Promoting Peace Education Through Multicultural Education in Aceh: Lessons Learned form the U.S. Context

Aceh has been in an armed conflict for more than 30 years between the Free Aceh Movement and the Government of Indonesia until eventually the peace accord took place in Helsinki, Finland, in 2005. The conflict has damaged schools and educational facilities. Conflict also has caused in reducing the educational opportunity of Acehnese children. The paper seeks the possibility of promoting peace education in Aceh through the application of multicultural education concept reviewed from James Banks' Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education. One of the concepts offered in this paper is maintaining the vernacular the Acehnese language because the loose of vernacular is a sign to a loose of self-identity which will lead to another conflict in the future.