Promoting Peace Through Our Fingertips: Exploring Social Media as a Space for Peace Education in South African Schools

Abstract

Peace is a precious goal of humanity and should be accomplished and sustained in all ways. Peace education is a powerful means to create a peaceful and harmonious learning environment in schools. The use of social media, particularly among youth, has grown exponentially in the contemporary world of communication and revolutionised the speed and success of information sharing. If harnessed effectively, social media is a vehicle for delivering peace education to transform the schooling environment and empower learners with peace values. However, the role of social media as tool for peace is still in its infancy. This theoretical paper aims at adding to knowledge by exploring the feasibility of using social media as space for dispensing and promoting peace education as strategy to combat school violence. Informed by the integrative theory of peace, a critical qualitative review of literature guided by the interpretive paradigm addressed the question: What is the feasibility of using social media as educational space for peace education? Findings suggest that social media platforms can be used as channels to dispense and promote messages of peace, conflict management and tolerant behaviour among learners to combat school violence. Social media can be used effectively to promote peace education globally and foster peace values and behaviour that promote the culture of peace and non-violence among individuals. This paper makes a valuable contribution to literature by proposing an analytical framework that outlines how social media could be used as educational tool for peace education to combat violence in schools.