Conceptualizing the Use of Technology to Foster Peace via Adventure Learning

Abstract

In this paper we present and discuss the findings of a systematic literature review on the use of educational technology initiatives to foster peace outcomes, and we relate those findings to Adventure Learning. In the first section of the paper, we suggest that technology-infused peace initiatives rely predominantly on targeting antecedents to peace, such as collaboration, interaction, communication, and understanding of the “other”, rather than peace itself, while at the same time employing varied pedagogies and technologies, with limited empirical support for sustainability of claimed positive outcomes beyond the end of an intervention. These findings align with numerous aspects of the Adventure Learning approach to education. In the second section of the paper therefore, we use Adventure Learning as a way to conceptualize the task of using technology to promote peace outcomes and propose important issues that need to be considered when designing peace-seeking Adventure Learning interventions.