The Battleground of Sri Lankan History Education: Barriers to Teaching Inclusive Histories

As the separation between those who lived through Sri Lanka's civil war and those who come to learn about the war grows, future generations' understanding of the war becomes the war itself - all factual truth diminishes and makes room for one generation's perception to be passed down to the next. What is key here is that there is no singular perception of an event, but rather competing perceptions - and these perceptions compete in the space of history production.

The teaching of history education is made up of a complex web of barriers that have caused history reforms to fall short. While much research has been done on why and how history education should be used as a tool for peace education, few have explored why after such research, Sri Lankan history education continues to exclude marginalized histories and silo communities over ethno-religious divides. The structure of reform efforts has a way of siloing academics, organizers, policy makers, and educators and because of this siloing, we lack a full picture of who is working on what and how we can work together, to strategize in shared efforts and in solidarity. This paper serves to map the multiple facets of Sri Lanka's history education structure, explore why tried reforms have and have not gained momentum, and theorize as to how multiple stakeholders can strategize together based on lessons learned.