Many scholars have discussed the complexities of teaching and learning about past conflicts. However, teaching history during ongoing war and occupation is even more difficult and controversial. This paper posits teachers as agents of peacebuilding, influencing how their students come to understand dynamics of conflict, violence, and peace The aim of this paper is to describe a training methodology that addresses history teaching in protracted conflict and discuss its implications for diverse classroom practices in teaching difficult history in divided societies. The training project, supported by the Civil Peace Service and financed by the German government through Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH Ukraine, was designed to increase the capacity of history teachers to address conflictual and controversial histories. The project took place in Dnipro, Ukraine during June-December 2021. 53 teachers took part in training activities with a core group of 25 teachers participating in all activities of the program. The implications of the training for teaching history in societies experiencing protracted conflict was analyzed using a mixed-methods approach: data was collected through focus group discussions with participants and through a short open-ended questionnaire.
Author Bio(s)
Karina V. Korostelina is a Professor and a Director of the Peace Lab on Reconciling Conflict and Intergroup Divisions at the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, GMU. She conducts research on the dynamics of identity and power in protracted conflicts. Her recent interests include the study of national and community resilience, reconciliation, and role of memory and history in conflict and post-conflict societies. She has been Fulbright New Century Scholar and fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center, the Eckert Institute, National University of Singapore, East-West Center, Institute for Advanced Studies at Waseda University, Northeast Asia Foundation, Central European University, and the Bellagio Center of the Rockefeller foundation. She has received 44 grants from such Foundations as MacArthur, Luce, Spencer, Ebert, and Soros, the US Institute of Peace, US National Academy of Education, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of USDS, USAID, INTAS, IREX, and Council of Europe. The results of her research are presented in more than 90 articles and chapters. She is an author or editor of 16 books including authorship of Neighborhood Resilience and Urban Conflict (2021), Trump Effect (2016), International Insult: How Offence Contributes to Conflict (2014), Constructing Narrative of Identity and Power (2013), History Education in the Formation of Social Identity (2013), Why they die? (2012), The Social Identity and Conflict (2007). Among her edited books are: History Can Bite - History Education in Divided and Post-War Societies (2016), History Education and Post-Conflict Reconciliation (2013), Forming a Culture of Peace (2012), Civilians and Modern War (2012), Identity, Morality and Threat (2006).
Keywords
Ukraine, War, Peace Education, History Education, Identity conflict
Recommended Citation
Korostelina, Karina
(2023)
"War and Peace in Ukraine: Training for History Teachers on Dynamics of Peace and Conflict,"
Peace and Conflict Studies: Vol. 29:
No.
2, Article 3.
Available at:
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/pcs/vol29/iss2/3
