Education and Transitional Justice: Para, Sobre, y Como

• In Event: Evidence and learning from education programming during crises

Proposal

Following the signing of the 2016 Peace Accords with the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) and the implementation of several transitional justice mechanisms, this mixed methods study aims to understand the extent to which the national discourse around transitional justice is understood and implemented within schools from the perspective of students, teachers, and school staff. How do local actors view the role of the education system in promoting transitional justice and peacebuilding? How do students, teachers, and school staff conceptualize the idea of transitional justice? We present preliminary findings from research conducted during 2022 in 12 secondary schools across three regions in Colombia (Bogotá/Cundinamarca, Medellín/Antioquia, and Cúcuta/Norte de Santander).

Through an analysis of survey data from students, as well as interviews with students, teachers, and staff, and school observations, we present a framework on how transitional justice is conceptualized and implemented within the school context. We argue that there are three distinct modalities for understanding the connection between education and transitional justice. In the first, educación para la justicia transicional, education functions as part of the broader policy processes to address transitional justice at the societal level. For example, the specific education policy, Cátedra de Paz, that endeavors to teach about the conflict and peace in classes, the explicit pedagogical focus of the Truth Commission, and other efforts aimed at including schools into the broader transitional justice processes. In the second, educación sobre justicia transicional, we analyze how students and educators learn about the current transitional justice system and how they define and understand the notion of transitional justice based on survey and interview data. The third aspect analyzes educación como justicia transicional and aims to understand the essence of transitional justice in everyday life in schools. For example, this extends to the pacts of convivencia and focus on restorative justice and inter-personal conflict resolution and getting along at the individual level among students.

We find that students have a general understanding of transitional justice as related to everyday activities in their school and convivencia but they do not explicitly connect this to the broader transitional justice project at the societal level. Rather, students primarily (and some teachers) are skeptical of the notion of transitional justice and whether justice even exists in Colombia; rather, they associate justice as related to punishment, inequality, and corruption. While there is some limited teaching and discussion of transitional justice in the schools as linked to discussions of peace-building, the armed conflict, and the Truth Commission, we find that students mostly learn about these topics outside of school from family or social networks and do not necessarily associate ideas around reconciliation, peacebuilding, and recognizing the past with the broader transitional justice framework. Our findings point to the need for more support for discussing these sensitive topics in the school context and also more public pedagogy around transitional justice initiatives.

Author

• S. Garnett Russell, Columbia University Teachers College