Preaching Peace in Pedagogy: Educational Efforts of Religious Institutions in Promoting Peace in Indonesia’s Conflict Prone Area

• In Event: Educating for peace and global citizenship: Integrating life skills, non-violence, and philosophical wisdom for social cohesion and sustainable futures

Proposal

Papua, the easternmost region of Indonesia, has a long history of conflict and violence. Since its contested accession to the Republic of Indonesia in 1969, repeated conflicts involving groups fighting for independence and the central government security apparatus had caused loss of lives and dislocation of people. According to the Gadjah Mada University Papua Task Force, from 2010 to 2022, the conflict has caused 1654 people to suffer wounds and 464 lives lost. This challenging social landscape necessitates extra-state measures to curb violence and ensure peace.

Religious institutions in Papua play an important role in safeguarding peace and preventing further conflicts from happening, especially through their educational efforts. Religion itself is central to Papuan society. Most Papuans are Christians, and this offers a unique demographic characteristic within the larger Muslim-majority Indonesian nation. Churches have active educational programs such as Sunday schools and youth groups, other than running schools and universities. Meanwhile, national Islamic organizations such as Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama also has a significant presence, especially through their educational efforts.

Educational efforts by religious institutions have been shown to be effective in promoting peace in other conflict-prone regions. Religious institutions in Mindanao and Northern Ireland have been playing a role in peacebuilding, including through educational programs. This wider picture of the role religious institutions play to promote peace through education motivated us to explore it in Papua’s context.

We therefore aim to answer three main research questions with regards to educational efforts by religious institutions in Papua to promote peace in the region:

(1) How are the educational efforts implemented?

(2) What are the specific mechanisms and pedagogical methods that plausibly reduce tensions?

(3) What are the main challenges of the educational efforts?

To answer these questions, we intend to conduct qualitative research methodology through interviews with key people in Papua’s religious community, especially those who are directly involved in educational efforts. We will tap into Radhiyan’s network, who spent more than a year in Papua as a teacher with the Indonesia Mengajar (Indonesia Teaches, similar to Teach for America). We hope to be able to inform the discussion on promoting peace education through non-state actors such as religious institutions.

Authors

• Muhammad Radhiyan Pasopati Pribadi, Harvard Graduate School of Education

• Mutiara Annisa Baswedan, Harvard Graduate School of Education