“There is still peace. There are no wars.”: Prioritizing unity over diversity in Botswana’s social studies policies and practices and the implications for positive peace

This article examines the ways in which education policy and practice in Botswana negotiate tensions between assimilationist and multiculturalist approaches to ethnic diversity. We find that the curriculum, as written and as taught, is preoccupied with unity and the avoidance of armed conflict, goals that have perpetuated an assimilationist approach, normed around the culture and language of the Tswana ethnic majority. We argue that a multicultural approach could foster conditions of positive peace, including recognition and equality of opportunity across ethnic groups, which is more urgent today given the sustained absence of armed conflict. We offer strategies for how practitioners and policy makers might move forward in transforming existing multicultural policy discourse into multicultural school practices.