Reflecting upon the years of political violence in Peru: An experimental study to promote a culture of peace in higher education

Abstract

This article analyzes the effect of a pedagogic module, designed to help reflect on political violence in Peru, facilitating political and social attitudes directed toward promoting a culture of peace in higher education settings. As a main source of information for developing the module, Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) report was used. The effects of the module implementation were assessed with a 2 × 2 experimental design, with an experimental group (n = 59) and a control group (n = 62), with pre and post evaluations. Results show the effectiveness of the intervention with significant increases in self-reported knowledge about the TRC and its work, and an agreement that the CVR represented a viable and integrative view of the era of violence. Even more, the pedagogic module attained a reduction of attitudes favorable to violence, and also a reduction of conservative ideological discourses that appear as a risk factor in the expression of new conflicts due to collective motives in post-conflict societies. Nevertheless, the effects observed were limited in some aspects, and the article discusses the need for new dissemination mechanisms about the era of violence to complement the positive effects of the module in the aim of generating a culture of peace.