Beyond reality dissonance

improving sustainability of peace education effects

Yigal Rosen

pp. 131-146

in: Carmel Borg, Michael Grech (eds), Lorenzo Milani's culture of peace, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014

Abstract

Peace education in a region of intractable conflict faces a negative sociopolitical environment that works against its effects. The media, leadership, educational system, and other societal institutions continue to express a culture of conflict. In the light of these barriers, it would make sense to assume that peace education programs do not stand much of a chance of being truly effective. Indeed, recent studies show that the effects of peace education programs are short-lived and methods to sustain the effects over time are needed. The present chapter describes the societal-psychological climate of intractable conflict, the goals of peace education in such regions, the challenges of achieving these goals, and possible ways to overcome these challenges. Peace education programs should be designed to effectively manage the "reality dissonance" between the sought-for effects and sociopolitical environment. Mechanisms for sustaining educational change are described along with a model for program design. Finally the chapter offers several conclusions and directions for future research.