Coproducing Peace

Beyond Psychologized Approaches—Toward a Transrational Onto-Epistemology and Dialogic Learning Community as the Foundations of Peace Education

Abstract

This paper critically examines the underlying theoretical premises of the psycho-social peacebuilding agenda upon which much of peace education is founded. I do this specifically through a reflexive and diffractive analysis to examine the epistemologies, theories and pedagogies that permeate the field. Overall, the paper is positioned within educational sociology, theoretically informed by new materialisms, and drawing on literature from peace studies and peace education. I locate the study within the epoch of postmodernity and global neoliberalism. The paper contributes to already existing disparate literatures on higher education peace studies, peace pedagogy, and educational neoliberalism. It merges these areas to provide new insights into contemporary theoretical and pedagogic practices within peace education with a particular focus on critiquing common psychologized approaches.