Review Peacebuilding in language education: Innovations in theory and practice (a review)

‘We live in a world today where peace is unprofitable’. So begins Gregory Hadley’s foreword to Peacebuilding in Language Education. Nevertheless, he goes on to say language teachers are in a special position to encourage the building of peace. Our job, he says, is not just to teach how the language works and help learners become proficient in its use but to teach in a way that fosters peacebuilding. ‘Few educators’, says Hadley, ‘have access as we do to students who come from a variety of countries and cultures. By teaching languages in ways that foster peace, we have the potential to make helpful contributions that eventually will be felt around the world’. That is what Peacebuilding in Language Education sets out to do. Organised in five sections, it contains sixteen chapters focusing on teacher personal development, the role of peacebuilding in universities and classrooms and raising critical awareness, peace language and linguistics, and classroom activities for building peace awareness and commitment to interpersonal, intergroup, intercultural, international and ecological peace.