Introduction

We have both been involved for years now in the practical implementation and theoretical and empirical research of peace education in our respective countries, Northern Ireland and Israel. Alongside many, we have watched in recent decades the worldwide rise of ethnic tensions and sectarianism followed by bloody conflicts that, at times, seemed able to reach nothing but deadlock. With others, we share a faith in education as a possible solution to ethnic conflict. We want to emphasize the possible as we are not naive. We realize that institutionalized educational efforts can have and have had multiple uses, at times encouraging hatred and prejudice as much as, at times, actively becoming involved in trying to prevent them. We strongly believe education has a task, an important task to play in negotiating our views regarding that which is human and in need of dignity and recognition but we also know that education, all by itself, cannot achieve these goals. We see sustained educational efforts toward peace as a necessary, but not sufficient, condition that when unsupported by structural (visible political-economical-social) change might waiver. We maintain that peace education needs not only to struggle against dysfunctional human relationships but must also commit itself to more critical approaches through which to disclose the historical forces and political structures that generate and sustain conflict in our world.