Reframing Peace Education: A Social Identity-Based Model for Reconciliation During Conflict
Institutional Affiliation
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Start Date
January 2026
End Date
January 2026
Proposal Type
Presentation
Proposal Format
On-campus
Proposal Description
This paper introduces a social identity-based teaching model for peace education that emphasizes reconciliation practices throughout the trajectory of violence, rather than solely in its aftermath. While existing pedagogical approaches focus heavily on prevention, they often overlook the role of reconciliation when preventive strategies fail. To address this gap, the paper begins by reviewing current teaching models for understanding the escalation and de-escalation of conflicts, identifying the missing social identity and reconciliation dimensions that limit their effectiveness in fostering long-term peace and human security.
Drawing from social identity theory, the proposed framework offers a dual application: first, to understand conflict escalation through identity formation, delegitimization of the outgroup, and polarization; second, to teach reconciliation amid conflict through integration, re-humanization, and recategorization. These mechanisms provide an outline to understand shifts in behavior, rooted in core values, group norms, and ingroup/outgroup dynamics, that contribute to the escalation of violence for small and large-scale conflicts. In turn, the model offers a framework for implementing reconciliation grounded in the social identity factors that contributed to the conflict. It leverages these factors to inform and facilitate relationship restoration and cultivate forgiveness.
Methodologically, the study applies key social identity variables, including but not limited to group membership, salience, relative deprivation, collective memory, and threat narratives, to investigate how ingroup and outgroup dynamics between conflicting group structures shift during violence and how these same factors can be used to implement reconciliation and forming practices. By analyzing behavioral changes, the framework emphasizes addressing relational harms and restoring trust during ongoing conflicts to reduce the likelihood of escalation, providing a proactive strategy for strengthening human security and restoring relational trust.
Reframing Peace Education: A Social Identity-Based Model for Reconciliation During Conflict
This paper introduces a social identity-based teaching model for peace education that emphasizes reconciliation practices throughout the trajectory of violence, rather than solely in its aftermath. While existing pedagogical approaches focus heavily on prevention, they often overlook the role of reconciliation when preventive strategies fail. To address this gap, the paper begins by reviewing current teaching models for understanding the escalation and de-escalation of conflicts, identifying the missing social identity and reconciliation dimensions that limit their effectiveness in fostering long-term peace and human security.
Drawing from social identity theory, the proposed framework offers a dual application: first, to understand conflict escalation through identity formation, delegitimization of the outgroup, and polarization; second, to teach reconciliation amid conflict through integration, re-humanization, and recategorization. These mechanisms provide an outline to understand shifts in behavior, rooted in core values, group norms, and ingroup/outgroup dynamics, that contribute to the escalation of violence for small and large-scale conflicts. In turn, the model offers a framework for implementing reconciliation grounded in the social identity factors that contributed to the conflict. It leverages these factors to inform and facilitate relationship restoration and cultivate forgiveness.
Methodologically, the study applies key social identity variables, including but not limited to group membership, salience, relative deprivation, collective memory, and threat narratives, to investigate how ingroup and outgroup dynamics between conflicting group structures shift during violence and how these same factors can be used to implement reconciliation and forming practices. By analyzing behavioral changes, the framework emphasizes addressing relational harms and restoring trust during ongoing conflicts to reduce the likelihood of escalation, providing a proactive strategy for strengthening human security and restoring relational trust.