Book Review Michalinos Zembylas, EMOTION AND TRAUMATIC CONFLICT: Reclaiming Healing in Education, Oxford University Press, 2015. (original) (raw)
Related papers
International Review of Education, 2012
ABSTRACT Drawing into a discussion of the politicisation of emotion, this paper develops a framework to analyse some of the processes and strategies by which educational policies and pedagogical practices “emotionalise” the representation of refugees in conflict-ridden societies such as Cyprus and explores the implications for peace education. In particular, this paper aims to refine our understanding of how emotions affect the ways in which educational policies and practices reproduce self-other dichotomies through certain representations of the refugee experience. It is argued that these dichotomies are relevant to the emotional reactions against peace education initiatives. Second, this paper examines alternative possibilities of promoting peaceful coexistence, while taking into consideration the affective (re)production of refugee representations yet without undermining the refugee experience. Better understanding of how emotion is involved will help educational policymakers and teachers in divided societies to take into account the hitherto poorly developed aspects of the ways in which emotions, the refugee experience and peace education are inextricably intertwined.
Dilemmas of Justice in Peace/Coexistence Education: Affect and the Politics of Identity
Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 2008
The notion of "politics of mourning" refers to the ways that politics and mourning intersect (e.g. and personal stories blend with collective ones with important political and educational implications. The notion of the nationalization of mourning (Butler, 2004) is certainly not new, and the argument about how mourning is highly politicized is not the most important contribution of engaging in this comparative exploration. What we want to focus, instead, is on exploring mourning not only as a ritual of existential, political or emotional meaning, but also as a critical educational praxis that has the potential to subvert normative educational practices in relation to the Other-who may be despised as responsible for "our" loss in the first place. To paraphrase Felman and Laub (1992), we examine whether there is a relation between mourning and pedagogy: Can mourning instruct pedagogy, and can pedagogy shed light on the mystery of mourning? This paper suggests the need for a critical analysis of the nationalization of mourning and its educational implications. Through our analysis of the politics of mourning in the conflict societies of Cyprus and Israel and the pedagogical openings that are created, we highlight two ideas. First, we want to show how a comparison of our studies in Cyprus and Israel highlights the difficulties for alterative interpretations to be translated into educational policies and teacher practices in the absence of changes in political structures. We discuss the forces that act to nationalize mourning in both societies and investigate how educators might marshal these forces-rather than rejecting or simply ignoring them-to advance mutual understanding and reconciliation (see ).
What's anger got to do with it? Towards a post-indignation pedagogy for communities in conflict
Social Identities
We argue that anger tends to be naturalized and normalized in social and educational theory and our goal is to problematize the too easy justification of indignation as an emotional resource in political and pedagogical work. Instead we wish to propose the broad contours of a post-indignation pedagogy as a frame for rethinking racism and redefining antiracist and dialogic pedagogy. In the first part of the paper, we offer a genealogy of anger in conflict communities; in particular, our analysis explores the emotionally saturated discourses of anger in our home countries (Australia and Cyprus). In our second move, we draw on figures such as Seneca, Buddhism and Judith Butler for reframings of anger. The reframe we are proposing interrogates two extremes – resignation to anger and resignation from anger – and proposes a ‘middle way’ between these two. Thirdly, in rejecting these two extremes, the paper speculates on possibility of pedagogies of ‘conviviality’, borrowing from Gilroy.
Studies in Philosophy and Education, 2024
Two recent lines of inquiry that have emerged in educational philosophy and research are the turn to affect theory and the call for decolonising education. Although there have been some efforts to bring these two lines of inquiry together and inform educational philosophy and research, there is still important conceptual work to be done, especially in the context of peace education, our focus in this paper. To initiate this work, we consider the concepts of affective atmospheres and atmospheric attunements that have been discussed within the context of affect theory. Drawing on these two concepts, we argue that fundamental to any attempts to decolonising peace education is elucidating the coloniality of affects. This is a necessary step towards dismantling the colonial affects that permeate peace education praxis and are maintained through perceptions of peace and conflict embedded within a Western, Eurocentric frame. The paper analyses the theoretical insights emerging from bringing these concepts together to bear on the decolonisation of peace education and discusses some political possibilities that are also enabled.
CYPRUS REVIEW-NICOSIA- …, 2006
"Being raised in a divided country, we are deeply concerned with the ideological and affective practices that are used to perpetuate the existing stereotypes about the Other within each community. Using as a point of departure our own personal narratives – one of us is a Greek Cypriot (G/C) and the other Turkish Cypriot (T/C) – depicting the circulation of nationalistic technologies in education, this paper examines the prospects of peace and reconciliation education in Cyprus. The premise on which this paper rests – that nationalistic education is a problem – is not new; that premise is not the most important contribution of this paper. The more important contribution is the analysis and sorting through the G/C and T/C nationalistic pedagogical practices, to figure out ways to disrupt those practices and invoke pedagogies of reconciliation and peace in both communities. We also emphasise the importance of considering personal narratives of past trauma in critical terms to help us re-learn the wisdom of forgetting in order to remember that the weight of the past should not stand in the way of the future. "
Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education, 2011
Background/Context Emotions often accompany discussions of ethnic matters, yet there have been few sustained investigations in education of how, and with what implications, emotional responses are (de)legitimized in the classroom, especially when conflicting historical narratives are involved. Emotions have remained in the margins of educational research about the ways in which historical narratives are dealt with in schools, or at best, they are regarded as epiphenomena rather than constitutive components in teaching practice. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The main objective of this article is to help us better understand how both emotions and historical narratives are constituted and operate interactively at the level of both the individual and the social-political structures within school and the wider society. The particular event on which we focus the present analysis—a classroom activity on the death of Yasser Arafat—was chosen because it is representative...
Education and the Dangerous Memories of Historical Trauma: Narratives of Pain, Narratives of Hope
Curriculum Inquiry, 2008
The purpose of this article is to explore the meanings and implications of dangerous memories in two different sites of past traumatic memories: one in Israel and the other in Cyprus. Dangerous memories are defined as those memories that are disruptive to the status quo, that is, the hegemonic culture of strengthening and perpetuating existing group-based identities. Our effort is to outline some insights from this endeavor—insights that may help educators recognize the potential of dangerous memories to ease pain and offer hope. First, a discussion on memory, history and identity sets the ground for discussing the meaning and significance of dangerous memories in the history curriculum. Next, we narrate two stories from our longitudinal ethnographic studies on trauma and memory in Israel and Cyprus; these stories are interpreted through the lens of dangerous memories and their workings in relation to the hegemonic powers that aim to sustain collective memories. The two different stories suggest that collective memories of historical trauma are not simply “transmitted” in any simple way down the generations—although there are powerful workings that support this transmission. Rather, there seems to be much ambivalence in the workings of memories that under some circumstances may create openings for new identities. The final section discusses the possibilities of developing a pedagogy of dangerous memories by highlighting educational implications that focus on the notion of creating new solidarities without forgetting past traumas. This last section employs dangerous memories as a critical category for pedagogy in the context of our general concern about the implications of memory, history and identity in educational contexts.