Theoretical and political implications of agonistic peace for decolonising peace education

Abstract

Discussions on the importance of decolonising peace education have become prevalent in recent years with continuing presence of coloniality and Eurocentrism in peace education coming under sustained critiqued. In this article, we contribute to discussions on decolonising peace education by bringing it together with the notion of agonistic politics, and specifically the concepts of agonistic peace and agonistic decolonisation. Through drawing on two common peace education programmes in the South African context, namely Facing History Facing Ourselves and Peace Clubs, we explore the potential that the concepts of agonistic peace and agonistic decolonisation offer to enrich debates on decolonising peace education. We argue that the analysis of these programmes through the lens of these concepts holds important theoretical and political implications for conceptualising peace and peace education as it enables one to understand these as open-ended and dynamic, alluding to the presence of alternative epistemologies and ontologies of peace that are entangled with politics that challenge Eurocentrism’s (supposed) universalism. This, we suggest, is vital for understanding the decolonisation of peace education as a long and complex process, rather than a one-off event.