Scaffolding for peacebuilding dialogues: A relational perspective of peace education in countries with sociopolitical violence.

This article summarizes and organizes previous research on peace education in Colombia in which several relational principles are addressed to illustrate how these ideas can contribute to peacebuilding via classroom settings. The conceptual scheme of reference can guide pedagogical practices that promote a culture of peace, while offering a methodology to implement these concepts. The methodology described in this article has been called Scaffolding for Peacebuilding Dialogues, which is a practice of teaching and learning dialogue that seeks to transform polarized discourses and develop students; skills in understanding that there are different ways of perceiving, framing, and experiencing armed conflict. It is a method for students to constructively talk about deeply divisive topics related to sociopolitical violence and to establish a dialogue that shifts away from communication patterns reinforcing and perpetuating polarization to conversations in which participants are able to better understand each other values, concerns, and motivations. In this way, the reader will find a theoretical and practical framework, which consists of three phases of the dialogical space: The first involves the construction of a relational context and goals to be achieved. The second phase involves the deconstruction of polarized narratives. Finally, the third phase focuses on the development and critical reflexivity which is the process of doubting what is unequivocally accepted as real and true around a single narrative about armed conflict, willing to recognize the legitimacy of other frames of truth. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved) <strong xmlns:lang="en">Public Significance Statement—This study advances the idea that dialogical practices in peace education are critical to transform social practices that maintain and legitimize violence. Additionally, it highlights the risk of a single narrative about armed conflict and the importance to recognize the legitimacy of other frames of truth as a new thrust toward a culture of peace.