Reimagining Peace Education: Faculty-Led Digital Pedagogies in Post-Conflict Sri Lanka

• In Event: Peace education and higher education

Proposal

Digital technologies are increasingly positioned as catalysts for pedagogical innovation, yet their role in fostering peace education within post-conflict contexts remains critically underexplored. In Sri Lanka—a country emerging from decades of civil war—higher education institutions are uniquely placed to advance reconciliation and civic engagement but operate within deeply divided sociopolitical landscapes shaped by surveillance, structural inequality, and historical trauma. This study examines how faculty integrate digital pedagogies to address these challenges, employing the Digital Peacebuilding Framework (DPF) to conceptualise technology not as a neutral tool but as a mediator of political, cultural, and pedagogical relationships.

To investigate these dynamics, a multi-sited qualitative case study was conducted across three conflict-affected provinces—Northern, Eastern, and Western—where institutional contexts and sociocultural histories vary significantly. Data were collected through n = 13 semi-structured interviews with faculty members, alongside institutional documents and reflective memos. A two-cycle thematic coding process revealed three interrelated pedagogical practices that illustrate how digital tools are repurposed to foster peace-oriented learning: (1) Reflective Digital Practices, (2) Virtual Heritage Reconciliation, and (3) Critical Digital Media Literacy.

The first theme, Reflective Digital Practices, highlights how faculty use low-bandwidth tools such as voice recordings, instructor-created videos, and digital journaling to encourage private engagement with sensitive topics, including identity, memory, and reconciliation. These approaches create safe spaces for critical dialogue while adapting to infrastructural constraints such as device-sharing and limited connectivity. This use of asynchronous, locally grounded content not only bridges accessibility gaps but also links theoretical knowledge with students’ lived experiences, enabling deeper affective learning.

Building on this foundation, Virtual Heritage Reconciliation demonstrates how digital technologies expand opportunities for intercultural dialogue and collective memory work. Faculty employed virtual museum archives, mobile photography, and collaborative documentation to challenge dominant state narratives and surface marginalised histories. By positioning students as co-authors of historical narratives, these practices transformed heritage sites—both physical and virtual—into dialogic spaces for empathy-building and shared inquiry. The integration of participatory heritage pedagogy underscores the role of digital tools in reimagining reconciliation as an ongoing, student-driven process rather than a predefined institutional outcome.

Extending these practices into the broader media ecosystem, the theme of Critical Digital Media Literacy addresses the polarised and often manipulated digital landscape that continues to shape ethnic relations in Sri Lanka. Faculty embedded media deconstruction, political cartoon analysis, and student-led video production into curricula to equip learners with the skills to critically interpret, evaluate, and produce digital content. Accessible platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and mobile-based editing tools facilitated this work, enabling students to become active knowledge producers and ethical content creators engaged in peace-oriented discourse.

Together, these findings illustrate how faculty adapt everyday digital platforms to navigate surveillance, ideological pressures, and infrastructural inequities, crafting pedagogies that are culturally resonant, contextually responsive, and justice-oriented. By integrating reflective practices, heritage-based inquiry, and critical media literacy, digital technologies become mediators of epistemic agency, pluralistic memory work, and transformative learning.

The study offers broader insights for educators, policymakers, and practitioners seeking to embed digital peace pedagogies in fragile and resource-constrained settings. It highlights the importance of low-cost, context-sensitive strategies, cross-institutional collaboration, and faculty development models that align technology use with sociopolitical realities. Beyond Sri Lanka, these findings contribute to global conversations on post-conflict education, demonstrating how digital tools—when deployed critically and inclusively—can foster sustainable peacebuilding practices and civic engagement.

Author

• Suren Ladd, The University of Sydney