Peace Pedagogies in Bosnia and Herzegovina (eBook)

This collection presents interdisciplinary perspectives on educating for peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It explores a range of theories, contexts, pedagogies and practices within formal education settings and draws attention to the multiple roles that teachers play in fostering socially transformative learning. The volume offers readers a critical exploration of peace pedagogy as an imagined ideal and fluid space between post-war educational politics, institutional and curricular constraints, and the lived experiences and identities of teachers and students in socially and historically situated communities.

The book highlights local voices, initiatives and practices by illustrating good examples of how classrooms are being connected to communities, teacher education programs and teachers' continued professional development. It demonstrates why and how the grammars of peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina are still in a state of flux and negotiation, and what the implications are for classroom practice and pedagogy. Recommendations are offered for policymakers, curriculum developers, teacher educators and teachers on how peace pedagogies can be promoted at all levels of the education system and through pre-service and in-service teacher education, taking into account the structural uniqueness of the country.

 

Larisa Kasumagic-Kafedžic is Associate Professor at the University of Sarajevo's Faculty of Philosophy, Department of English Language and Literature. Her peacebuilding engagement began during the war in BiH when she co-founded the organization Sezam (1994-95) and worked on child war trauma, peace education and nonviolent communication with teachers and schools in conflict-affected communities. She is a 2003-04 Cornell University Hubert Humphrey Fellow Alumni. She holds an MPS in International Development and Education from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in English Language Pedagogy and Intercultural Education from the University of Sarajevo. Her teaching, writing and research interests focus on intercultural, critical and peace pedagogies in teacher education and language and culture didactics. She is the founder and president of the Peace Education Hub, established in 2020 at the University of Sarajevo. She is a visiting associate professor at Cornell University, in residence during the 2022-23 academic year as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar Fellow, where she will be lecturing and conducting research on 'Teachers as Agents of Change: Education for Peace and Social Responsibility '. 

Sara Clarke-Habibi was the 2021 Georg Arnold Senior Fellow on Education for Sustainable Peace at the Georg Eckert Institute in Braunschweig, Germany, during the production of this volume. She currently works in the Division for Peace at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research. Her peacebuilding work in Bosnia and Herzegovina began in 2000 when she collaborated closely with primary and secondary schools in the early post-war period on peace education, psychosocial recovery, peacebuilding and reconciliation. She has since worked as a peacebuilding, peace psychology and education consultant with the UN, RYCO, GIZ, forumZFD and UNITAR for countries across the Western Balkans 6, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Africa. She earned an MPhil and PhD from the University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education, as a Gates Cambridge Scholar. Her research and teaching explore interactions between conflict, peace and education in conflict and post-conflict environments. She is the author of numerous scientific articles and four comprehensive manuals on peacebuilding through education in formal and non-formal settings.