Professor Birgit Brock-Utne is a major figure in the fields of peace education and feminist peace theory. She became involved in the field of peace and conflict studies in the early 1980’s when she was engaged in researching peace education and the idea of the “culture of peace” at P.R.I.O. with Professor Sverre Lodgaard. She has long held a teaching post at the University of Oslo, being appointed professor there in 1995. Before that, she held a professorship at the University of Dar-es-Salaam between 1987 and 1992, which set a pattern for her long involvement with issues of education and development in Africa. In addition to her experience in East Africa she has taught internationally in many countries, including Japan [at the University of Hiroshima], Spain, Austria [on the programme at Stadt Schlaining] , Korea, the University of Otago, New Zealand, and in several universities in the United States.
Among her many publications are her well known volume Educating for Peace; A Feminist Perspective [Pergamon Press 1985] which later appeared in Korean, Italian and Norwegian editions; and Feminist Perspectives on Peace and Peace Education [Pergamon Press, 1989].
In recent years, Professor Brocke –Utne has worked with colleagues from Africa on the issue of the language of instruction, especially in multi-lingual societies such as Tanzania and South Africa, and the way in which particular language use confers power on certain communities in such societies. The question of the downgrading of local languages – and hence of local cultures - in favour of English or other languages of the former colonial powers has occupied much of her attention and research over the last two decades and this is reflected in her series of publications over this period. The list begins with her 2000 monograph Whose Education for All ? The Recolonisation of the African Mind and continues in works produced from her research project The Language of Instruction in Tanzania and South Africa [LOITASA] , many written with her colleagues Zubeida Desai and Martha Qorro.
Apart from her academic work, Professor Brock-Utne has run her own NGO in Oslo and has acted as a consultant for UNESCO, the OECD, the Council of Europe, SIDA and the Ministry of Education in Namibia, among many others. She has been a member of the Board of the International Peace Research Association and of UNESCO’s Institute of Education in Hamburg. Currently she is an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Education of the University of Oslo and retains her interest in peace education, languages of instruction, and development in Africa.
JB/CRM
