Tricky Pathways: The Intricacies of Education’s Relationships to Conflict, Violence, and Peace

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Research on educational approaches to reducing violence and conflict gives rise to many puzzles. Evidence can sometimes seem contradictory, with evaluations of specific peace education curricula, for example, showing successful outcomes in certain contexts or instances of null or negative results in others. Findings of demonstrable improvements in intergroup relationships or individual attitudes around violence can fade over time, and changes that transpire within educational programs often fail to spread to larger communities or groups. Debates about education’s role in reducing violence persist with good reason, as evidence around how educational access, content, and structures relate to violent conflict remains inconclusive.

In this panel, we consider some of the many variables that can complicate relationships between education and peace. Along with asking “what works,” we contend that examining the finer characteristics of educational processes and their participants is essential to understanding how, why, when, and for whom education can reduce or prevent violence. In other words, rather than being straightforward, the causal pathways between education and peace hold intricacies and nuance that ultimately determine their outcomes.

The three presentations on this panel offer evidence of the tricky pathways between education and peace from three distinct parts of the globe and three different educational approaches. The first presenter shares emerging findings from a randomized controlled trial of a civic education program in Liberia to analyze how factors including a student’s mother tongue and the language of instruction relate to much-longed-for outcomes associated with social cohesion in post-conflict settings. The second presenter also focuses on language and its social context, offering an in-depth analysis of how adult Palestinian Arabs make meaning of their experiences of learning Hebrew and negotiate social belonging amidst the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The third presenter explores the nature of peace education within an undeclared war in Honduras, considering how local leaders’ firsthand experiences enable them to counteract the normalization of violence through nonformal education and community action.

Cumulatively, the studies in this panel demonstrate that identity, personal agency, and processes matter in harnessing the power of education to prevent a range of types of violent conflicts. In line with recent research that examines the microdynamics of conflict, this panel provides an opportunity to deepen our understanding of the intricacies of how education can and does forge pathways toward reducing violence and building peace.

Sub Unit

• Education in Conflict and Emergencies SIG

Organizer

• Amanda Renee Blewitt, New York University

Chair

• Dana Burde, New York University

Individual Presentations

• Building National Unity through Education: The Impact of Civic Education on Liberian Primary School Students’ National Identification and Intergroup Attitudes - Sorana Acris, New York University; Alejandro Jorge Ganimian; Elisabeth King, New York University

• Seeking Peace in an Undeclared War: De-Normalizing Violence through Nonformal Education in Honduras - Amanda Renee Blewitt, New York University

• Negotiating social belonging through language acquisition in conflict-affected areas: The case of adult Palestinian learners of Hebrew in Israel - Liora Tamir, New York University

Discussant

• Emily Dunlop, Cornell University