Beyond peace education Rethinking the pedagogical contributions of teachers to positive peace in conflict-affected Sierra Leone

This thesis focuses on the contribution of teachers to building “positive peace” in conflict affected Sierra Leone. This term, drawn from the writing of Galtung, refers to a conceptualisation of peace promotion which address the structural social, political and economic drivers of conflict and may be distinguished from a negative peace in which conflict affected communities experience only an absence of physical violence. The title of the thesis foregrounds a key dimension of the approach taken which is to rethink and perhaps re-envision the pedagogical roles of teachers beyond that ascribed to them within peace education curriculum associated in particular with transforming the personal behaviours and attitudes of conflict affected populations.
Findings demonstrate that the peace education, despite its benign reputation, might not be as positive, neutral or benign as usually projected. The core case study, focusing on a UNICEF developed peace education curriculum for Sierra Leonean teachers, Emerging Issues, promotes a form of pacification derived from a decontextualized curriculum that treats victims as guilty and in need of attitudinal and behavioural change, whilst avoiding engagement with the structural and geopolitical drivers that underpin many contemporary conflicts. Moreover, other case studies in the research demonstrated counter-examples of alternative ways of engaging teachers developed by local community based NGOs. These indicate how pedagogical practices and relationships may respond to the situated realities and daily struggles faced by pupils and their communities in conflict affected contexts as well as draw on the cultural resources and rituals linked to peace promotion ignored in the western centric curriculum of peace education.