institutions such as CSOs, teacher education institutions as well as international organisations like UNESCO and the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU). |
| First Year Of Impact | 2000 |
| Sector | Education |
| Impact Types | Cultural Societal |
| Description | Embedding and Enabling Creative Economy in Marginalised Societies: Creative Skills for Peace |
| Amount | £133,492 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | AH/W006812/1 |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2021 |
| End | 01/2023 |
| Description | Commonwealth Peace and Reconciliation Challenge Grant |
| Organisation | Association of Commonwealth Universities |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Facilitated the transformative pedagogy workshop. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Sponsored the welfare of participants in a transformative pedagogy workshop. |
| Impact | Still ongoing |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Conceptualizing and Decolonizing Peace Education In Nigeria |
| Organisation | National Open University of Nigeria |
| Country | Nigeria |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | 1. PADEAP Nigeria, contributed by outlining their ongoing work with refugees based in Uganda and rural marginalised communities based in Katsina State, North west Nigeria. This also included discussing arts research methodologies including photovoice used with refugee communities in western Uganda. 2. Prof. Tijani organised a sensitisation meeting with faculty and staff of National Open University of Nigeria. 3. Prof. Tijani secure office space for PADEAP and the Research Assistant at National Open University of Nigeria, Abuja. 4. Prof. Tijani made available relevant reading materials such as books, articles, and research projects in the area of IDPs, Peace Education, Conflict Resolution, Security, etc. to NGO (PADEAP) and the Research assistant. 5. Prof. Tijani sometimes provides logistics support to PADEAP and RA. |
| Collaborator Contribution | 1. New Kuchinguro IDP camp, Abuja. Four meetings with camp leader/ women leaders, teachers, health workers to discuss the research and ongoing collaborative work in the IDP camp. 2. Durumi IDP camp, Abuja. Four meetings with camp leader/ women leaders, health workers in the IDP camp. 3. ILERA - Community Health Initiative is a holistic multidisciplinary organisation focusing on a Rights based approach to health highlighting the fundamental inequalities in access to health for Women and vulnerable communities in Nigeria. 4. Network Aid for humanitarian assistance (NAFHA) registered NGO, working with poor and underprivileged people, especially internally displaced persons (IDPs). Providing maternal and child health services, poverty alleviation, water and sanitation and mental health services. Currently working in Durumi IDP camp Abuja. 5. NEEM Foundation (Neem Foundation is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation founded as a direct response to the problem of insecurity in Nigeria. They are committed to improving the lives of those affected by the insurgency and preventing violence through building inclusive communities, providing and raising the standards of psychological services, and supporting conflict prevention and peacebuilding initiatives at the community level. |
| Impact | 1. Increased awareness of life stories as a method for hearing participants voices 2. Increased awareness of mental health among the IDPs 3. Permanent Community Health extension worker (CHEW) working between 2 IDP camps in Abuja 4. Multidisciplinary collaboration involving faculty in arts, economics, development studies, health sciences at National Open University of Nigeria |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Conceptualizing and Decolonizing Peace Education In Nigeria |
| Organisation | National Open University of Nigeria |
| Country | Nigeria |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | 1. PADEAP Nigeria, contributed by outlining their ongoing work with refugees based in Uganda and rural marginalised communities based in Katsina State, North west Nigeria. This also included discussing arts research methodologies including photovoice used with refugee communities in western Uganda. 2. Prof. Tijani organised a sensitisation meeting with faculty and staff of National Open University of Nigeria. 3. Prof. Tijani secure office space for PADEAP and the Research Assistant at National Open University of Nigeria, Abuja. 4. Prof. Tijani made available relevant reading materials such as books, articles, and research projects in the area of IDPs, Peace Education, Conflict Resolution, Security, etc. to NGO (PADEAP) and the Research assistant. 5. Prof. Tijani sometimes provides logistics support to PADEAP and RA. |
| Collaborator Contribution | 1. New Kuchinguro IDP camp, Abuja. Four meetings with camp leader/ women leaders, teachers, health workers to discuss the research and ongoing collaborative work in the IDP camp. 2. Durumi IDP camp, Abuja. Four meetings with camp leader/ women leaders, health workers in the IDP camp. 3. ILERA - Community Health Initiative is a holistic multidisciplinary organisation focusing on a Rights based approach to health highlighting the fundamental inequalities in access to health for Women and vulnerable communities in Nigeria. 4. Network Aid for humanitarian assistance (NAFHA) registered NGO, working with poor and underprivileged people, especially internally displaced persons (IDPs). Providing maternal and child health services, poverty alleviation, water and sanitation and mental health services. Currently working in Durumi IDP camp Abuja. 5. NEEM Foundation (Neem Foundation is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation founded as a direct response to the problem of insecurity in Nigeria. They are committed to improving the lives of those affected by the insurgency and preventing violence through building inclusive communities, providing and raising the standards of psychological services, and supporting conflict prevention and peacebuilding initiatives at the community level. |
