Education and social change in post-conflict and post-disaster Aceh, Indonesia

•Presents a framework for analyzing education's relation to peacebuilding.•Positions the role/function of education within contemporary Acehnese society.•Suggests opportunities and constraints for education to promote peace in Aceh.

The paper analyses the context in which education in Aceh acts strategically to advance an agenda of social transformation. Applying a cultural, political economy analytical framework, it identifies ways in which education is embedded in key cultural, political, economic and social struggles at present. They include: (1) the redistribution of educational opportunities and access; (2) ambiguous spaces for democratic representation in a decentralised educational structure; (3) competing notions of how diversity is acknowledged within Indonesia and Aceh Province; and (4) conflicted approaches to reconstruction following the 2004 tsunami and end of conflict in 2005.