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Journal of Peace Education

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Peace education in conflict and

post-conflict societies: comparative
perspectives
a
Jing Lin
a
University of Maryland , College Park , MD , USA
Published online: 02 Aug 2012.

To cite this article: Jing Lin (2012) Peace education in conflict and post-conflict
societies: comparative perspectives, Journal of Peace Education, 9:2, 201-203, DOI:
10.1080/17400201.2012.697684

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17400201.2012.697684

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 Journal of Peace Education
Vol. 9, No. 2, August 2012, 201–209

BOOK REVIEWS

Peace education in conflict and post-conflict societies: comparative

perspectives, edited by Claire McGlynn, Michalinos Zembylas, Zvi Bekerman, and
Tony Gallagher, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, 274 p., US$100
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(Hardcover), ISBN-13: 978-0-230-60842-9, ISBN-10: 0-230-60842-6

Peace Education in Conflict and Post-Conflict Societies: Comparative Perspec-

tives makes a significant contribution to the field of peace education. The
book’s main focus is how peaceful relations can be achieved and how coexis-
tence can be promoted through peace education and other forms of education
such as integrated education, critical multicultural education, or human rights
education.
The book is comprised of three parts, which provide an overview of con-
flicts that have happened or are happening in the world. These include conflicts
in Northern Ireland, Burundi, the Dominican Republic, South Africa, the Repub-
lic of Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Israel and Palestine,
Cyprus, the USA, and others relating, for example, to ethnic strife, racial dis-
crimination, land disputes, language issues, and the historical impact of colonial-
ism. In the introduction to each section, there is an overview which helps to
guide the readers.
In Part 1, the authors tackle the reconstruction of peace in conflict and post-
conflict societies from a variety of perspectives. McGlynn employs a combined
approach of plural, liberal, and critical discourses to examine integrated education
in Northern Ireland. Ndura-Ouedraogo uses multicultural education and peace
education as transformational tools to heal ethnic polarization and suffering in post-
conflict Burundi. Bajaj and Acosta discuss the reconstruction of the Dominican
Republic through feminist efforts to uphold human rights. Nolan proposes the con-
cept of a learning society and ‘peace entrepreneurs’ (62) as providing opportunities
for people to learn to live together. This includes learning to get a job, since it is
critical for people to be working if the society is to be peaceful. Learning, accord-
ing to Nolan, also means dealing with the memory of conflicts, and devising a new
language to foresee a new future.
In Part 2, the contact hypothesis is proposed as a means of making peace educa-
tion effective. Efforts in Macedonia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, Israel and Palestine,
Northern Ireland and Croatia (chapters by Tomovska, Hromadzic, Hammack, and
Kosic and Senehi, respectively) all highlight intergroup contacts as effective
approaches for breaking down walls of hostility and bringing people back to treat-
ing each other with respect. However, how effective the contacts are, when the soci-
ety still upholds intergroup prejudice, and where residential segregation is still
maintained, such as in Macedonia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, is problematic. Theo-
ries in social psychology and bioecological systems are brought in to support the
contact hypothesis. Despite disappointing problems in the society, authors note the

ISSN 1740-0201 print/ISSN 1740-021X online

http://www.tandfonline.com
 202 Book reviews

positive outcomes of efforts to bring children together. Examples of schools which

do so in the countries above mentioned are given. Ironically, in the case of the
program in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is in the bathrooms that students mix
together, smoking, and sharing jokes and thoughts. The intensity of division and
disrespect among ethnic groups in that country, and in other regions/countries, are
worrisome. In another context, in the USA, Israeli and Palestinian youth are brought
together through arts, sports, and rituals for ‘identity transcendence’ (132) amidst
students’ emphasis of ‘identity accentuation’ (134). According to the contact
hypothesis, what Ulrike Niens coins as ‘decategorization’ through intergroup contact
and then ‘superordinate recategorization’ are helpful in constructing a common
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ingroup identity (151). The creative approaches of seeking reconciliation through

