Education in Post-conflict Environments: Pathways to Sustainable Peace

Abstract

Can formal and nonformal education processes act as a catalyst for sustainable peace? In this chapter, I explore the various roles that education, in its widest sense, can play in helping progress toward sustainable peace in conflict-affected nations. Recognizing that education, particularly adult education, is one of the main tenets of any peace-building process, I suggest how educational policy and practice could be and has been shaped to integrate key peace-building and reconciliation principles. I discuss the various approaches to education as a means to peace in conflict-affected countries and then suggest ways in which these approaches might contribute to the ongoing process of peace and nation building in Timor Leste, which has recently experienced another bout of destabilizing violence.