On Peace Education Boundaries

Important assumptions underlying peace education initiatives need to be discussed critically in light of specific answers to the questions of the whats, hows and whys of peace learning. It is contended that there is no answers available to these questions without reference to contexts in which learners live their lives and how these contexts relate to the outside world. The experience of living provides the learner with the possibility of "reading the world" so that they can 1) observe and diagnose violence (physical, structural, cultural) in own context and its external relations to other contexts, 2) to search for root causes of such violence both internal to (including the self) and external to own context, 3) to formulate visions of non-violent alternative futures, 4) to reflect upon appropriate means of change and 5) to act with skill towards the creation of new peace processes and buildings. Although peace education, according to this view, is rooted in specific contexts, a major challenge remains in that any peace process or building cannot overlook the inter-contextual problem and the world seen as something more than an accumulation of contexts. The problem of the creation of "a common culture" is discussed in light of the need for a dialogue amongst contexts and their cultures, identities, and discourses.