There is growing evidence to support the relationship between levels of gender inequality in a society and its potential for conflict. Positive attitudes to gender equality in and through education strengthen social cohesion; consequently, there is a need for gender-transformative education for peacebuilding. Drawing on the 4Rs (representation, redistribution, recognition, and reconciliation) framework in conjunction with the idea of incremental transformation with a focus on resilience, this study examines how eleven ethnic minority high school girls from Sri Lanka understand the transformative role of education in their lives as it relates to peace and gender equality. Education was a source of hope for the participants of this study and thus contributed to their resilience. However, rather than fostering and capitalizing on this resilience to build social cohesion and peace, education and the school systems are silencing them. This silencing is evident in the acceptance and normalization of militarization in their communities, daily experiences of gender-based violence (GBV), and the message, through the formal and informal curriculum, that gender equality has been achieved in Sri Lanka.

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1211937.pdf

Incremental Transformations: Education for Resiliency in Post-War Sri Lanka

Green growth is recognized as an adequate mechanism to decelerate environmental turmoil. However, empirical evidence on what determines sustainable economic growth is still underexplored. Apprehending the importance of financial liberalization, human capital, and militarization in the South Asian region, we investigate their short- and long-run effects on green growth using data from 1990 to 2017. To address the cross-sectional dependency (CD) and heterogeneity issue, second-generation cointegration estimation techniques are employed. The findings show a stable and long-run relationship between financial liberalization, human capital, military expenditures, and green growth. The results of CS-ARDL also show the positive long-run effect of financial liberalization and human capital while the negative effect of militarization on green growth. Nonetheless, the interaction effects show the darker side of human capital and the brighter side of militarization in the presence of more financial openness. Results were further validated using the Augmented Mean Group (AMG) and Dumitrescu-Hurlin Granger causality test, highlighting the need to optimally utilize military expenditures, financial liberalization, and human capital for the sustainable growth of the region.

Greening South Asia with Financial Liberalization, Human Capital, and Militarization: Evidence from the CS-ARDL Approach

Citizenship education (CE) is increasingly implemented in national curricula, often as an independent subject. In this article we examine the first official citizenship textbooks for South Sudan secondary education since independence in 2011. We analyse four textbooks, observing a multifaceted and at times contradictory understanding of the kind of citizens the new textbooks promote. Our findings point to a case of ‘authoritarian cosmopolitan citizenship’, coined here as a concept envisioning a loyal cosmopolitan citizen who is uncritical of both government and international actors and the activities, norms and values they promote.

Authoritarian cosmopolitan citizenship in the new nation of South Sudan: Insights from a secondary school textbook analysis

This study critically examines the discursive reconstruction of ethnic hierarchies in English language textbooks used in public schools in post-conflict Sri Lanka. Set against a social and politica...

The discursive construction of ethnic hierarchies in textbooks in a time of post-conflict reconciliation

The Representation of Peace Values in the English Textbook Entitled “Bahasa Inggris When English Rings A Bell Smp/Mts Kelas VII

Focusing on Sri Lanka, this article complements existing research on the adoption of global norms and discourses around peace education by illuminating the tensions between global and local demands...

Teaching peace in the midst of civil war: tensions between global and local discourses in Sri Lankan civics textbooks

The 2016 evaluations of New Zealand's Cool Schools and the leadership through peer mediation (LtPM) programs revealed positive results regarding improved self-esteem among peer mediators, increased perceptions of safety in the schooling environment, and increased conflict resolution and interpersonal communication skills. This chapter highlights the contribution of these peer-mediation programs. The authors then turn to problems, inequalities, and peace education practices within the New Zealand schooling environment to explain how the Cool Schools and LtPM programs are relevant in solving wider societal problems. The chapter finally focuses on examining the drivers of success in both programs and the broader ethos of the Peace Foundation Aotearoa/New Zealand, which enables its success.

Marie Nissanka

Papers

Teaching peace in the midst of civil war: tensions between global and local discourses in Sri Lankan civics textbooks

Examining the Drivers of Success in the Peace Foundation Aotearoa/New Zealand Peer-Mediation Programs