Pedagogies for building cultures of peace: challenging constructions of an enemy

In: International issues in adult education, volume 25

Abstract

Pedagogies for Building Cultures of Peace explores how normalizations of violence are constructed from the perspective of young adults and how pedagogies can be created toward building cultures of peace. Findings show the diverse ways in which enmity (or the dehumanized other) is constructed, including through socialization processes, associating difference as deficient, systems of exclusion, disengaged citizenship, and cultures of competition and rivalry. Results also show how critical adult education can reveal hidden forms of power embedded within normalizations of violence, creating opportunities for peacebuilding education. By collaboratively engaging in peace research with youth, and by explicitly exploring power as a central component of violence, violence transformation and peacebuilding education led by youth become imaginable.