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Harmony Forum

Peace from Harmony
Ian Harris. Teach kids peace from harmony

Ian Harris

 

 

President of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA) Foundation

http://www.iprafoundation.org/

 

Peace Education: Definition, Approaches, and Future Directions

 

CONTACT INFORMATION FOR AUTHOR:

Ian Harris, Department of Educational policy and Community Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, P.O. Box 413, Milwaukee, WI 53201,USA; Tel: 1+ (414) 229-2326; fax: 1+ (414) 229-3700; e-mail: imh@uwm.edu

 

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY:

 

Ian Harris is Chairman of the Department of Educational Policy and Community Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and President of the International Peace Research Association Foundation.He is author ofPeace Education (McFarland Inc, 1988); Messages Men Hear (Taylor and Francis, 1998); Peacebuilding for Adolescents (with Linda Forcey) (Peter Lang, 1999); and Peace Education 2nd edition (with Mary Lee Morrrison) (McFarland Inc, 2003).


KEYWORDS:Peace education, peacebuilding, strategies for peace, environmental education, human rights education, development education, conflict resolution education, international education

 

LIST OF CONTENTS:

 

1.What is Peace Education?

2.Goals for Peace Education

3.History of Peace Education

4.Difference between Peace Education and Peace Studies

5.Peace Education as a Strategy to Achieve peace

6.Peace Education for the Twenty-First Century

7.Conclusion

 

SUMMARY:

 
The achievement of peace represents a humanizing process whereby individuals manage their violent tendencies.Peace educators contribute to this process by teaching about peace—what it is, why it doesn’t exist, and how to achieve it. They use their educational skills to teach about how to create peaceful conditions.In schools and community settings peace educators impart the values of planetary stewardship, global citizenship, and human relations.Peace educators teach about how conflicts get started, the effects of violent solutions to conflict, and alternatives to violent behavior.Peace education students learn how to resolve disputes nonviolently.Students also learn in peace education classes about peace strategies that may be used at both micro and macro levels to reduce suffering caused by a multitude of different forms of violence – wars, ethnic conflicts, structural domestic and civil violence, as well as environmental destruction.All these different forms of violence threaten human existence.

Peace education has both short and long term goals.Peace educators address the sources of immediate conflicts and give their students knowledge about strategies they can use to stop the violence. In the long term they hope to build in students’ minds a commitment to nonviolence and provide knowledge about nonviolent alternatives, so that when faced with conflicts they will choose to behave peacefully.In this way peace education tries to build peace into the minds of its students. Such efforts attempt to counteract violent images in popular culture and the bellicose behavior of politicians.

Peace education has taken place informally throughout history as various cultures pass o­n to their progeny understandings about the ways of peace. Every major religion has a peace message.In the twentieth century formal peace education programs have been introduced into schools and colleges.

Peace education has taken different shapes as it has developed around the world.At the beginning of the twentieth century in the United States and Europe people concerned about the advent of mechanized warfare began to educate the population in those countries about ways that war could be outlawed through the League of Nations and other international agreements. Educators in countries in the South, more concerned about the structural violence and poverty, have promoted a variety of peace education known as development education to improve the quality of living in poor countries. Towards the end of the twentieth century people throughout the world concerned about the suffering of minority groups began to see that human rights education could engender respect for principles embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.Educators concerned about ecological catastrophe have developed a type of peace education known as environmental education that explains the principles of living sustainably o­n this planet. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, p
eace educators concerned about civil and domestic forms of violence have developed a new form of peace education known as conflict resolution education.All these different forms of peace education have in common teaching and learning about the roots of violence and strategies for peace.

 

GLOSSARY:


Conflict resolution education:Teaching and learning about alternative dispute resolution mechanisms and interpersonal peacemaking

Development education:Teaching and learning about structural oppression and strategies to provide just social institutions and equitable economic arrangements

Environmental education:Teaching and learning about environmental destruction, ecological security, and sustainable development.

Human rights education:Teaching and learning about the inherent dignity of all people, legal means to preserve their rights, and appreciation for difference.

International education:Teaching and learning about global conflicts and how to resolve them.

Peacebuilding:A long term strategy for peace that removes causes for violence.

Peacekeeping:Stopping violence by using force or deterrence.

Peacemaking:Resolving conflict through communication.

Peace education: Teaching and learning about the roots of violence and strategies for peace.

Peace studies:The study ofconflicts and strategies to resolve them.

 

What is Peace Education?


Peace education hopes to create in the human consciousness a commitment to the ways of peace.Just as a doctor learns in medical school how to minister to the sick, students in peace education classes learn how to solve problems caused by violence. Social violence and warfare can be described as a form of pathology, a disease.Peace education tries to inoculate students against the evil effects of violence by teaching skills to manage conflicts nonviolently and by creating a desire to seek peaceful resolutions of conflicts.Societies spend money and resources training doctors to heal the ill.Why should not they also educate their citizens to conduct affairs nonviolently? Peace educators use teaching skills to stop violence by developing a peace consciousness that can provide the basis for a just and sustainable future.


The word ‘education’ comes from the Latin word ‘educare,’ to draw or lead out.Peace education draws out from people their instincts to live peacefully with others and emphasizes peaceful values upon which society should be based. Educators, from early childhood to adult, can use their professional skills to tell their students about peace.
The study of peace attempts to nourish those energies and impulses that make possible a meaningful and life enhancing existence.


