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Decolonising Peace Education in Africa

Decolonising Education for Peace in Africa

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About the Call

What is DEPA?

Decolonising Education for Peace in Africa (DEPA) is an Arts and Humanities Research Council Funded project (UK Research and Innovation) which will address the question:

‘What are the different knowledges and values underpinning peace and how can these practices be connected and compared across countries to create curriculum content and mode of delivery in informal and formal, Secondary and Higher Education (HE), to decolonise peace education?’

Originally operating across 5 countries – Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Zimbabwe and the UK– the project has now expanded through the commissioning of 4 additional projects, to Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya and Sierra Leone (Phase II projects).  The project will, for the first time, provide new data based on arts and humanities methodologies on how peace is understood within displaced and marginalised communities. Researchers, community workers and communities that have experienced conflict will connect to produce state of the art knowledge. The project will enable peace educators by developing context sensitive pedagogic content and design of delivery for use among people aged 16-35.

This network aims to respond to the pressing need for alternative knowledges and values in peace education curricula, which go beyond the Eurocentric dominated approaches of past decades, as a way of addressing problems of conflict and violence in Africa. It will produce quality Open Educational Resource (OER) materials for peace education using a comprehensive framework for peace informed by local, contextualised, gendered knowledges and values underpinning peace. It will connect academics and community organisations across multiple the DEPA Network, compare findings obtained through use of arts and humanities methodologies and create teaching materials for peace education in a range of African countries.

The project has been designed to create impact at four levels:

  1. Local Communities
  2. Educational Institutions
  3. NGOs
  4. Policy Makers
What is DEPA Phase III Devolved Funding?

In Phase III, we are commissioning further projects to enhance and expand on activities and findings from the Proof of Concept and Phase II projects. 

We will fund projects between 3 and 6 months duration and the following levels of funding will be available:

  • Up to 5 Individual Researcher Grants, of up to £5,000. We encourage proposals that meet the value for money criteria of the AHRC.  Only UK-based individuals can apply for the Individual Researcher Grants.
  • Up to 4 Small Project Grants, will be commissioned, each with a value of £10,000 - £30,000. We encourage proposals that meet the value for money criteria of the AHRC.  The Small Project Grants are open to UK and African scholars, NGOs and other organisations which work in the relevant areas.
  • Up to 2 Large Project Grants will be commissioned, each with a value of between £30,000 and £60,000. We encourage proposals that meet the value for money criteria of the AHRC.  The Large Project Grants are open to UK and African scholars, NGOs and other organisations which work in the relevant areas.

Please note: costings should be calculated using 100% of UK partners’ costs even though, as per UKRI rules, only 80% of these costs can be funded by the grant.