Microsoft Word - IFP V 16 Gerstner & Shin.docx Volume 16 Number 1 (2022): 91-94 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 91 Volume 16 Number 1 (2022): 91-94 http://www.infactispax.org/journal ISSN 2578-6857 Review of Maria Hantzopoulos and Monisha Bajaj, Educating for Peace and Human Rights: An Introduction (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021). 188 pp., $36.95 (paperback), ISBN: 9781350129719 Reviewed by Nicki Gerstner, Seoul National University, nickigerstner@gmail.com and Jungyoon Shin, Seoul National University, jungyoonshin@snu.ac.kr This book offers a very important, although very condensed, primer for Peace Education and Human Rights Education and how the fields intersect to move forward as Peace and Human Rights Education or liberatory education. The introduction examines the intersections of the two fields and brings the reader into the dialogue of implementation: challenges and possibilities. Hantzopoulos and Bajaj build from Freire’s (1970) “problem tree” heuristic, in which the leaves represent the symptoms of a problem; the trunk represents the attitudes and beliefs “that keep the symptoms in play” (p.3); and the roots represent systematic/structural sources. From this they conceptualized a “possibility tree” to illustrate “what a culture of peace, justice, and human rights looks like” (p. 7). The leaves represent the articulation of the concepts as they are manifested in lived experiences; the trunk represents education as the embodiment of these concepts; and the roots represent fundamental concepts of Peace Education and Human Rights Education. The problem tree represents challenges and the possibility tree offers a collaborative and participatory envisioning of new worlds or solutions to encourage action. This book is divided into four thematic sections discussing (i.) Peace Education (ii.) Human Rights Education (iii.) bridging the fields: Liberatory Education; and (iv.) current discourse and ways forward. The practical examples in Volume 16 Number 1 (2022): 91-94 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 92 chapters 2 and 4, provide perspectives from the Global North and the Global South respectively and are divided into community and schooling contexts to represent the diverse applicability of the fields. The first part of the book discusses the theory and practice of peace education (PE). This section does justice to PE by revealing that it is not an idle, abstract concept but a vibrant, active field of practice, aiming to undo violence and lay the foundations for sustainable peace. PE emerged as a named field in the early nineteenth century Europe. It was during this time that people started to question the dominant framework of “peace through war or armament” and began considering ways to achieve peace through justice and nonviolence (p. 18). PE was further developed after World War II, with a renewed commitment to world peace and global citizenship. PE seeks to attain “comprehensive peace”, which is not only the absence of direct violence (i.e., negative peace) but also the pursuit of justice and societal wellbeing (i.e., positive peace) (p. 20). Chapter 2 then exemplifies two transformative PE cases in practice: the Truth Telling Project (TTP) and school-based restorative justice in New York City public schools. The two practices place students and community at the center and tackles the very real forms of violence they experience. By reading about PE’s emphasis on agency and dignity, readers come to recognize how PE allows for empowerment and transformation. The second part covers Human Rights Education’s (HRE) history, theories, and practices. The authors discuss the origins of HRE and focus on its modern adoption in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948 with specific mention regarding education. Fascinatingly, HRE momentum and institutionalization is relatively recent, starting with the 1993 Vienna Declaration and Program of Action and high-profile global institutions backing HRE initiatives. Even with the global institutionalization of HRE, it continues to be implemented in community-based settings and varies depending on the context and approach. Table 3.1 by Nancy Flowers (pp. 56-57) presents a helpful conceptual framework for HRE and beginners trying to understand goals, concepts, practices, problems, and implementation. This section covers approaches, conceptual orientations, and scholarship. It discusses how informal education can create space for collective and participatory HRE where it’s needed most. Additionally, transformative and decolonial strands of HRE are covered. The practical examples in Chapter 4 are based in the Global South: India’s People’s Watch implementing HRE nationwide through its Institute for Human Rights Education (IHRE) operating in “government-run schools” and a Bangladesh NGO, BRAC (Building Resources Across Communities) providing HRE as a “foundation for legal, advocacy, and community mobilization strategies … tailored to the realities of poor, rural women” Volume 16 Number 1 (2022): 91-94 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 93 (p. 90). Both provided a portrayal of how individual communities can inculcate HRE with meaning and relevance in their specific contexts. The third part begins with a new conceptualization of the possibility tree, as the authors contextualize liberatory education through PE, HRE, and Social Justice Education. Together, in the trunk of a banyan tree, the fields fuse in their goals to respect inherent dignity, promote transformative agency, and develop the capability to act for positive social change. The foundational concepts of liberatory education make the roots; while the leaves represent the outcomes that the field adopts, such as “positive peace, negative peace ...and global citizenship” (p. 96). This specific tree was chosen for its unique feature to make new roots, representing the renewal of the field through reflexivity and growth. The authors suggest that renewal could be expressed through decolonial ethics and the concept of the “pluriverse” in which many worlds coexist within one (p. 113). In line with the leaves as outcomes, we would like to offer suggestions to better encourage growth in the book and audience. While this book offers a glimpse of what works, it neglects implementations that may perpetuate conflict. While PE and HRE may offer practical alternatives to critical theories, scholars should remain critical of the gaps between policy and practice. In this book, examples of contextual practice that may have caused harm when the intention was to do the opposite would be an important insight into unintended outcomes. Moving toward liberatory education, PE and HRE must continue to validate their effectiveness within various communities and prove that the cases mentioned in chapters 2 and 4 were not unique, intrinsic cases, but an instrumental representation of a greater possibility of application. The fourth part of this book leaves readers with five lessons to consider when bridging theory with praxis: (1) the nature of peace and HRE are relational and contextual; (2) Eurocentric frameworks for peace and HRE must be challenged; (3) concepts of peace and HRE should be critically reflected upon implementation; (4) complex analyses of violence and power must be preceded; and finally (5) examples of effective peace and HRE can inspire action in other fields (pp. 116- 117). These lessons may serve as the basic premise for researchers to further develop peace and HRE into a more “efficacious and responsive” practice. With this in mind, the book concludes with advice from senior scholars about the way forward. They suggest applying and conjoining ideas from other theories such as postcolonial/decolonial studies, feminist studies, and affect theory for a more “robust conceptual engagement” with the fields (pp. 122-125). Liberatory education may complement these critical approaches by offering a meaningful Volume 16 Number 1 (2022): 91-94 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 94 praxis with empirical data that demonstrates its positive influence on students and community (pp. 35-50, 79-93). This book will be a useful resource for young scholars or new practitioners who are looking to visualize and conceptualize the frameworks for praxes in understanding the fields; how they could be practiced; their similarities, synergies, and deviations; and possibilities for their transformation.