Critically understanding education for peace and trust: a global network to overcome injustices
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Ulster
Department Name: Sch of Education
Abstract
The potential role of education in both fueling and tackling the intractable aspects of conflict, and its possible influence over peace, trust and respect for human rights, is widely acknowledged. Yet, there continues to be a disjuncture between education and peacebuilding. This has limited the potential of education to build sustainable peace and disconnected education responses and policies from broader peace and conflict dynamics. Practical engagement of peacebuilding and education is often critiqued for being disjointed, with the primary focus being on Peace Education initiatives that often overlook structural inequities and overly focus on globally defined programmes of individual attitudinal and behavioural change (e.g. Novelli and Smith, 2011; Lopes Cardozo and Shah, 2016).
This network posits that rigorous inter-disciplinary exploration of the limitations and opportunities for peace focused education interventions is required. To overcome the disconnect between education and peace, education interventions should draw on a range of disciplinary knowledge bases, including understanding political and historical contexts, memory and peace and conflict studies. To address the current knowledge-gap in this area the proposed network partners IFRC, UoB and UU have developed a framework to facilitate critical engagement with education for peace. Taking existing lessons learned from a range of disciplines that have been developing theoretical arguments, the framework presents three interdependent obstacles or 'areas of injustice' that limit the success of peace focused education interventions. These are: 1) structural and historical injustices, through which historical legacies, including of colonialism and imperialism and entrenched inequalities in contemporary political economies limit possibilities for peace; 2) epistemic injustices, through which individuals' and groups' knowledges, contributions and leadership potentialities are undervalued and made irrelevant, limiting creative and relevant approaches to peacebuilding education; and 3) neo-colonial injustices, through which education goals are limited or undermined by the influence of other agendas and interests, including security, anti-migration and economic interests and agendas.
This proposal seeks to build on this collaboration by creating a network of education and peace actors to share learning and experiences across different geographical, cultural, conflict or fragile contexts. The framework will provide a basis for engagement, asking regional peace actors in Latin America and the Middle East to engage with, and critique, the identified injustices in relation to their own work. Drawing on this feedback, a revised framework will be developed and widely shared, alongside online tools (blogs, videos, webinars, etc.) that captures the ways in which practitioners around the world are overcoming, resisting or transforming these injustices and therefore building peace and trust through education.
This network posits that rigorous inter-disciplinary exploration of the limitations and opportunities for peace focused education interventions is required. To overcome the disconnect between education and peace, education interventions should draw on a range of disciplinary knowledge bases, including understanding political and historical contexts, memory and peace and conflict studies. To address the current knowledge-gap in this area the proposed network partners IFRC, UoB and UU have developed a framework to facilitate critical engagement with education for peace. Taking existing lessons learned from a range of disciplines that have been developing theoretical arguments, the framework presents three interdependent obstacles or 'areas of injustice' that limit the success of peace focused education interventions. These are: 1) structural and historical injustices, through which historical legacies, including of colonialism and imperialism and entrenched inequalities in contemporary political economies limit possibilities for peace; 2) epistemic injustices, through which individuals' and groups' knowledges, contributions and leadership potentialities are undervalued and made irrelevant, limiting creative and relevant approaches to peacebuilding education; and 3) neo-colonial injustices, through which education goals are limited or undermined by the influence of other agendas and interests, including security, anti-migration and economic interests and agendas.
This proposal seeks to build on this collaboration by creating a network of education and peace actors to share learning and experiences across different geographical, cultural, conflict or fragile contexts. The framework will provide a basis for engagement, asking regional peace actors in Latin America and the Middle East to engage with, and critique, the identified injustices in relation to their own work. Drawing on this feedback, a revised framework will be developed and widely shared, alongside online tools (blogs, videos, webinars, etc.) that captures the ways in which practitioners around the world are overcoming, resisting or transforming these injustices and therefore building peace and trust through education.
Publications
Shanks K
(2022)
Ethical research landscapes in fragile and conflict-affected contexts: understanding the challenges
in Research Ethics
Nwako Z
(2023)
Doing harm: the impact of UK's GCRF cuts on research ethics, partnerships and governance
in Global Social Challenges Journal
Description | Education Research in Conflict and Crisis - Bilateral Research Chair - Fellowship Funding |
Amount | £396,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | BRC2/100002 |
Organisation | The British Academy |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2023 |
End | 12/2024 |
Description | Introducing the Injustice Framework for education in emergencies |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Presenting the injustice framework to a range of colleagues from key EiE organisations through the Genvea Global Hub for Education working group |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Managing crisis: the role of education and young people |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Invited speaker at IFRC Webinar "Managing crisis: the role of education and young people" The University College for Teacher Education in Lower Austria and the Austrian Red Cross. "Injustice Framework for Education and peace" |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Understanding the Political Economy of Knowledge Production - Ethical recommendations for funders |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A talk to Wellcome Fund staff about about the ethics of research funding in conflict affected contexts |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |