Harvesting Social Change: a peace education program in three acts

Abstract

This article narrates the story of how a peace education program, over the course of a year, shifts from a more traditional form of peace education as conflict resolution skill building to a critical form of peace education. The path of this journey was neither straight nor direct; rather it meandered through an iteration of itself that actually produced another form of violence among its educators. Thus, in this one-case study, three different forms of peace education are observed – a traditional form, an ‘unpeaceable’ form, and a critical form. Building on Noddings’ notions of care, Freire’s notion of critical consciousness and Bajaj’s and Brantmeier’s complementing notions of a critical peace education, the author argues that it is not until the program identifies a space where youth and the facilitator can be vulnerable in meaningful dialog, that the program becomes critical. As the data from this activist research project show, it is in these dialogs that youth have the opportunity to make sense of the direct and structural violence inflicted on them and come to a critical consciousness that makes possible responsible social action.