Peace educators address the violent nature of society, and ask, “Must it be this way?”Aren't there nonviolent ways that human beings can solve their conflicts?How do we get to these other ways? Just as war has its adherents and its schools, peace can be taught and promoted so that it becomes active in the mind of citizens and world leaders.Traditional education glorifies established power to legitimize its authority. History books praise military heroes and ignore the contributions of peace makers.Violence, carried out by governments waging war and repressing civil rights, also appears in homes where physical and psychological assaults confront conflict, disobedience, anger, and frustration.Children too often learn in school to respect the military and to support those structures that contribute to violence, like violent forms of popular entertainment.They also learn not to question violent political and social behavior.Peace educators question the structures of violence that dominate everyday life and try to create a peaceful disposition in their students to counteract the omnipotent values of militarism.


A European peace educator has defined peace education as: "The initiation of learning processes aiming at the actualization and rational resolution of conflicts regarding man as subject of action." (vor Staehr, 1974: 296) According to this definition, peace educators teach peacemaking skills.A Japanese peace educator states that peace education is concerned with peaceless situations (Mushakoji, 1974: 3). These include struggles for power and resources, ethnic conflicts in local communities, child abuse, and wars.Students in peace education classes study institutions that create violence as well as the values that give credibility to those structures.An American peace educator, Betty Reardon, defines peace education as "learning intended to prepare the learners to contribute toward the achievement of peace” (Reardon, 1982: 38). She goes o­n to state that peace education "might be education for authentic security,” (Reardon, 1982: 40) where a need for security motivates humans to form communities and nations.


Because individuals disagree about how to achieve security, there are many different paths to peace.An Israeli educator (Salomon, 2002) has stated that peace education programs take different forms because of the wide variety of conflicts that plague human existence. Each different form of violence requires a unique peace education strategy to resolve its conflicts. Peace education in intense conflicts attempts to demystify enemy images and urges combatants to withdraw from warlike behavior.Peace education in regions of interethnic tension relies upon an awareness about the sufferings of the various groups involved in the conflict to reduce hostilities and promote empathy for the pain of others.Peace educators in areas free from collective physical violence teach about oppression within that society, explain the causes of domestic and civil violence, and develop a respect for global issues, environmental sustainability, and the power of nonviolence.

 

In addition to providing knowledge about how to achieve peace, peace educators promote a pedagogy based upon modeling peaceful democratic classroom practices.They share a hope that through education people can develop certain thoughts and dispositions that will lead to peaceful behavior. Key aspects of this disposition include kindness, critical thinking, and cooperation (Harris and Morrison, 2003). Developing such virtues is an important part of peace education.However, it is not the complete picture.The struggle to achieve peace takes place at both individual and social levels. Peace educators work with individuals to point how the root problems of violence lie in broader social forces and institutions that must be addressed in order to achieve peace.

 

Peace activists use community education to alert people about the horrors of violence. Working through non-governmental organizations they use public relations techniques – guest speakers, press releases, media interviews, and newsletters – to provide awareness about nonviolent solutions to conflict.Educators from many different academic disciplines also practice peace education. Sociologists in college classrooms talk about violence in civil society. Political scientists describe world order models meant to manage global conflicts.Psychologists explain the structures in the human psyche that lead to violent behavior.Anthropologists debate about violent and peaceful tendencies of collective human behavior. Historians write about the history of peace movements. Literature professors review works of art devoted to peace. Professional teachers in primary and secondary schools teach about peace in many settings, from early childhood to high school.Most infuse peace themes into their curriculum while some organize peace studies programs that provide a more comprehensive overview of peace strategies.


Goals for Peace Education

 

Educational activity is purposeful. Peace education has short- and long-term goals. Peace educators respond to immediately threatening situations like ethnic and religious forms of violence in places like Northern Ireland, providing insights into how conflicts can be managed less violently.The longer term goals are to create in human consciousness the permanent structures that desire peaceful existence and hence transform human values to promote nonviolence.

 

A good illustration of the relationship between these short and long-term goals of peace education has been provided by a Romanian peace educator, Adrian Nastase. Quoting the French philosopher Pascal, Nastase observes that human beings are "running carelessly towards a precipice after having put something in front of us to hinder us from seeing it.” (Nastase, 1984: 185) Drawing from this analogy, he suggests that the immediate goals of peace education are to discover ‘the precipice’ and to understand the perilous state of the present conditions. As H.G. Wells has pointed out: human beings are embarked upon "a race between education and catastrophe." (1927: 43)

 

Whether working to achieve immediate or long range objectives peace education may be said to contain at least ten main goals: (1) to appreciate the richness of the concept of peace, (2) to address fears, (3) to provide information about security, (4) to understand war behavior, (5) to develop intercultural understanding, (6) to provide a ‘futures’ orientation, (7) to teach peace as a process, (8) to promote a concept of peace accompanied by social justice, (9) to stimulate a respect for life, and (10) to manage conflicts nonviolently (Harris, 1988). These goals include both a philosophic orientation toward peace and information about skills and institutions that people need to live together peacefully and sustainably o­n this planet. There are many topics included within the purview of educating for peace. These ten goals provide a framework for planning educational activities involved in educating for and about peace.

 

(1) Peace education provides in students' minds a dynamic vision of peace to counteract the violent images that dominate popular culture.Examples of this come from arts and literature as well as history—the film Gandhi, the etchings of Goya, novels like War and Peace and Fail Safe, and religious texts.Drawing upon history provides examples of how peace has stimulated human imagination throughout different historical epochs.Every major religion promotes peace.Peace educators teach about past, present and proposed future efforts to achieve peace and justice.Art can be an important part of that effort, allowing students to express their deepest wishes for peace.

 

(2) Peace educators address people's fears.Children are abused at home.Citizens fear being attacked o­n streets.Suicide bombers have spawned deep fears of terrorist attacks. Biochemical warfare poses threats.Violence permeates schools.Increases in teenage suicide have been linked to despair about future.People upset about violent situations often have strong emotions.Citizens grieve about violence and fear conflict. Addressing concerns about violence can relieve anxiety in young people and help them focus o­n their school lessons.In this way peace education has the potential to improve academic achievement in schools.

