Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2309-9683

Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

College of Applied Human Sciences

Department

Curriculum & Instruction/Literacy Studies

Committee Chair

Sharon Hayes

Committee Co-Chair

Melissa Sherfinski

Committee Member

Melissa Sherfinski

Committee Member

Samuel Stack

Committee Member

Melissa Luna

Abstract

Peace Education is a growing field of study that includes different approaches to understanding and promoting peace, conflict resolution, and social justice. Peace education can be a strategic area for societies that have experienced various forms of direct or indirect violence as is the case of Colombia, South America, which has undergone prolonged periods of violence and internal conflict. Considering that peace is contextual and should be defined and decided on by the people involved in the target context, this work aims to illuminate how a peace education process can be experienced by teachers and students and the forms it may take. More specifically, the purpose of this study is to explore how we, educators, can create a peace education curriculum, enact it, and live it with students in the classroom in a situated context in the Colombian Caribbean. This qualitative inquiry was based on the theoretical perspectives provided by social constructionism, feminism and Standpoint Theory, and critical peace education. I employed the methodology Participatory Action Research (PAR) and used discourse analysis as analytical lenses to engage with data. The data for this study was assembled through reflexive discussion meetings, fieldwork journals, interviews with students, student work, curricular documents, and class video-recordings. The study revealed that our histories and understandings, our metaphors, and our strong sense of partnership guided the creation of a peace education curriculum. It also suggested the suitability of PAR to facilitate peace education dynamics of solidarity and action as well as to help close the theory and practice divide in education. Findings also revealed how evolving critical peace educators experienced transformational action in the classroom based on our ongoing learning during the process of curriculum design. The ten female fifth grade participants provided us with an understanding of their perceptions of peace and violence and the agency they believed they had (or not) in exercising peace and violence. Although we experienced challenges during the implementation of the study, students demonstrated engagement with the peace education curriculum. Finally, this study suggests that we consider the potential of approaching peace and violence from situated standpoints (Standpoint Theory), since peace and violence are situated phenomena that may vary from context to context. It also pinpoints the duality of the school as an institution that may do violence or may disrupt it and highlights the value of critical reflective practice for teacher and student learning as they enact/live peace education.

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