Learning Lessons of Truth and Reconciliation in Post-Apartheid South Africa: ‘Coming to Terms with the Past’ through Peace Education?

Özker Kocadal ()
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Özker Kocadal: Cyprus International University

A chapter in Peace as Nonviolence, 2024, pp 153-163 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was formed in 1995 in order to uncover the truth about human rights abuses of the apartheid era. Although the commission’s work has been widely considered as exemplary, the truth and reconciliation lessons are yet to be fully adopted by the wider South African society. This chapter first focuses on the discussion of the TRC as part of the coverage of the antiapartheid struggle in curricula of South African primary and secondary schools. The current reform effort of history education at schools by the History Ministerial Task Team (MTT) is subsequently examined to assess whether this effort can benefit peace education. The findings indicate that the reform effort is essentially about making history a compulsory subject with an Africanist perspective and that it is likely to fail in promoting the TRC’s lessons of forgiveness and peaceful coexistence. The chapter ultimately proposes a social and emotional learning (SEL) methodology, along with compulsory history lessons, that can be implemented by South African authorities to further the TRC’s lessons.

Keywords: South Africa; Antiapartheid; TRC (Truth and Reconciliation Commission); Peace Education; SEL (Social and Emotional Learning) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:aaechp:978-3-031-52905-4_13

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-52905-4_13

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