Hlaing, Sa Phyo Arkar Myo; (2025) Analysing UNESCO's education for peace and sustainable development curriculum in Myanmar through a postcolonial lens

Since the 1990s, a model of peace education focusing on attitudinal and behavioural change has been implemented globally in conflict-affected contexts. This article examines the content of UNESCO’s ‘Education for Peace and Sustainable Development’ (EPSD) programme delivered in Myanmar through the lens of Santos’ (2016) ‘Epistemologies of the South.’ The analysis reveals potential limitations of the EPSD programme in two areas: 1) it features often-used conceptions of peace and sustainability with limited integration of local epistemologies, and 2) it emphasises individual behavioural change for sustainable development without paying sufficient attention to structural factors. This article argues that these limitations risk creating blind spots that may unintentionally marginalise local knowledge systems. This article, therefore, proposes opportunities for developing an ecology of knowledges that integrates both well-established and locally embedded conceptions in the effort of peacebuilding in Myanmar while also balancing the focus between structural and individual analysis to better understand sustainable development.