| Impact | 1. Increased awareness of life stories as a method for hearing participants voices 2. Increased awareness of mental health among the IDPs 3. Permanent Community Health extension worker (CHEW) working between 2 IDP camps in Abuja 4. Multidisciplinary collaboration involving faculty in arts, economics, development studies, health sciences at National Open University of Nigeria |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Conceptualizing and Decolonizing Peace Education In Nigeria |
| Organisation | Neem Foundation HQ |
| Country | Nigeria |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | 1. PADEAP Nigeria, contributed by outlining their ongoing work with refugees based in Uganda and rural marginalised communities based in Katsina State, North west Nigeria. This also included discussing arts research methodologies including photovoice used with refugee communities in western Uganda. 2. Prof. Tijani organised a sensitisation meeting with faculty and staff of National Open University of Nigeria. 3. Prof. Tijani secure office space for PADEAP and the Research Assistant at National Open University of Nigeria, Abuja. 4. Prof. Tijani made available relevant reading materials such as books, articles, and research projects in the area of IDPs, Peace Education, Conflict Resolution, Security, etc. to NGO (PADEAP) and the Research assistant. 5. Prof. Tijani sometimes provides logistics support to PADEAP and RA. |
| Collaborator Contribution | 1. New Kuchinguro IDP camp, Abuja. Four meetings with camp leader/ women leaders, teachers, health workers to discuss the research and ongoing collaborative work in the IDP camp. 2. Durumi IDP camp, Abuja. Four meetings with camp leader/ women leaders, health workers in the IDP camp. 3. ILERA - Community Health Initiative is a holistic multidisciplinary organisation focusing on a Rights based approach to health highlighting the fundamental inequalities in access to health for Women and vulnerable communities in Nigeria. 4. Network Aid for humanitarian assistance (NAFHA) registered NGO, working with poor and underprivileged people, especially internally displaced persons (IDPs). Providing maternal and child health services, poverty alleviation, water and sanitation and mental health services. Currently working in Durumi IDP camp Abuja. 5. NEEM Foundation (Neem Foundation is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation founded as a direct response to the problem of insecurity in Nigeria. They are committed to improving the lives of those affected by the insurgency and preventing violence through building inclusive communities, providing and raising the standards of psychological services, and supporting conflict prevention and peacebuilding initiatives at the community level. |
| Impact | 1. Increased awareness of life stories as a method for hearing participants voices 2. Increased awareness of mental health among the IDPs 3. Permanent Community Health extension worker (CHEW) working between 2 IDP camps in Abuja 4. Multidisciplinary collaboration involving faculty in arts, economics, development studies, health sciences at National Open University of Nigeria |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Contextualising Peace Education in Collaboration with Zimbabwean NGOs |
| Organisation | Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace |
| Country | Zimbabwe |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Organised a sensitisation workshop with various organisations, academics and experts on peace. Identified the two NGOs that have experience in using storytelling in peacebuilding initiatives. Organising joint workshops with the NGOs. |
| Collaborator Contribution | 1. Zimbabwe Community Development Trust (ZCDT) is an NGO involved in peacebuilding activities in Gweru Rural. It identified groups and set up workshops with the participants. All the participants can be associated with the category of adult youth. The workshops involved research teams, peace animators and the political leadership of Chiwundura and Lower Gweru areas. In Chiwundura, ZCDT identified a group of young women as the focal group while in Lower Gweru young men were identified. These groups identified have participated in various other workshops and activities with the NGO. This facilitated easier penetration of the research area considering the polarized nature of communities chosen. 2. Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe (CCJP) in a non-governmental body involved in the provision of public/ civic education on the social teachings of the Church, human rights, good governance, justice, peace and participation of all, especially the poor and the marginalized to create a living environment that suits God's plan for the earth's creation. To achieve this, CCJPZ uses resident animators to gather information on practices, actions, decisions or traditions that undermine human rights, peace and justice for informed interventions and advocacy and lobby processes. CCJPZ identified the participants who included resident animators, religious leaders, teachers and political activists from both Silobela and Zhombe areas. In both Silobela and Zhombe, the participants included both the youth and the elderly and the composition of the participants was gender-balanced. This mixed bag nature of the participants helped in eliminating intergenerational conflict when it came to the identification of values within the two communities. By including teachers in the participants, CCJP promoted easier transition to the next stage of the project which entails co-analysis of the data transcripts and co-designing of the teaching materials. Apart from identifying participants, the two NGOs also facilitated interviews that tried to bring out the everyday local context and meanings of peace. CCJP also participated in the selection of 10 teachers that participated in the co-analysis of data transcripts and co-designing of teaching materials. In this phase, they facilitated the thematic identification of understandings of peace and conflict, the sources of conflict, values of peace and practices of conflict management. |
| Impact | This partnership has stimulated multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder collaboration by members from the Faculty of Applied Education, the Institute of Gender Studies and the Faculty of Humanities at the Midlands State University together with NGOs, peace practitioners, the State Security apparatus, the traditional leadership, the political leadership, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MOPSE) and its teachers. Data has been generated in the form of audios and transcripts of the audios. In the co-analysis and co-design phase, the teachers identified values of peace and started to embed them in their day-to-day teaching. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Education Plus project - PADEAP Nigeria (PN) Sharing Prosperity Primary school, New Kuchinguro (NK) IDP camp |
| Organisation | Sharing Prosperity Primary School |
| Country | Nigeria |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Education plus aims to ensure all children and young people living in Abuja based IDP camps have access to quality primary, secondary and post-secondary education and schooling. Sharing Prosperity (SP) Primary school is based in NK IDP and comprises of a small block of 5 classrooms and a few portacabins. SP primary school has 250 children enrolled from early years/ nursery to primary 5. The school has a team of 14 staff, including head teacher, assistant head teacher, 4 classroom teachers and 6 early years/ nursery to primary 5. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Education plus - success stories: o The education plus project has now provided a regular income to covering half the monthly teacher's salary o Primary 5 children have moved out of their cramped portacabin classroom into an outdoor spacious well ventilated temporary classroom. o Thanks to a private donor, Mrs C Wogu-Nzeako and sister Dr K Anyanwu, all children now receive a daily nutritious lunch during term time, they have pledged funds until the end of 2021. o The 'Book box' scheme - PADEAP Nigeria have purchased reading books to encourage reading in the classroom o Continuous professional development for teachers - Saturdays and school holidays o PADEAP Nigeria continues to run teacher training programmes, including classroom management, effective team building, living values education for teachers/ educators o Providing early school provision in NK o PADEAP Nigeria have provided tables and chairs, toys and playground equipment, drawing and musical equipment, training of teachers in the area of play work and storytelling |
| Impact | Education plus - success stories: o The education plus project has now provided a regular income to covering half the monthly teacher's salary o Primary 5 children have moved out of their cramped portacabin classroom into an outdoor spacious well ventilated temporary classroom. o Thanks to a private donor, Mrs C Wogu-Nzeako and sister Dr K Anyanwu, all children now receive a daily nutritious lunch during term time, they have pledged funds until the end of 2021. o The 'Book box' scheme - PADEAP Nigeria have purchased reading books to encourage reading in the classroom o Continuous professional development for teachers - Saturdays and school holidays o PADEAP Nigeria continues to run teacher training programmes, including classroom management, effective team building, living values education for teachers/ educators o Providing early school provision in NK o PADEAP Nigeria have provided tables and chairs, toys and playground equipment, drawing and musical equipment, training of teachers in the area of play work and storytelling |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | ILERA community health initiative - in partnership with Educate a child Nigeria |
| Organisation | ILERA Community Health Initiative |