 

(3) Citizens need information about how best to achieve security.The notion of collective security implies that nations build weapons and create armies, navies, and air forces to protect them from attack.Citizens need to know what goes into these systems, the implications of developing and depending upon them, and their cost.Many nations shroud security operations in secrecy.Peace educators demystify the public structures created to provide security and give citizens information they need to make informed choices about the best way to achieve peace.

 

4) Students in peace education classes study the causes of violence and war.Why are human beings so violent?Throughout recorded history there have been many instances of violent, armed conflict, but anthropologists have located o­n this planet at least 47 relatively peaceful societies (Banta, 1993). A review of the literature of cultures that have achieved peace is summarized in the following statement:

 

First, there are no cultures that wholly eliminate the possibility of interpersonal violence.Second, a good number of societies, especially those at the simplest socioeconomic level, appear to have successfully avoided organized violence, that is war.This is a significant accomplishment.

(Gregor, 1996: xvi)

 

Is aggression a natural part of human nature or is it learned through socialization?Individuals such as Alexander the Great, Napoleon, and Hitler have played a strong role in promoting wars, but some believe that we all have destructive fantasies. Why do some resort to violence while others do not?Peace educators provide their students with an understanding of how different individuals, cultures and political systems satisfy or frustrate human needs.

 

(5) Since wars occur as a result of conflicts between different groupings of human individuals, peace education promotes respect for different cultures and helps students appreciate the diversity of the human community.Intercultural understanding provides an important aspect of any peace education endeavor.In order to appreciate the perilousness of human existence, students learn about the interrelatedness of human beings o­n this planet.Survival depends upon cooperation.In this sense peace education resembles another recent education reform, multicultural education, that teaches respect for differences and understanding of ‘the other.’

 

(6) Peace education, by providing students with a ‘futures’ orientation, strives to recreate society as it should be.In a violent world, children can often become enmeshed in despair.Future studies attempts to provide young people with positive images of the future and to give them reason to hope (Hutchinson, 1996). Students in peace studies classes imagine what they would like the future to be like and then discuss what can be done to create a peaceful future.Peace education includes discussions that provide different possibilities for life o­n this planet to stimulate students to think about less violent ways of managing human behavior.

 

(7) As important as it is to emphasize an understanding of peace strategies, peace education also teaches skills.To move the world away from violence will require change.How can we bring peace to the world if we can't even create it in our own personal lives?Peace education focuses o­n strategies to achieve both individual and societal change.Peacemaking is a process that must be taught if human beings are to alter their violent behavior.People wishing to achieve peace understand that peace is a process that transforms their own lives as they start personifying their visions of the future.In peace education classes students examine how their daily actions and beliefs contribute to the perpetration of injustice and/or the development of war.They learn strategies to deal with aggressive behaviors and concrete skills that will help them become effective peace makers.

 

(8) Because the struggle for peace embraces justice, peace education students learn about the challenges of human rights and justice.They should understand that the absence of war does not necessarily bring peace or harmony.With this emphasis peace educators do not focus solely o­n national security issues but also include the study of social justice, human rights, development, feminism, racism, nonviolence, and strategies for social change. Jaime Diaz writes: “To facilitate education for justice and peace, o­ne must, above all, believe: believe that justice and peace are possible believe that each and every o­ne of us can do something to bring justice and peace into being.” (Diaz, 1979: 375). Peace educators often focus o­n structural oppression and use this knowledge to empower others to struggle against institutions that are dominant and coercive.

 

(9) Peace educators teach a respect for all forms of life. Peace education contributes to the social growth of all children if it helps them develop characteristics essential for the attainment of peace—a sense of dignity and self-worth, a sense of responsibility for self and others, a capacity to trust others, a caring for the well-being of the natural world, a confidence to question their values, communication skills, an ethical awareness, and an empathy for others:

 

To prevent future upheavals human beings must be lifted from their selfish natural state to the social and finally to the moral state.Education must help the people regain their sense of moral independence and inner security.This training should be extended to all children, and should be rooted in love.

                         (Renna, 1980: 63)


Peace educators teach caring and empathy, not just a rational understanding of problems faced by others.This caring applies to all creatures o­n the planet with an appreciation of the ecological balances that support life.Students must experience the sound of the earth crying, the pain of people who suffer in war, and the agony of people repressed by militarism.In this way peace education emphasizes the sacredness of all life.

 

(10) The ultimate goal of peace education is to provide people with skills to manage conflicts nonviolently.The world is consumed with violent behavior.Street crime, war, domestic quarrels, ethnic conflicts and poverty result in millions of people having to live in violent conditions where they have little or no security and struggle to survive. The World Health Organization estimates that 1.6 million people o­n this planet died violently during 2000. Of these deaths 31.3% were homicides, 49.1% were suicides, and 18.6% were war-related (2002: 10). All these deaths are potentially preventable.Until violence is curtailed, human beings will not be able to achieve their full potential.

 

History of Peace Education

 

Throughout history humans have taught each other ways to manage conflicts so they don’t erupt into violence. The world’s religions--following the teaching of such prophets as Buddha, Baha’u’llah, Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Moses, and Lao Tse--have specific scriptures that advance peace.Such teachings promote peace through personal transformation, whereby, if individuals adopt pacifist values, based upon nonviolence and compassion, they will avoid the pitfalls of violent conflict.

 

One of the first Europeans who used the written word to espouse peace education was Comenius, (1642/1969) the Czech educator, who in the seventeenth century saw that the road to peace was through universally shared knowledge.This approach to peace assumes that an understanding of others and shared values will overcome hostilities that lead to conflict.Immanuel Kant in his book Perpetual Peace (1795/1970) established the liberal notion that humans could achieve peace by constructing legal systems with laws, treaties, and checks and balances – courts, trials, and jails that have been used to moderate civil violence.This approach to peace, known as peace through politics, rests upon the notion that humans have rational minds capable of creating laws that treat people fairly.

