A decolonial analysis of peace education in India and Pakistan
Date
2023
Authors
Jalal, Runeela, author
Jennings, Louise, advisor
Timpson, William, committee member
Archibeque-Engle, Shannon, committee member
Ehlers-Zavala, Fabiola, committee member
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Abstract
This dissertation investigates the current state of peace pedagogy in formal and informal educational platforms in India and Pakistan. The overarching goal is to amass pedagogical strategies for peace teaching by understanding the aspirations of peace as understood by the local wisdom in the spirit of decolonial educational approaches. The socio-political postcolonial conflict scene is understood through the theories of Structural Violence (Galtung, 1969) and Cascades of Violence (Braithwaite and D'Costa. 2018). It was important as India and Pakistan were colonized for a century and the postcolonial conflict climate has its distinctive nature. There is considerable research done to explain the postcolonial repercussions on a society entailing violence, conflicts, and nationalism and how such negative impacts trickle down into the education system in India and Pakistan. Additionally, The Theory of Positive Psychology (Seligman, 1998) defines the parameters of decolonized peace pedagogy for analyzing educational documents and the work of self-motivated peace practitioners working with non-governmental organizations (NGOs). After this foundational understanding is developed for this research study in Chapter 1, Chapters 2-4 explore the possible implementation of peace pedagogy in education in India and Pakistan through three interrelated articles. The first article is a systematic review of the peace pedagogy literature in postcolonial lands around the world. These regions mainly are located in the Global South which includes Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. The second article takes a closer look at the place of peace pedagogy in existing formal/informal educational platforms through document analysis of policy papers, college programs, and a few non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Pakistan and India. The third article focuses on the efforts of NGOs at the grassroots level through phenomenological interviews with peace practitioners in Pakistan and India; this study focuses on how these practitioners engage with local communities to make meaning of peace at the local level and devise a suitable peace pedagogy to continue their mission of peace education. Chapter 5 addresses implications of this research study by contributing to the decolonial ways of building knowledge for implementing peace pedagogy in postcolonial lands specifically India and Pakistan. In doing so, Chapter 5 summarizes comparative knowledge through a literature review of peace pedagogy in postcolonial lands around the world and India and Pakistan. This helped identifying gaps which prevent linear implementation of peace pedagogy from early education up to graduate level in India and Pakistan, thus, compromising the objectives of establishing peace. Recommendations for the education system mainly through the lessons learned by the self-motivated peace educators and activists are put forward for considerations.
Description
Rights Access
Embargo Expires: 05/26/2024
Subject
peace activism
peace pedagogy
social justice education
peace education
decolonial pedagogy
postcolonial conflict