Implementing positive peace education in schools: A systematic literature review of global practices
Arystanbek A. Bukutova A. Toleu G. Parmenter L. Cremin H. Ospanbek A.
February 2026Elsevier Ltd
Educational Research Review
2026#50
Positive peace education (PPE) builds on Johan Galtungs (1969) theory of positive peace, which emphasizes the importance of addressing not only direct violence, but also structural and cultural violence, to achieve sustainable peace. This means moving beyond peacekeeping and ‘negative peace’ to transform education systems, processes, and practices that facilitate positive peace. Operationalizing PPE in schools, however, remains conceptually and practically underdeveloped, with limited shared understanding of how it can be enacted and divergent ideas of what positive peace looks like in the classroom. This paper addresses this gap through a critical interpretive synthesis of international literature to examine how teachers, students, and school communities enact PPE in curriculum, pedagogy, relationships, and everyday school life. Findings are structured into four key themes: (1) situated practice; (2) pedagogical balancing; (3) teacher and student agency, and (4) lived peace praxis. The paper makes two key contributions, providing the first critical interpretive synthesis of PPE enactment in schools, and positioning ethics of care as a generative lens to interpret, integrate, and theorize PPE as culturally grounded, relational praxis.
Critical interpretive synthesis , Ethics of care , Peace education , Positive peace , Social justice , Systematic literature review
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Nazarbayev University, Astana, 010000, Kazakhstan
Cambridge University, Cambridge, CB2 1TN, United Kingdom
Nazarbayev University
Cambridge University
10 лет помогаем публиковать статьи Международный издатель
Книга Публикация научной статьи Волощук 2026 Book Publication of a scientific article 2026