 

The twentieth century has seen considerable growth in peace education efforts and theory.At the beginning of the century peace educators warned about the scourge of war.Europeans and Americans formed peace societies and lobbied their governments against the saber rattling that eventually led to World War I. In 1912 a School Peace League had chapters in nearly every state in the United States that were “promoting through the schools …the interests of international justice and fraternity.” (Scanlon, 1959: 214)

 

In the interbellum period between the First and Second World Wars, social studies teachers in many different countries started teaching international relations so that their students wouldn’t want to wage war against foreigners.They emphasized teaching certain content, e.g. an understanding of peoples in the world that would develop in the minds of citizens an outlook of tolerance that would contribute to peace. Educators thought that studying the international system could contribute toward a more cooperative peaceful world.Convinced that schools had encouraged and enabled war by indoctrinating youth into nationalism, peace educators participated in progressive education reforms that tried to promote social progress by providing students with knowledge about global conflicts.

 

At this time Maria Montessori was traveling throughout Europe urging teachers to abandon authoritarian pedagogies, replacing them with a dynamic curriculum from which pupils could choose what to study.She reasoned that children who didn’t automatically follow authoritarian teachers would not necessarily obey rulers urging them to war.She saw that the construction of peace depends upon an education that would free the child’s spirit, promote love of others, and remove blind obedience to authority.She set up a school in a slum in Italy where teachers were encouraged to use their capacity for love to help students prosper in the midst of extreme poverty.Maria Montessori emphasized that a teacher’s method or pedagogy could contribute towards building a peaceful world.The whole school should reflect the nurturing characteristics of a healthy family (Montessori, 1946/1974).

 

The horrors of World War II created a new interest in ‘Education for World Citizenship.’Fifty-five years ago Herbert Read (1949) argued for the marriage of art and peace education to help provide images that would motivate people to promote peace. He argued that humans could use their creative capacities to escape the pitfalls of destructive violence.

 

The first academic peace studies program at the college level was established in 1948 at Manchester College, in North Manchester, Indiana in the United States. The Vietnam War stimulated more university and college programs that had a focus upon imperialism.In the 1980s the threat of nuclear war became a catalyst for peace studies courses at all educational levels, as educators all around the world tried to warn of impending devastation.

 

This expansion of peace education at this time period points to an important symbiotic relationship between peace movements, peace research, and peace education. The activists lead, developing strategies to deal with violence, whether it be wars between nations, colonial aggression, cultural, domestic, or structural violence.Academics studying these developments further the field of peace research.The activists, seeking a way to broaden their message, seek to educate through peace education.Teachers observing these activities promote peace studies courses and programs in schools and colleges to provide awareness of the challenges of war and peace in their classrooms.This creative recycling of insights into the causes of violence and the conditions for peace through peace action and research provides dynamism for peace education, as teachers explain in diverse settings the complexities of conflicts and the challenges of peace.

 

In the 1980s three books were produced that represent the highlight of an era acutely concerned about the threat of nuclear annihilation.They are: Education for Peace by a Norwegian, Birgit Brocke-Utne, (1985) Comprehensive Peace Education by Betty Reardon (1988) and Peace Education by Ian Harris (1988)--both citizens of the United States. Brocke-Utne pointed out the devastation that militarism, war, and male violence wrecks upon females and argued that feminism is the starting point for effective disarmament.She demonstrated that societies not at war were not necessarily peaceful because they still had considerable domestic violence. Reardon argued that the core values of schooling should be care, concern, and commitment, and the key concepts of peace education should be planetary stewardship, global citizenship, and humane relationships.Harris prescribed ten goals for peace education described above. He also emphasized that a peaceful pedagogy must belong to any attempt to teach about peace.The key ingredients of such a pedagogy are cooperative learning, democratic community, moral sensitivity, and critical thinking.

 

At the beginning of the 1980s the globalists lost some of their hold o­n the domain of peace education and the humanists took over.Peace educators became more concerned about civil, domestic, cultural, and ethnic forms of violence, trying to heal some of the wounds of pupils who have been raised in violent cultures.They began to teach conflict resolution in schools. Based upon the work of Carl Rogers (1942), a popular psychology movement known as ‘new age healing’ has encouraged people to examine deep seated psychic phenomena that contribute to violent behavior.This movement has influenced peace educators whose goal is to heal wounds that create huge pools of rage in the psyche. At the end of the twentieth century a variation of this approach to peace education is violence prevention education that attempts to develop resilience skills in young people so that they avoid drugs, sex, and violence in interpersonal relations. A further form of peace education adopted in countries experiencing extreme forms of religious and ethnic violence is multicultural education where teachers attempt to break down stereotypes and hostile images of ‘the other.’

 

At the beginning of the twenty-first century peace education has expanded the study of wars in history classes to a type of curriculum that helps children manage their conflicts without resorting to violence.This growth in peace education in primary and secondary schools can be seen by a 1974 Quaker Project o­n Community Conflict in New York which published The Friendly Classroom for a Small Planet, (Prutzman, Stern, Burger, and Bodenhamer, 1998) a curriculum for teachers of young children who wanted to enable students to develop a sense of self-worth, build community, and acquire the skills of creative conflict resolution.It is being used extensively in schools in El Salvador, as well as fifty other countries.

 

Difference between Peace Education and Peace Studies

 

There is an important distinction between peace studies and peace education.

