Peace education in the present: dismantling and reconstructing some fundamental theoretical premises

It has been recently argued that peace education as a field, a philosophy, and a movement has to reclaim its criticality (Bajaj 2008; Bekerman 2007; Brantmeier 2011; Diaz-Soto 2005; Zembylas 2008); that is, it needs to become more critical about its theoretical assumptions concerning issues of power relations, social justice as well as the terms of ‘peace’ and ‘conflict’ themselves. Clarifying the theoretical premises of these issues is valuable, because theoretical premises have important implications in terms of our (in)ability to envision and enact particular pedagogical responses to conflict.