Peace Education in a Conflict-Affected Society

Abstract

Peace education initiatives have been subject to heated public debate and so far the complexities involved have not been fully understood. This multilayered analysis examines how teachers negotiate ideological, pedagogical and emotional challenges in their attempts to enact a peace education policy. Focusing primarily on the case study of conflict-affected Cyprus, Michalinos Zembylas, Constadina Charalambous and Panayiota Charalambous situate the Cypriot case within wider theoretical and methodological debates in the field and explore the implications of their findings for theory and practice. Building on current anthropological approaches, the authors use insights from policy studies and sociolinguistics to examine peace education agendas and the ways these are shaped by the dynamics of local politics and classroom practices. This study will be valuable reading for researchers of peace and policy studies as well as for practitioners and policy makers involved in introducing peace education initiatives that challenge teachers' long-held beliefs.

Revising and Validating Achievement Emotions Questionnaire - Teachers (AEQ-T)

“…As such, teacher emotion research has expanded significantly in its scope and depth, however, research methodology has not been diversified much. Qualitative interviews and observations were employed most dominantly including individual interviews (e.g., Darby, 2008), focus group interviews (e.g., Cross & Hong, 2012), and field observations (e.g., Zembylas, Charalambous, & Charalambous, 2014). Also, experience sampling methods (e.g., Becker, Goetz, Morger, & Ranellucci, 2014;Jones & Youngs, 2012) began to be used more frequently.…”

The global securitisation of youth

“…56 All of this can sound appealing, and is a reason why the youth, peace and security [S]ome groups in conflict-affected societies might strongly believe that before 'justice' exists, they cannot consider peace. 57 While demands for a youthful commitment to peace may be found throughout the key global youth, peace and security documents, it is notable that there is limited attention paid to the question of social justice. There is no discussion of how the significance of peace and conflict may be contested in local contexts; nor is there an attempt to 'distinguish between productive and destructive forms of conflict'.…”

Formal and Non-formal Reform Efforts of History Teaching in Cyprus: Openings and Closures for Dangerous Memories and Reconciliation Pedagogies

“…Makriyianni et al 2011;Perikleous 2010;Zembylas 2015;Zembylas et al 2016). For example, even though teachers may acknowledge the benefits of approaches such as teaching controversial issues in history instruction, they may still feel strongly about the inappropriateness and non-feasibility of such approaches in the light of particular emotional, social and political circumstances.…”