contact and interactions in Northern Ireland and Croatia as outlined by Ankica
Kosic and Jessica Senihi are illuminating. For example, cross-community programs
employ cultural events and activities (e.g. music, cinema, storytelling, theater, visual
arts, and sports) to ‘provide a noncompetitive opportunity for interactive participa-
tion with members of the “other” community’ (167).
Part 3 focuses on curriculum and pedagogy. Zembylas uses ‘critical emotional
praxis’ (183), as a tool for curriculum and pedagogy to analyze and sort through
nationalist narratives based on the politics of trauma and hatred brought into the
classroom in Cyprus (180). Creating comfort zones and opportunities for students
to unpack their beliefs are suggested as well as ‘a pedagogy of discomfort’ (191).
In Chapter 12 (Zelniker et al.), participatory action research is employed as a means
for Israeli and Palestine university students’ to explore their ‘hyphenated identities’
(207) through which hope of ‘creative dialogues, mutual respect, pursuit of equality,
social justice, and partnership’ (211) is possible. Torsti and Ahonen (Chapter 13)
propose the idea of deliberative communication, meaning active listening to the
story of the other and embracing each other’s stories in order to move history edu-
cation from the learning of hegemonic stories to a dialog of stories. In Chapter 14,
Bekerman studies language learning in an integrated school in Israel. He notes that
both Jewish and Arabic students give much more attention to learning Hebrew,
while teachers, including Arabic teachers, use Hebrew a lot more to teach due to
the unsupportive environment in which Arabic carries little symbolic power. In the
last chapter of the book, Carter and Vandeyar look at the deconstruction of white
privilege in South Africa and Southern USA.
In sum, the range of issues covered and the diverse approaches outlined to
achieving reconciliation, healing of suffering, and peaceful coexistence should be
helpful to students and scholars alike, making Peace Education in Conflict and
Post-Conflict Societies a necessary and foundational textbook for peace studies and
peace education classes. It employs many thought-provoking concepts, and outlines
creative possibilities and approaches for peace building and reconstruction in con-
flict and post-conflict societies. Notably, it approaches peace education from diverse
perspectives, with the contact hypothesis being the most emphasized.
However, while the book provides an outline of quite a few issues – such as
ethnic strife, difficulty in reconciliation and healing, and segregation in education, it
does not treat them substantially with empirical data and theoretical reflections. The
reader will find a lack of depth in the treatment of the individual countries and
issues. Nonetheless for anyone interested in peace education and conflict reduction,
it is a book worth reading.
 Journal of Peace Education 203

Jing Lin
University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
jinglin@umd.edu
Ó 2012, Jing Lin
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17400201.2012.697684

Building cultures of peace: transdisciplinary voices of hope and action, edited

by Elavie Ndura-Ouedraogo and Randall Amster, Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge
Scholars Publishing, 2009, 270 pp., US$59.99 (Hardback), UK£39.99 (Hardback),
Downloaded by [University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries] at 09:17 27 December 2014

ISBN 1-4438-1329-x

Building Cultures of Peace adds important, diverse, and, all too often, missing per-
spectives to our understanding of conflict and peace. We hear about challenges to
traditional thinking and calls for transdisciplinary thinking, innovation and action,
whether in teacher education or art education, in reading, literacy, moral education,
sports, or music. This book then goes beyond schooling to look at hopeful exam-
ples from police practices, the role of the media, how we need new thinking about
economics, what we can learn from an international context and the United Nations,
and more. The opening and closing comments issue welcome calls by the editors to
recognize the need for holistic thinking, for seeing the interconnectedness of forces
which impact societies, people, and the environment.

Schools and teacher education

Ed Brantmeier, Antoinette Aragon, and Brian Yoder make a compelling case for
schools and teacher education doing much more to promote peace and social jus-
tice. They argue that attention to multicultural perspectives can reveal those tension
points that make the need for peaceful conflict resolution skills very real. Beverly
Shaklee’s chapter begins with a critique of the ‘historic failure of Colleges of Edu-
cation to make peace education a transparent part of teacher education’ (58) but
then shifts to a more hopeful example from overseas, noting, for example, what
Rwanda is doing to reform schools and teacher education in the aftermath of the
horrific genocide in 1994. Schools can – and, I agree, should – do more to promote
peace, not a simple matter in a militarized culture like the USA.
In subsequent chapters, contributors offer a number of other compelling perspec-
tives on conflict, nonviolence, schooling, teaching, and curriculum. Cindy Maguire,
for example, emphasizes the potential for art to fully engage and empower students
to create new ideas, especially important when teachers are often fearful about rais-
ing controversial issues. Julie Morton makes a case for literacy in transforming con-
flicts. Stacia Stribling goes even further to make a claim for critical literacy skills
that can transform differences into strengths. Robert Baker and Craig Esherick
emphasize the potential role of sports in sparking friendly competition. In his chap-
ter, Cris Toffol points to the work done on moral development, challenging teachers
and students alike to address injustice at every level of schooling.

Beyond schools
Venturing further afield, several chapters offer examples and views that rarely enter
into discussions about needed school reform. Michael DeValve and Cary Adkinson