The potential of peacebuilding education interventions in societies facing the risk of extreme ideological shifts

Abstract

While education is a key tool in peacebuilding, traditional education systems may push those who feel marginalized into extreme ideological shifts in response. Community-based peacebuilding education initiatives (PEIs) are an alternative to conventional educational institutions to promote peace and combat radicalization. This paper's conceptual framework utilizes experiential and transformative learning theories with educational displacement and replacement model to support the idea that PEIs could serve as a platform for transformation. Results were derived from data collected over a thirteen-month period from six PEIs located in Southeast Europe, primarily in Bosnia and Herzegovina, using multi-sited ethnography, interviews, and a thrice-reiterated survey to identify changes in participants. This indicates that adopting targeted approaches in PEIs, alongside the opportunity for the participants to learn about each other and about the violent history, may trigger alterations in intergroup contact quality, and a general decline in unfavorable outgroup perception.