Some reflections on the links between teacher education and peace education: Interrogating the ontology of normative epistemological premises

•Reflections on the links between teacher education and peace education.•Interrogating epistemological and ontological positions in education.•Teachers able to critique the manifestations of nation-structures in everyday practices.

This paper provides a critique of the essentialized assumptions about identity, culture and education that are found in contemporary peace education literature and explores the implications that these assumptions have for teacher education in conflict and post-conflict societies. The authors suggest that there is a need to move away from the epistemological primacy of these assumptions toward a critical ontological, contextualized and historicized approach. The authors propose that teachers need to be educated to become ‘critical design experts’.