| Country | Nigeria |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | o Community health extension worker employed to provide healthcare to residents of New Kuchinguro (NK) IDP camp o In the last 6 months, 1,768 residents have visited the temporary portacabin health facility based in NK IDP camp, 646 women, 311 men and 811 children. Heath education and promotion outreach services are offered discussing numerous health related topics including, antenatal care, prevention of infectious diseases and COVID 19; non communicable diseases including hypertension, diabetes, and sexual reproductive health. There is no electricity in the camp and there is only one source of water supply which is the borehole donated by the Mandela foundation. Sanitation: there is no adequate waste disposal as according to the World Health Organization (W.H.O) standard. |
| Collaborator Contribution | o Community health extension worker employed to provide healthcare to residents of New Kuchinguro (NK) IDP camp o In the last 6 months, 1,768 residents have visited the temporary portacabin health facility based in NK IDP camp, 646 women, 311 men and 811 children. |
| Impact | o Community health extension worker employed to provide healthcare to residents of New Kuchinguro (NK) IDP camp o In the last 6 months, 1,768 residents have visited the temporary portacabin health facility based in NK IDP camp, 646 women, 311 men and 811 children. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | University of Abuja - collaboration across the university |
| Organisation | University of Abuja |
| Country | Nigeria |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The University of Abuja is the implementing partner for this project as part of the larger, Main Award - Decolonising Peace Education in Africa. The University of Abuja is a tertiary institution in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, established on January 1, 1988 as a dual-mode university with the mandate to run conventional and distance learning programmes. We are working in an interdisciplinary way, incorporating academics from the Departments of Social Sciences, Theatre arts and Education. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The University of Abuja have expanded collaboration with the project by including academics from a wide-range of faculties. |
| Impact | At this stage, the outcomes are resulting from the increase in opportunities for networking beyond the existing project team. Working with the Theatre and Arts departments for example, will enable the project to explore these new contacts for the Decolonising Peace Education In Africa, and will in particular allow us to explore new, localised arts and humanities methodologies. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Constituting the National Advisory Board |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Stakeholders were engaged from the Arts and Culture industry and academics from universities across the width and breadth of the country. From the arts industry, the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe (NMMZ), the National Arts Gallery (both Bulawayo and Harare Galleries), the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NAC) and UNESCO (Harare Office) were approached. The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, and the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development was also engaged. Academics from Midlands State University (MSU), Great Zimbabwe University (GZU), Africa University (AU), University of Zimbabwe (UZ) and Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) were also engaged. The purpose was to constitute a national Advisory Board that would help with ideas and also cascade the project nationally. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Group Workshop on Storytelling |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | 5 workshops with the same objectives that is to identify the local meanings of peace, to examine the forms and causes of conflict and to explore the ways of dealing with conflict were held. The same methodology was used at the four different locations. For each of the workshops, the team had to spend quite a number of days in the community and interacted with influential members of the communities apart from the study participants. The interactions produced both intended and unintended though largely positive outcomes or impacts. These were: 1. 30 study participants attended a workshop which triggered discussions on the local conceptualization of peace, conflict and peace building initiatives. These discussions made the understanding of peace very much clear with the emergence of local concepts such as ukhutula/runyararo, ukhuhlalisana, hlalani kuhle, kugarika (implying peace of mind, absence of conflict, internal peace within individual). The major forms of conflict were singled out as gender-based violence, generational conflicts between the young and the old, and political conflict . Family domestic conflict between in-laws, religious hegemony, superiority complex coupled with gender stereotyping and laziness were identified as the major causes of conflict. Without resorting to the legal system, the communities identified the need to seek recourse from the traditional local systems as they appreciated the alignment of the system with the African philosophy of Ubuntu/unhu. 2. Of the 13 study participants who were teachers, the ensuing debates sparked intense discussions and interest in how they were avoiding mainstreaming peace education activities in their Social Studies lessons on Living Together. This sparked reflexivity in the way the teachers were practicing. 