Six educational approaches to conflict and peace

ABSTRACT The relations between education, conflict and peace have become the focus of a growing and diverse field of educational research and action. In the diversity and complexity of this field, I distinguish six educational approaches that stand out: human rights, psychosocial, humanitarian aid, development, security, and reconciliation. They refer to six sets of particular and coherent assumptions regarding the reasons that originate and exacerbate conflicts, with their own answers about how to prevent, resolve, alleviate, or transform that situation – their ways of understanding peace – and the roles that the educational sector plays in the achievement of this purpose, with their pros and cons.