Towards a pedagogy of reconciliation and transformation: A peace education through art initiative in response to 26/11

The 26/11 Mumbai attacks in India severely impacted the already strained Indo–Pak political relations and fuelled prejudice against the common people of Pakistan. Since the attacks, Indian people have found various expressions of collective memory and ways to commemorate the incident. While these serve as a remembrance of the attack, it also reinforces negative attitudes towards Pakistan and its people, hindering any prospects of peace and reconciliation. This article describes a peace education through art initiative implemented in a high school in Mumbai. It draws from a synergy of theoretical concepts in peace, reconciliation and conflict transformation for its curricular framework that has three inquiry processes: Examine–Envision–Envisage. This article describes the implementation and outcomes of the initiative that support the value of an integrated peace- and reconciliation-focused art education pedagogy aimed at promoting reconciliation in relation to ongoing/intractable conflicts. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of addressing negative emotions inherent in ongoing conflicts and how empathy might contribute towards reducing prejudice towards the ‘Other’.

Cultural Humility as a Path to Equity in Higher Education

Achieving equity in higher education involves more than just closing achievement gaps and mitigating the impact of historic oppression and underrepresentation. In this chapter, the author presents a framework for cultural humility as a pathway to equity for institutions of education, as well as an approach for the professional development of cultural humility practitioners. The cultural humility framework comprises four core principles as well as five transformational skills (i.e., dialogue, inquiry, self-reflection, conflict transformation, and identity negotiation). The chapter concludes with a discussion about how to implement this framework at both the classroom and institutional levels, as well as the implications of such training for achieving greater equity in higher education.

A Model for the Development of Anti-Racist Culturally Humble Educational Practitioners

Although diversity training has become an institutional norm for businesses, schools, and organizations, the full extent of its impact remains unclear. This chapter reports on research aimed as more fully understanding the transformational journeys of diversity practitioners and discovering how they deepen their sense of cultural humility. Following a review of the evolution of diversity training, the chapter presents a theoretical framework featuring five interrelated transformational processes: dialogue, inquiry, self-reflection, conflict transformation, and identity negotiation. The chapter concludes with a discussion about how these processes can be applied to enhance the development of cultural humility and consequently better achieve the desired outcomes of diversity training. It argues for a multi-year model for the training of diversity practitioners and others committed to personal development and social change as well as a lifelong approach that supports the process of moving more deeply into a culturally humble way of being.

Conflict transformation and collaboration in developing social forestry in Flores, Indonesia

Social movements to realize forest tenure reforms have been ongoing since the 1970s, particularly through policies under the broad umbrella of social forestry. In Indonesia, social forestry programs are initiated by the government, communities, NGOs, academics, companies, and donors, and are based on specific socio-economic and ecological interests. Weak synergies, however between programmatic implementation and stakeholder interests, triggers various forest tenure conflicts. The research examines the complexity of these conflicts, namely focusing around the approaches to conflict transformation that can lead to collaboration in realizing forest sustainability that also support interests of people living in and around forests. I employed a qualitative approach by collecting data through in-depth interviews and participatory observations in Flores in 2017 and 2020. The results show that forest tenure conflicts have occurred since the 1970s due to state forest territorialization. Conflicts culminated in the determination of state forest area boundaries through the 1984 state program entitled the “consensus-based forest land use planning” initiative. Until 2008, efforts to resolve conflicts by offering the community access rights through community forestry programs initiated by the government were rejected by NGOs and the local community. NGOs facilitated communities to demand the return of state forest land as customary forest. This conflict presented the opportunity to facilitate multi-stakeholder forestry programs through a conflict transformation approach by building long-term stakeholder collaboration. Since 2010, the collaboration between stakeholders took place through the community forest program. This study shows the need for more direct attention to studying conflict resolution under an integrated and long-term approach to conflict transformation and collaboration. Pragmatically, this study shows the importance of integrated social forestry policies that synergize various schemes initiated by stakeholders to realize forest sustainability and support local community interests.

Is This Time of Global Crisis the Opportunity That Higher Education Needs?

The pandemic has badly affected the world without exception. All the domains of human existence have been impacted. Poor countries have suffered in specific and general ways for many reasons to do with a systemic lack of infrastructure, endemic poverty, and lack of appropriate resources. Action is required to find new and innovative ways to adapt education to the needs of developing societies in addressing crises such as this. The connection between conflict transformation theories and post-pandemic higher education challenges is explored with specific reference to indigenous paradigms in shaping alternative structures. This reflection is threefold: The authors reflect on how the concept of conflict transformation is relevant to the post-pandemic higher education and how the pandemic impacts Madagascar. Then, they focus on how Madagascar dealt with the pandemic through adoption of a more traditional approach. Finally, they discuss the concept of Teny ierana as a solution to the global crisis, not only in Madagascar but globally.

Transforming Congregational Conflict: An Integrated Framework for Understanding and Addressing conflict in Christian Faith Communities

<p>Churches have traditionally turned to conflict resolution measures, such as mediation, arbitration, and litigation, rather than conflict transformation approaches, when addressing congregational discord. In so doing, they miss the opportunity for constructive change that conflict presents and set themselves up for cycles of conflict to recur in the future. At the same time they diminish their self-claimed identity as followers of Jesus Christ, whose recorded teaching gives striking priority to peacemaking and reconciliation. Chapter one introduces the context for this thesis. Much work has already been done to explore biblical understandings of conflict, forgiveness and reconciliation, on the one hand, and to apply current conflict resolution practices to congregational settings on the other. However, little has been done to develop a conceptual framework that seeks to integrate biblical understandings with the insights of modern conflict analysis in a practically useful way. Chapter two of this thesis focuses on Jesus' teaching in Matthew 18 and shows why this passage is a key biblical resource for understanding and addressing congregational conflict. Chapter three examines conflict resolution theory and practice and shows why a transformational approach is the most appropriate one for addressing congregational conflict. The fourth chapter brings Jesus' teaching in Matthew 18 into a dialogue with current conflict transformation theory and practice. This conversation integrates theology and practice and clarifies the ways in which Jesus' teaching and transformative approaches to conflict both complement and enrich each other in the quest for lasting answers to the problem of congregational conflict. This thesis concludes by proposing a framework in which the many resources available might be understood and utilised in an integrated way by congregations that seek not only to enhance their capacity to respond to conflict in healthier ways, but also to embody the teachings of Christ in their midst.</p>