An education in homecoming: peace education as the pursuit of ‘appropriate knowledge’

This paper is intended as a contribution to a discussion about the ‘past, present and future of peace education’. Our specific interest here is in the future, in thinking about what trends or factors may shape the development of peace education in the coming decades (and, to a lesser extent, in reflecting on how peace education might shape future trends). In one sense, this is a necessarily speculative and risky endeavour; we do not know exactly what the future holds. Yet, the future is not exactly separable from the past or the present either. It is shaped by decisions or actions in the past and in the present. The analysis offered in this paper is developed on this basis – we acknowledge that the future is always uncertain, but hold nevertheless that it is possible to make informed judgements based on likely trajectories of change.