The aim of the study is to examine how multicultural and peace education have been viewed in Brazilian and North American literature, as gleaned both from Brazilian research studies and articles presented at SIG Peace Education of AERA in the last five years (2010-2014).

The argument is that the articulation of multiculturalism and peace studies has the potential to build fruitful dialogues to nurture peace in education and societies, chiefly if this perspective informs public policies in education about the need to enhance a multicultural understanding related to question stereotypes against those considered different from standard measures at school settings, either in military or civil education.

In a critical postcolonial approach (HALL, 2003), this study aims at challenging monocultural curricula in educational policies and pedagogical practices, shedding light on the relevance of promoting a culture of peace through the investment in multiculturally oriented education professionals as well as organizations, including the military ones, which feel the need to be included in such a debate so as to enhance dialogues related to the area of National defense and security. It is worth mentioning that this field was very recently considered by governmental initiatives established between the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Education in Brazil. The aim is to foster military and civil Higher Education Institutions cooperation, so as to promote democratic practices within Brazilian society related to defense.

The main contribution we intend to offer relates to pinpointing emphases as well as gaps presented in the studies at SIG Peace Education during the mentioned period. We highlight the fact that studies in military education still beg for further dialogues with peace education, so as to strengthen the unveiling of curricular intentions, limits and capabilities that have guided soldiers’ preparation. This perspective is chiefly relevant today since the military personnel have been facing new challenges and threats regarding the nature of conflicts and violence which differ from the paradigm that had guided the industrial war in the past. Therefore, one of the challenges has been to prepare soldiers to cope with the multicultural dimensions of the missions nowadays.

Consequently, our main objective is to analyze how multiculturalism has crosscut the SIG Peace Education in the last five years in order to leverage more democratic practices in education and societies. That includes challenging the view that tends to oppose military and civil education, arguing that military curriculum has been challenged so as to cope with the tensions of hierarchal practices within a multicultural organization. 

The multicultural perspective that guides our work overcomes cultural contemplation so as to reach postcolonial and postmodern approaches that seek a more fluid, hybrid and transitory comprehension of identity construction (HALL, 2003). Multiculturalism in critical postcolonial approaches departs from the simply celebration of differences toward other steps that problematize the construction of differences. According to Canen (2012) theoretical and methodological responses that crosscut borders are required so as to build dialogues and overcome universalistic and ethnocentric views. To understand this context as hybrid and mixed (CANEN, 2012) is an alternative proposal to initiate a comprehension of this body of study that requires also hybrid and diversified educational responses.

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