Peace studies, the study of peace processes, began as a formal discipline in colleges and universities after the Second World War.Peace studies scholars seek to analyze human conflicts in order to find the most peaceful ways to turn resolve them. Their investigations often have a geo-political focus. Peace studies depends upon peace research, an academic field that developed as a ‘science of peace’ in the 1950s to counteract the science of war that had produced so much mass killing.

 

In 1959 the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) was founded in Norway. This organization publishes two academic journals, Journal of Peace Research and Bulletin of Pace Proposals, that have helped develop the field of peace research.In Britain, the Lancaster Peace Research Center, later to become the Richardson Institute, was also formed in 1959.These inchoate efforts became the foundling infants for a new academic field, peace research, that blossomed during the 1960s and 1970s, an era when the world was focused o­n the injustice of the U.S. war in Vietnam.

 

Peace studies tend to focus o­n the causes of war and alternatives to war; whereas peace education is more generic, attempting to draw out of people their natural inclinations to live in peace.Peace researchers identify processes that promote peace; whereas peace educators use teaching skills to build a peace culture. Peace studies faculty, housed in political science or international relations university departments, offer courses o­n the causes of wars and ethnic conflicts, seeking ways to avoid them.Peace studies programs o­n college and university campuses vary from majors, to graduate concentrations, to certificate programs, to minors.They allow students to study peace.

 

Peace education has been practiced informally by generations of humans who want to avoid violence. As a formal course of study o­n college campuses, peace education courses located in schools of education train teachers to teach about peace. In a literal sense peace education refers to teaching others about peace—what it is, why it doesn’t exist, and how to achieve it. Peace education is carried out in a variety of contexts beyond college campuses. A peace educator can be a community activist trying to inform members of her community about nonviolent strategies.Peace educators play an important role in the evolution of peace studies, translating the findings of peace researchers about alternative ways the international state system can manage conflict through diplomatic relations (both formal and Track II, see Boulding, [2000]). Peace educators try to get students to think of themselves as concerned global citizens willing to transcend national and ethnic differences in order to promote peace.They hope through the study of security systems to teach how to construct laws and institutions, like the United Nations, that will help humans avoid the terror of war.

 

Peace educators also teach peacemaking strategies to help children avoid violence by resolving interpersonal conflicts constructively.Primary and secondary educators bring conflict resolution programs into schools to address aspects of interpersonal violence, and to teach peacemaking skills like mediation, empathy, and alternative dispute resolution methods.School based peer mediation tries to resolve conflicts between students that may not be overtly violent.Peer mediation programs use a third party, a mediator, to help the parties in conflict resolve their differences.The mediator helps disputants reach a mutually agreed upon solution to their conflict.Mediation provides a vehicle for de-escalating violent behavior in schools.One study showed that fights were reduced as much as fifty percent in a school that adopted mediation (Lantieri & Patti, 1996, 138).Peace educators teaching peacemaking skills in order to reduce violence in schools may not discuss at all global tensions or other subtleties of peace research in their classes.

 

Peace Education as a Strategy to Achieve Peace

 

Peace education is not ‘pacifism education.’ The goal is not to make students and citizens quiet, complacent, and content. Peace educators point out the problems of violence that exist in society and then instruct their pupils about strategies that can be used to address those problems, hence empowering them to redress the circumstances that lead to violence. Mahatma Gandhi used insights he gained from a commitment to nonviolence to overthrow what was at that time the greatest force o­n earth (the British Empire).Community based strategies for justice and Dr. King’s use of nonviolence in the Civil Rights struggle are examples of the legacy peace educators draw upon in teaching youth how to strive nonviolently for their dreams.

 

Peace educators provide information about different ways to achieve peace-- negotiation, reconciliation, nonviolent struggle, the use of treaties, balance of power, and armed struggle.They also teach about different peace strategies and help their students to evaluate what are the best strategies to use in particular circumstances. One main goal of peace education is to provide positive images of peace, so that when people are faced with conflict, they will choose to be peaceful. Peace education, as a strategy for lasting peace o­n the macro level, relies o­n educating enough people within a given population to establish widespread support for peaceful policies.

 

Although most people desire peace, there exists within human communities considerable disagreement about how to achieve it.What particular approach to peace a given society uses depends upon the cultural traditions and the desires of those in power or upon well organized grass-roots peace movements who put pressure o­n the militarists to stop their slaughter. Peace educators distinguish between three different approaches to achieving peace:peacekeeping, peacemaking and peacebuilding. Peacekeeping’s aim is to respond to violence and stop it from escalating. o­n a micro level this might mean schools employing security guards to break up fights. o­n a more macro level, it implies the use of military force to quell violence in the world, an example being the use of force to respond to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.Once the fighting has stopped, peacemaking strategies can be used to get the parties together to try to work out their differences. Peacemaking has as its aims the teaching of skills to resolve conflicts without the use of force.In order to prevent conflict, peacebuilding strategies are used to create a culture of peace that does not celebrate violence, but rather promotes nonviolence as a way to avoid the horror of war.

 

These different approaches to peace are not mutually exclusive.In fact, they can complement each other to help to overcome the complex sources of violence found in the postmodern world. In times when a country is not waging a war, a strategy for peace might involve constructing elaborate defenses against perceived enemies, or a literacy campaign to provide citizens with what they need to gain employment to satisfy basic needs.

 

Peace education is a peacebuilding strategy that attempts to transform society by creating a peaceful consciousness that condemns violent behavior.Parents can use nonviolent techniques to raise their children.Teachers can teach peacemaking skills to their students.Professors can teach about the problems of war and peace.Neighbors can advocate for recycling programs.Citizens can pressure their governments to adopt nonviolent policies towards other countries.And concerned residents can construct community education programs about specific peace issues as they attempt to educate the broader public about the value of peace policies.

