Peace and Peace Education on Whose Terms? Envisioning Peace Education in a World Community of Separate but Interdependent States.

Abstract

Peace education seems to have assumed and nourished an illusion of universality where there is a selective application of universal norms and democracy yet it has to adequately grapple with the realities of militarism, statelessness and forced displacement, colonial legacies, crises of democracy and global imperialism  that challenge the very foundations of citizenship, justice and peace. Any education which purports to be neutral in the face of structural violence and oppression is inimical to the real interests of democracy. An argument is sustained that, for relevance, peace education has to confront paradoxes featuring universalization of democratic space amidst exclusion. Peace education programmes should seek to produce learners who are not only aware of global injustices but actively committed to dismantling them, challenging unjust norms and institutionalized exclusions. This article advocates for the revitalisation of intellectual thought and social action beyond the contemporary approaches and challenges within peace education scholarship and practice. It compels peace educators, policy-makers and civil society actors to rethink what peace means, who has access to it, and what it demands of us in a fractured world. The article contributes to the re-imagining of a futuristic peace education that builds on its foundational values while responding more directly to the prevailing socio-economic, political and ethical challenges.