Rising above the ashes: Sustainable development goals and the intersections of peace education amid a violent past.

Abstract

For the sake of promoting peaceful and inclusive societies and building accountable and inclusive institutions, what can peace leadership educators do in the Here and Now to implement equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities? This question is raised within the context of the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves of Indigenous children on the grounds of several former Indian Residential Schools across Canada. Emerging from the responses to the question raised, the authors offer a peace education model that includes four distinct yet interconnected aspects for college student leadership educators (i) be principle-centered; (ii) be courageous in challenging questions asked, (iii) be purposeful by enabling safe spaces where learners' stories can be told and heard, and (iv) be imaginative by choosing hope rather than despair.