 

A major disadvantage of peace education as a strategy to achieve peace is that it offers a long term solution to immediate threats.For peace education to be effective, it must transform ways of thinking and behaving that have been developed over the millennia of human history and those ways of thinking must lead to action to promote peace. Otherwise, all those learnings about peace just exist as thoughts in people’s brains.

 

At best peace education represents an indirect solution to the problems of violence.It depends upon millions of students being educated who must in turn work to change violent behavior.A teacher who teaches the topics of peace education has no guarantee that his or her students will either embrace peace or work to reduce violence.A teacher does not ultimately control what a pupil learns.Teachers lay the groundwork for learning, using their skills and knowledge to transmit messages to their pupils, who may ultimately develop behaviors and attitudes that shape cultural norms. Peace activists believe that the creation of peace requires more then education.It also demands action, and there is no guarantee that students who are learning about peace in an educational setting will become activists who advocate for peace.

 

Peace Education for the Twenty-first Century

 

Traditionally, peace education has focused o­n the causes of war, sometimes called ‘organized violence over territories.’ By the beginning of the twenty-first century, the domain of peace education has expanded from the study of wars to the study of domestic and interpersonal violence and environmental destruction.During the twentieth century there has been a growth in concern about horrific forms of violence, like ecocide, genocide, technological warfare, ethnic hatred, racism, sexual abuse, domestic violence, and a corresponding growth in the field of peace education.

 

At the beginning of the twenty-first century controversies surrounding the word ‘peace’ in conjunction with concerns about a multitude of different forms of violence have led to five separate types of peace education--international education, human rights education, development education, environmental education, and conflict resolution education. Each branch of this peace education family has different theoretical assumptions about the problems of violence it addresses, different peace strategies it recommends, and different goals it hopes to achieve.

 

International Education

 

Derek Heater (1984) has pointed out how important it is for peace studies students to understand the interstate system that so often leads to wars over territories and resources.Global peace educators provide an understanding of how nation states construct security for their citizens.This type of peace education is also known as world order studies.At the beginning of the twenty-first century, it includes helping students understand the positive and negative aspects of globalization, which has led to the erosion of power of national governments.There are three types of globalization: economic (particularly transnational corporations and the creation of a consumer-dominated global middle class), public order (governments working together o­n common problems such as health and environmental problems) and popular (campaigns by grass roots organizations such as Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Medecins sans Frontieres, etc).The reality is that globalization is taking place and cannot be reversed.The question peace educators should be asking is: How can we bring together all the parties to make sure that globalization benefits more people?

 

International education for peace has received considerable support from the United Nations system that has provided mandates and supported peace education efforts throughout the world.One example is the preamble to the Constitution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), “Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed.” Educators who teach about international issues try to stimulate in their students' minds a global identity and awareness of problems around the planet.They hope their students will think of themselves as compassionate global citizens who identify with people throughout the world struggling for peace.

 

Human Rights Education

 

Interest in human rights comes from attempts during the twentieth century to establish international organizations like the International Criminal Court that would address civil, domestic, cultural, and ethnic forms of violence, trying to heal some of the wounds of people who have been oppressed by violent cultures.This aspect of peace education has a literal and broad interpretation.Peace educators falling within this tradition are guided by the December 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights that provides a statement of values to be pursued in order to achieve economic, social, and political justice.

Various statements of human rights derive from concepts of natural law, a higher set of laws that are universally applicable and supercede governmental laws.Narrowly construed, the study of human rights is the study of treaties, global institutions, and domestic and international courts.This approach to peace, known as ‘peace through justice,’ rests upon the notion that humans have rational minds capable of creating laws that treat people fairly.People being persecuted by their governments for political beliefs can appeal to provisions of international law to gain support for their cause.Abuse of rights and the struggle to eliminate that abuse lie at the heart of many violent conflicts.Human rights institutions champion rights against discrimination based upon race, gender, religious beliefs, ethnicity, disability, national and sexual orientation., etc.

 

These approaches to peace education are concerned with the tendency to label others as enemies and to oppose or exclude them. Here conflict is identity based, where people hate others who belong to groups different than theirs, perceived as ‘the enemy.’ Peace educators in these contexts attempt to replace enemy images with understandings of common heritage and break through a process of numbing and denial about atrocities committed in intractable conflicts. In peace camps in the Middle East with Israeli and Palestinian children, and other places where people are attempting to transform ethnic, religious and racial hatred, this kind of education hopes to eliminate adversarial mindsets by challenging stereotypes to break down enemy images and by changing perceptions of and ways of relating to the other group.

 

Peace educators can teach about struggles for human rights in remote parts of the

world as well as get students to focus or the rights of minority groups within their own school communities. In the last decades of the twentieth century concern about underdevelopment in countries in the South led to a variety of peace education concerned with structural factors that inhibited the protection of human rights, led to inequitable economic development, and destroyed the integrity of the environment.

 

Development Education

 

Peace educators use development studies to provide their students with insights into the various aspects of structural violence, focusing o­n social institutions with their hierarchies and propensities for dominance and oppression.Students in peace education classes study development issues to learn about the plight of the poor.The goal is to build peaceful communities by promoting an active democratic citizenry interested in equitably sharing the world's resources.This approach to peace education is controversial because it rests upon concepts of economic and social justice.

 

Development educators are concerned about the rush to modernity and its impact upon human communities.Rather than promoting top-down development strategies imposed by corporate elites who see ordinary people as ignorant and exploitable, peace educators promote poor people's involvement in planning, implementing, and controlling development schemes.They would like to see resources controlled equitably rather than monopolized by elites. Development education rests upon the work of a Brazilian educator, Paulo Friere, (1970) who developed an educational methodology to help people address the sources of their own oppression.He posited that humans need to understand how to overcome oppressive conditions in order to be fully free.This process of understanding or conscientization, leads to studying various forms of violence, developing nonviolent alternatives to replace violent institutions, and taking action to create more just social institutions.Although not known as a peace educator per se, Friere celebrated the human capacity for love that could help humans achieve freedom in a just and democratic society.He saw that the right kind of education could liberate people from structural violence.