3. Among the politicians and local leaders, the partnership between the NGOs and the academia from the local university made them realize that NGOs were not really that bad. Instead they realized that there are instances where the NGOs operate objectively and would have the interests of their communities of practice at heart. This paradigm shift if continued to be promoted might foster a spirit of tolerance and acceptance of diversity in the broader society. 4. Of the two NGOs engaged in this workshop, one appreciated the methodology that was used as being transformative and they even requested to have some trainings from the members of the research team on how to use the methodology in their communities of practice. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Group workshop on Contextualising Peace |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The stakeholder meeting on Contextualizing Peace Education in Zimbabwe was held at Midlands State University. The stakeholder were drawn from academics and peace practitioners. Academics were selected from MSU Gender Institute, Department of Peace Studies, Department of Applied Education, and Research and Post Graduate Studies. Peace practitioners were drawn from six NGOs that are involved in peace building activities across the country. The meeting focused on the local meanings of peace and conflict, local peacebuilding initiatives and major local actors in peacebuilding. The participants emerged with a local definition of peace and conflict. They also explored what happens in their communities of practice when there is conflict and the nature of conflicts that are inherent in their communities of practice. The discussions revealed the multifaced and complex nature of peace. The tendency to anchor peacebuilding initiatives in the society's religion also emerged during the discussions. Participants felt the need to continuously up-bolster the synergies between the peace practitioners and the academics by continuously appraising each other. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Op-Ed |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was an op-ed piece published on a prestigious newsletter and website - The Times Higher Education. The op-ed argues that the current movement for decolonising universities should also be applied to research 'partnerships' and their unequal balance of power. I have received invitations to deliver a talk and it was very well received by many editors, researchers, and university leaders. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/equal-research-partnerships-are-myth-we-can-change |
| Description | Stakeholder meeting on Contextualising Peace Education in Nigeria at National Open University of Nigeria, Abuja. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The meetings discussed community-centred approaches to peace, exploring their potential for informing contextualised gender-sensitive peace education materials. Equally, the meetings discussed the benefits of Arts and Humanities methodologies for peace education in Nigeria. The meeting encouraged postgraduate students to select topics relating to peace education, and NGOs activities across Nigeria for thesis. 25 people attended the stakeholder meeting giving the team a greater insight into what is being delivered by several organisations/ academics who are focusing on peace building and conflict management in Nigeria. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.nou.edu.ng/ |
| Description | Supervision and mentoring of two postgraduate degree students with focus on decolonial, peace building, security, and IDP camps |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | These are research topics with primary outcome of exposing postgraduate students to field research and intellectual analysis of findings. The topics are: 1. DECOLONIZING SECURITY AND BUILDING PEACE AT INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS CAMPS IN ABUJA FCT, NIGERIA. 2. DECOLONIAL, PADEAP AND CONTESTING NARRATIVES IN PEACE EDUCATION IN NIGERIA |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Teacher educators' workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The activity involved bringing teacher educators from the 14 Zimbabwean teachers' colleges. 11 of these train primary school teachers while 3 of them train secondary school teachers. The intended purpose was to engage the educators and to get an in-depth understanding of the operations of each college since they are semi-autonomous in their operations. This was meant to create a shared understanding that would create a conducive environment for the integration and ultimate mainstreaming of peacebuilding activities. 14 lecturers attended the workshop and shared the toxic issues that affected their operations. Each college drew out a plan of how they intend to integrate and mainstream peace building in both the curriculum and their operations. One college reported that they had clashes with the community over internet usage. The college reported that they have since constructed shades and benches along their perimeter fence for the community to sit and also enjoy internet access. This has since brought peaceful coexistence between the community and the college. The research team and the teacher educators also formed collaboration teams for the purposes of developing papers for publication. Two abstracts have since been produced and the teams are now in the process of developing full papers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |