Creating spaces for radical pedagogy in peace studies

1. Creating spaces for radical pedagogy in peace studies

Dr. Lynda-ann Blanchard
Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Sydney
Visiting Professor, Peace Centre, UNTL Timor-Leste
Soka University Talk: What about peace theory?

2. Acknowledgement of Country…

Aboriginal Australia Map
Aboriginal Australia Map
attempts to represent
language, tribal or nation
groups of Australia's
Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples.
Ref: www.reconciliationsa.org.au

3. Radical subject of peace…

According to Raymond Williams, to be
radical is “to make hope possible rather
than despair convincing”.
Ref: Culture and Politics: To be Truly Radical is to Make Hope Possible Rather
Than Despair Convincing by Raymond Williams (Verso new edition 2020)

4. Uluru Statement from the Heart…

5. So, what about peace theory?

Two concepts are key to our radical pedagogy
thesis:
1. Positive +ve & Negative Peace -ve (Johan
Galtung, 1969).
2.
HRE as Emancipatory Practice (Audrey Osler,
2015).
Ref: “Creating Spaces for radical pedagogy in higher education” (Blanchard & Nix, 2019).
Ref : HRER Volume 2, No 2 (2019) DOI: http://doi.org/10.7577/hrer.3363

6. Peace with Justice

There is no peace without justice:
“peace with justice is characterised by an absence of
violence, whether it is direct and observable of indirect
and invisible. A just peace would be marked not only by
an end to hostilities between peoples but also by fairness
in social, economic and political arrangements”
(Rees, 2003: p. 20).

7.

Peace education as radical practice…
We concur with Audrey Osler (2015, pp. 30-32) that HRE should be
“an emancipatory or transformatory form of education where learners get to study
justice/injustice and equality/inequality… to support greater justice and equality in
learners’ lives and to promote solidarity with others to achieve these ends in the
wider society’; this involves a pedagogy that addresses ‘asymmetrical power relations’
and recognises that human rights can ‘become part of a hegemonic discourse used to
control, if rights and principles are applied without dialogue and without
consideration of people’s specific needs."
Ref: Osler, A. (2015). Human rights education, postcolonial scholarship, and action for
social justice. Theory and Research in Social Education, 43(2).
https://doi.org/10.1080/00933104.2015.1034393

8. Conflict…

Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the
absence of violence.
In fact, peace is all about engaging conflict
Conflict is not the problem for Rees, the
problem is how we choose to deal with it.
Ref: Also see bell hooks Teaching critical thinking:
practical wisdom (Routledge 2010: Ch 15)

9. Passion for Peace

For Rees (2003) his passion for peace education utilises
personal narrative & story telling
creativity & imagination & humour
interdisciplinarity & varied experiences
critical thinking
praxis
Ref: See also bell hooks Teaching critical thinking: practical
wisdom (Routledge 2010: Ch 9-14)

10. Practice

‘Peace with justice’ is a process (not an outcome). It is the process
of seeking out and addressing direct and indirect violence; in
nonviolent ways. Direct violence can be visible. However, indirect
violence includes embedded structural inequalities and injustices;
embedded in cultural practice or ideology and in institutional policy,
practice and processes. Therefore, poverty is violence; racism is
violence and human rights abuses are expressions of violence.
Furthermore, we are all engaging in a dialectical relationship with
violence/conflict as a dynamic of life.

11. Peace (education) as the practice of freedom…

In his passion for peace, Rees imagines a world without direct
violence and with a humanitarian citizenry (army) educated (trained)
in the philosophy, language & practice of nonviolence and a
keenness to be a perpetual learner in defining and attaining human
rights. That citizenry would engage imagination, humour and
humanness to create endless ways to engage peace with justice .

12. Sydney Peace Prize….

Sydney Peace Prize Laureates:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4OUovZb8mY

13. Norwegian Student Peace Prize….

Aayat Alqormozi
Bahrain, 2015
“We want to have a
democratic country. We
want justice and dignity
for all people. It’s not
difficult to achieve”.

14. Eco-epistemology and the green revolution….

Antero Benedito da Silva
“Knowledge should be
inclusive. We need to
construct our own
knowledges. Different
types of knowledge and
people should contribute
to knowledge production”.
Photo: Peace Centre Namalai Village

15. The Peace Boat Japan….

A Japan-based
international NGO
working to promote
peace, human rights,
and sustainability.
Guided by the UN
Sustainable
Development Goals
(SDGs), Peace
Boat's ...
Ref:
https://peaceboat.org/
english/

16. Reflection… and what comes next…

“Nonviolence is an experiment”
Mahatma Gandhi
Nonviolence is inclusive, engaging humanity and ecology
Nonviolence is limitless in engaging creativity
Nonviolence is a force for peace.

17. Additional References…

New Research in Peace Studies
Edited by
Freya Higgins-Desbiolles
Lynda-ann Blanchard
Yoko Urbain
Peace through tourism considers the
possibilities for tourism to contribute
to efforts to unmask conflict and
promote peace.
Routledge, 2023.

18. Reflection….

What can you do
about your peace with justice issue?
Arigato!!