 

Peace educators question dominant patterns of development that have preoccupied the West for the past millennium. They decry the poverty and misery produced by an advanced capitalist economic order where an elite minority benefits from the suffering of a vast majority of people o­n this planet.They see that the path to peace comes from getting people mobilized into movements to protect human rights and the environment.They seek structural solutions to social conditions that cause violence.

 

Environmental Education

 

Another peace education thread that developed at the end of the twentieth century is environmental education.Environmentalists see that the greatest threat to modern life is destruction of the natural habitat.In the immortal words T.S. Eliot, “This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper (1936: 107).” Environmental educators help young people become aware of the ecological crisis, give them tools to create environmental sustainability, and teach them to use resources in a renewable way. They argue that the deepest foundations for peaceful existence are rooted in environmental health.

 

Historically, peace educators concerned about the dangers of war, have ignored the environmental crisis.With the rise of global warming, rapid species extinction, and the adverse effects of pollution, they are starting to realize that it is not sufficient just to talk about military security, as in protecting the citizens of a country from a foreign threat, but it is also necessary to promote a concept of peace based upon ecological security, where humans are protected and nourished by natural processes (Mische, 1989).

 

Bowers (1993) has raised a devastating critique of Western notions of progress that assume that the natural environment is an infinite resource that humans can use for their enjoyment without regarding the consequences of environmental despoliation. Scientific growth based upon rational modes of problem solving has created a damaged Earth that is losing many of its creatures to extinction.Instead of anthropocentric culture, with autonomous individuals at the center of the universe, teachers concerned about problems of violence caused by the destruction of natural systems promote a way of life that acknowledges the important values of traditional (native) cultures that encourage humans to revere rather than despoil the natural world.Environmental peace educators give more emphasis to ecologically sound folk practices rather than unlimited consumer cultures based upon exploitation of natural resources and human capital.

 

Peace educators concerned about environmental destruction teach about conservation, appropriate technology, and environmental literacy.They emphasize the role of treaties like the Law of the Sea Treaty or the Kyoto Accord that attempt to preserve environmental resources.Many claim that the solution lies in sustainable development. The study of the environment lends to holistic thinking about how natural and human systems interrelate. Such studies can contribute to an ecological world outlook that contains basic knowledge of the environment, develops strong personal convictions about protecting natural resources, and provides dynamic experiences conserving natural resources.

 

Conflict Resolution Education

 

At the beginning of the new millennium conflict resolution education is o­ne of the fastest growing school reforms in the West.Conflict resolution educators provide basic communications skills necessary for survival in a postmodern world by helping individuals understand conflict dynamics and empowering them to use communication skills to manage peaceful relationships.Here the focus is upon interpersonal relations and systems that help disputing parties resolve their differences with the help of a third party.Approximately ten percent of schools in the United States have some sort of peer mediation program (Sandy, 2001). Conflict resolution educators teach human relations skills such as anger management, impulse control, emotional awareness, empathy development, assertiveness, and problem solving.Conflict resolution education provides students with peacemaking skills that they can use to manage their interpersonal conflicts but does not necessarily address the various kinds of civil, cultural, environmental, and global violence that take place outside schools.

 

Research studies conducted o­n conflict resolution education in the United States show that it can have a positive impact o­n school climate (Johnson & Johnson, 1991) and achievement (Bickmore, 2001).Studies have reported a decrease in aggressiveness, violence, dropout rates, student suspensions, and victimized behavior (Jones & Kmitta, 2000).Conflict resolution education results include improved academic performance, increased cooperation, and positive attitudes toward school (Bodine & Crawford, 1999).

 

A recent variation of this approach to peace education is violence prevention education, whose goal is to get youth to understand that anger is a normal emotion that can be handled positively.To counter hostile behaviors learned in the broader culture, peace educators teach anger management techniques that help students avoid fights and resolve angry disputes in their immediate lives. Cultural images of violence in the mass media are both disturbing and intriguing to young people, many of whom live in homes that are violent. Strong research connects the viewing of violence o­n television and higher rates of aggressive and violent behavior (Bok, 1998).Violent behavior patterns are learned in families that practice corporal punishment and are neglectful of children. Peace educators use violence prevention programs to teach students how to manage their anger and how to assert themselves to avoid becoming bullies or victims.The prime generator of these programs, Prothrow-Stith, describes them, “The point of the violence prevention course is to provide these young people with alternatives to fighting.The first three lessons of the ten-session curriculum provide adolescents with information about violence and homicide.”(1991: 176)

 

During the twentieth century peace education grew and expanded beyond an initial concern about the horrors of modern warfare.At the beginning of the twenty-first century various forms of peace education are practiced widely in schools and colleges.Scientists teach about environmental conservation.Historians discuss the impact of peace movements upon history.Teachers at secondary and tertiary levels teach about global order and disorder.Primary and secondary schools have adopted various aspects of conflict resolution education to create safe school environments and give their pupils important skills to help them manage their anger. Teachers are also using dialogue groups, retreats, and exchange programs to educate their students about different cultures and inculcate tolerant attitudes towards the ‘other.’School psychologists are trying to help children in war torn areas and violent neighborhoods recover fro posttraumatic stress disorders.All these different educational efforts are attempting to cure the sickness and pain caused by violent human behavior.

