Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how two schools in Colombia have interpreted a law requiring them to teach peace. It demonstrates that peace education can re-enforce inequalities even while paying rhetorical lip service to the need to overcome polarization and division.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores how two geographically adjacent schools in Colombia that cater to pupils from different ends of the socio-economic spectrum have interpreted a government law requiring all educational institutions to teach peace. It builds upon critical peace education theory, which questions how peace education interacts with the underlying power structure of the system it is seeking to change. However, this literature is often lacking in empirical data that demonstrates how unequal power relations mediate teaching peace. I address this gap by examining the disparity between passing a law mandating teaching peace and the reality of interpreting and implementing it within a divided and highly unequal education system. There are three key findings from this data. 1.) Western conceptions of peace that predominate among elite institutions act as a potentially exclusionary force for those who are not fluent or familiar with these terms. 2.) Peace education relies on a theory of change that re-enforces the responsibility of those with privilege to act on behalf of those without privilege. 3.) Unless pupils are encouraged to reflect on their own positionality in relation to their country's past, teaching peace can 'other' those who have been affected by the conflict by casting them as separate and different people to be learnt about. These conclusions demonstrate that peace education can re-enforce the inequalities that are one of the root causes of conflict in Colombia, even while paying rhetorical lip service to the need to overcome polarization and division in society.