Non-formal peace education founded on European youth work: A practitioner's critical reflection

Abstract

This article is a critical self-reflection on this author's practice of non-formal peace education. Such critical reflexivity is considered integral to avoid pitfalls that could lead to the peace education activity inadvertently perpetuating structural violence – a phenomenon known as poststructural violence. Examples include unexamined assumptions about key concepts such as peace, inclusion, and rights. The article drives at the idea of discussing a concrete practice against a theoretical framework of critical peace education, exposing tensions between the two to lay the foundations for an improvement of my peace education practice. The discussion is informed by a positionality description of my own journey to become a peace education practitioner, a thematic analysis of the Erasmus+ programme, which is a key funding source, and a description of a concrete peace education project, all of which highlight influencing factors of my practice.