A study of Ugandan children's perspectives on peace, conflict, and peace-building: a liberation psychology approach

Abstract

Bulhan (1985, 2015) urged psychologists to advance their research and practice by attending to meta- colonialism, a structural phenomenon built on a history of violence and oppression that assaults all manner of individual, community, and societal well-being. In line with this urging, a primarily Ugandan team of researchers conducted a study of primary school children’s perspectives on conflict, peace, and peace-building. At each stage of the research process, the team members sought to recognize and resist the reproduction of meta-colonialism while move toward more emancipatory practices. In this theoretical paper, we explain how we applied a liberation psychological approach to the design, conduct and analysis of the study. We also show how the findings of the study contribute to our ongoing work in fostering structural changes in one of the schools, its surrounding region, and to the nation as a whole.