Critical Discourse Analysis: An Effective Tool for Critical Peace Education Informed by Freirean Dialogue

Abstract

This study emphasizes that research and practice regarding employing dialogue as transformative pedagogy should be investigated and cultivated by peace educators in ways relevant to various contexts. In this regard, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) has a valuable potential to contribute to the development of this relatively new scholarly field by providing effective tools to problematize and analyze social practices. This paper explores critical peace education as it is informed by the dialogical method of emancipatory education, and scrutinizes the promising potential of CDA as an essential tool for on-going research in the field. Towards this goal, this paper includes two subsections. The first section discusses Freirean dialogue and his six preconditions (i.e., love, humility, faith, hope, trust, and critical thinking) as fundamental constructs for critical peace education. The second section explores how the theories, goals, and methods of CDA in current discourse studies connect to constructs in Freirean dialogue and peace education. This section concentrates on four prominent approaches developed by Scollon, Gee, Kress, and Fairclough to underline their key aspects from a Freirian dialogic perspective. The final section discusses the possible affordances and limitations for employing CDA in the study of critical peace education.