The Role of School Textbooks in Promoting Peace Education in Punjab.

Khadija Aftab and Fouzia Sadaf

Abstract

School textbooks play an important role in promoting and disseminating the prominent ideology of society. The government of Punjab has been claiming that it has added tolerance and peace promoting content to the textbooks. This research examines school textbooks' role in promoting peace education in Punjab, Pakistan to determine the claim made by the government. There has been limited discussion in the literature on the positionality of textbooks in promoting peace in Pakistan. The methodological approach in this research is qualitative, based on discourse analysis to investigate sixth through eighth-grade textbooks. The research has explored various themes relevant to peace education. The findings of this study suggest that variations exist across the various levels of textbooks in terms of content promoting peace and the emphasis on the values of acceptance, sympathy, and tolerance. Based on the findings we recommend that both the quantity and quality of textbook content promoting the role of peace, tolerance, and harmony in shaping inclusive social structures and relations must be improved to promote peace ideology in the youth of Pakistan.