One of the greatest threats to sustainable futures in today’s world is violent conflict. The causes and effects of violent conflict (including cycles of fragility, widespread psychosocial ill-health, inequality, poverty, and... [ view full abstract ]
One of the greatest threats to sustainable futures in today’s world is violent conflict. The causes and effects of violent conflict (including cycles of fragility, widespread psychosocial ill-health, inequality, poverty, and injustice, along with the environmental impacts that these produce) are antithetical to the notion of a ‘sustainable society’.
With extreme violence directly affecting over a third of the world’s population, “Learning for Sustainable Futures” necessitates that greater attention and resources be directed towards peacebuilding, characterized by social healing, transitional justice, and inclusive development.
While it is generally accepted that schools can play a vital role in these processes, in reality conflict-affected and post-conflict environments often lack the minimum requirements to enable teaching, learning, and development of this type. Concerns over basic needs, entangled with the legacies of violence, competing political and economic agendas, a lack of social trust, patchy teacher training, and poorly functioning institutions are some of the issues that can undermine popular and political will to work for sustainable futures.
This paper proposes that in conflict-affected and post-conflict environments, Learning for Sustainable Futures can be enabled by four processes:
a) A phased understanding of post-conflict reconstruction and development
b) A social-ecological approach to sectoral analysis, planning and monitoring
c) Investment in peacebuilding values, skills, and agency
d) Leveraging alliances to harmonize educational policies, resources, opportunities and practices
The paper illustrates these propositions by drawing upon on-going education research in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the post-war period (2000-present).
