Keeping the Myth of Building Back Better Alive by Turning a Blind Eye to the Dearth of Evidence? [Review of: C. Harber (2019) Schooling for peaceful development in post-conflict societies: Education for transformation?]

Reviews the book, Schooling for Peaceful Development in Post-Conflict Societies: Education for Transformation by Clive Harber (2019). In the first four chapters, Harber sets the scene by defining key concepts and by presenting an overview of the current literature. Chapter 1 focuses on education and conflict, discussing in more depth the authoritarian nature of formal schooling. In Chapter 2, he sheds light on the “positive face” of education, summarizing how education can contribute to peace with a particular focus on the structure of education, the curriculum, teaching and learning practices, relationships, and daily practices. Chapter 3 continues along the same lines, describing in more detail how specific interventions can help to fulfill education’s peacebuilding potential. Chapter 4 closes the descriptive part of the book with a presentation of Colombia as a (partial) success story in transforming education postconflict focusing predominantly on the Escuela Nueva initiative. Chapter 5, first, summarizes the evidence in the area of school governance, management, and ethos (Chapter 5), organized by continent. Next, Chapters 6 and 7 focus on evidence collected on peace education in Africa (6), and Asia and the Middle East (7), respectively. Harber then turns to the evidence on the subjects of history and religion (Chapter 8) and citizenship education (Chapter 9). The latter chapter also zooms in on teaching methods. Chapter 10 wraps up the evidence review, with an overview of studies conducted in postconflict developing countries not covered so far, including among others the Central African Republic, Myanmar, etc. Chapter 11 concludes, ruling that education has failed “as a vehicle for peaceful transformation.” In the reviewer's opinion, the book rightly calls attention to the lack of evidence on the impact and effectiveness of peacebuilding interventions in formal education in postconflict developing countries (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)