When projects of ‘empowerment’ don’t liberate

Locating agency in a ‘postcolonial’ peace education

Bibliographic Data

ID12875855
AuthorsRoozbeh Shirazi (0000-0002-9134-5754, Columbia University, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume8
Issue3
Pages277-294
Publication date2011-10-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Peace Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1740-0201 • E-ISSN: 1740-021X
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17400201.2011.621370
OpenAlexW2078085025
LanguageEN
Citations received25
References cited21

By juxtaposing male secondary student and teacher classroom practices with a postcolonial analysis of the structural and discursive forces that characterize education reform in Jordan, this study draws attention to the ways that authoritarian regimes may coopt peace education language and concepts, such as ‘dialogue’ and ‘empowerment’, to create a democratic veneer for neoliberal educational projects. Jordanian (along with other Arab and Muslim) male youth are often discursively positioned in transnational accounts as objects of educational intervention requiring assistance to become democratic and empowered citizens rather than subjects of self-empowerment. Employing a postcolonial framework of centering ‘marginalized’ voices, then, challenges prevalent cultural representations of Jordanian youth as ‘vulnerable’ and allows scholars and practitioners to see how students enact agency and contest sociopolitical norms in everyday practices of schooling. Using ethnographic data collected in two government secondary schools in Jordan, the author highlights satirical practices in different venues as a means by which male secondary students subvert such structural constraints and exercise transformative agency in schools. These findings are then related back to the need for critical educators to engage with local knowledge and meanings to become more effective practitioners and scholars in the field across diverse sociopolitical and economic contexts

Agency (philosophy · Authoritarianism · CONTEST · Democracy · Empowerment · Ethnography · Pedagogy · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Transformative learning · Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy · Gender Studies · Law · Peace and Human Rights Education · Peacebuilding and International Security