Peace Education in Guatemala and the Lack Thereof: An Examination of the Effects of the 1998 Educational Reform Following the 1996 Peace Accords.

Abstract

This thesis is an examination of the effects of the 1998 educational reform following the 1996 Peace Accords, on education in Guatemala and the extent to which it has constituted peace education. In order to observe the correlation between said educational reform and the final educational result, which was preliminarily assumed to constitute peace education, this research applies the qualitative research methods of participant observation and semi-structured interviews. The data collected demonstrates a lack of peace education, which in turn exposed a significant gap between peace education theory and peace education in practice. In order to not only show this gap, but also demonstrate why this gap between theory and practice can be harmful for future application, this thesis takes the reader through the research step by step. After a discussion of the theory and methods, the background of the Guatemalan armed conflict is addressed, as well as the continuing tension between the ladino and the indigenous population. With the context in which the research was conducted in mind, this thesis will examine all observations at both private and public schools, as well as the conclusions from the interviews. In the analysis it will demonstrate how these observations conclusively show the lack of peace education, and finally the explain the harmful potential of a peace education theory that contains a gap between its theory and the practice.