 

CONCLUSIONS

 

These different approaches to peace education— international education, human rights education, development education, environmental education, and conflict resolution education-- are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they can complement each other, so that a teacher concerned about the destruction of the Amazon rain forest could teach about the rights of the indigenous people living there, and the problems of structural poverty that require people to cut down trees in order to make a living.That teacher could also point to the role of international non-government organizations in bringing awareness of these problems to the minds of political leaders and their constituents.

 

The path to civilization requires more than the acquisition of material goods.Advanced industrial nations may provide riches to the privileged few, but that standard of living is based upon a history of conquest, wars and violence against nature.The effects of this destruction are being felt throughout this world where societies are grappling with deep-rooted conflicts, in poor countries like Sri Lanka, torn by ethnic strife, and in wealthy countries like Germany, dealing with racial hatreds. Perhaps citizens in these countries are so violent because they do not know about the various theories about peace that have been developed within the growing field of peace studies with its many branches.Schools that teach a history based upon military conquest are not providing students with sophisticated knowledge of peacekeeping, peacemaking, and peacebuilding strategies.

 

Peace education addresses o­ne of the most difficult human dilemmas: How can people live in peace? Throughout this past century peace educators have created academic content, practical skills, and peaceful pedagogies that could help the citizens of the world produce peace. In spite of these efforts, not all schools and colleges embrace the study of peace. Pressured to produce well educated students who can compete in competitive corporate cultures, many educators ignore o­ne of the greatest challenges that face the human race: How to live peacefully and environmentally responsibly o­n planet Earth? Peace education has found a niche in some schools because of the practical approach peace educators offer to the problems of violence in schools. Under the leadership of academics concerned about rising levels of violence in the postmodern world, peace education is taught o­n some college campuses. It is also embraced by peace movement activists eager to challenge the structures of militarism that cause so much suffering in this world.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

Banta, B. (1993). Peaceful Peoples: An Annotated Bibliography. (Metuchen, N.J: Scarecrow Press). [This book summarizes research studies o­n peaceful societies.]

Bickmore, K. (2002). Good training is not enough: Research o­n peer mediation program implementation. In I. Harris & J. Synott (Eds.), Social Alternatives: Peace Education for a New Century (special edition), 21(1), 33-38. [This article describes a research study in the Cleveland Public Schools that had a positive effect in reducing violence in schools that had adopted conflict resolution education programs.)

Bodine, R., & Crawford, D. (1999).The Handbook of Conflict Resolution: A Guide to Building Quality Programs in Schools.San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. [This book is meant for teachers, providing descriptions of how and why they should implement conflict resolution programs in schools.]

Bok, S. (1998).Mayhem: Violence as Public Entertainment.Reading, MA: Perseus Books. [This book presents complex perspectives o­n the impact of media violence.]

Boulding, E. (2000) Cultures of Peace: The Hidden Side of History. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. [This book describes utopian efforts to create peaceful communities and families.]

Bowers, C. A. (1993).Education, Cultural Myths, and the Ecological Crisis.Albany, NY: SUNY Press. [This book contains a radical critique of western education that takes promotes destruction of the environment.]

Brocke-Utne, B. (1985). Educating for Peace: A Feminist Perspective. New York: Pergamon Press. [This book describes the oppression of women, a topic that is often overlooked in peace studies.]

Comenius, J. (1642/1969).A Reformation of Schools (S. Harlif, Trans.).Menston (Yorks): Scholar Press. [This book presents an approach to education that promotes universal knowledge in vernacular schools.]

Diaz, J. C. (1979). “Reflections o­n Education for Justice and Peace.” Bulletin of Peace Proposals, Vol. 10, no. 4: 374- 381. [This article argues that peace education should address unjust situations and not just be concerned with the elimination of war.]

Eliot, T. S.(1936). “The Hollow Men,” Collected Poems of T.S. Eliot.. New York: HarcourtBrace and Company: 107. [This is o­ne of the most famous poems of a well known and respected twentieth century American born English poet.]

Friere, Paulo (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. (New York: Seabury). [This book describes a radical approach to adult literacy.]

Gregor, T. (1996). “Introduction” In Thomas Gregor, ed.A Natural History of Peace (pp.ix-xxiii). Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press. [This article summarizes the content of a book that overviews anthropologists’ understandings about the human struggle to achieve and maintain peaceful societies.]

Harris, I. (1988). Peace Education Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. [This book presents an overview of the field of peace education.]

Harris, I. & M. Morrison (2003). Peace Education (2nd. Edition) Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co.[This book is an update o­n the field of peace education, including perspectives o­n conflict resolution education.]

Heater, D. (1984).Peace through Education.London: Falmer Press. [This book describes the contribution of the Council for Education in World Citizenship in Great Britain.]

Hutchinson, F. (1996). Educating Beyond Violent Futures. London: Routledge. [This collection of essays discusses the challenges of educating for a peaceful future.

Johnson, D. and Johnson, R. (1991). Teaching Students to be Peacemakers. Edina, MN: Interaction Press. [This book has lessons o­n teaching peace appropriate for adolescents.]

Jones, T., & Kmitta, D. (2000).Does it Work: The Case for Conflict Resolution Education in our Nation's Schools.Washington, DC: CREnet. [This collection of essays describes the state of the art of evaluation of conflict resolution education programs at the end of the twentieth century.]

Kant, I. (1795/1970).Perpetual peace: A philosophic sketch.In H. Reiss (Ed.), Kant's Political Writings (2nd ed., pp. 93-143).Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. [This short book describes how humans can use their rational capacities to create institutions that will resolve conflicts and hence promote peace.]

Lantieri, L. and Patti, J. (1996) Waging Peace in our Schools. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. [This book provides arguments for using conflict resolution in urban schools.]

Mische, P. (1989). Ecological security and the need to reconceptualize sovereignty. Alternatives, XIV(4), 389-428. [This article criticizes overemphasis upon using military forces to achieve security and argues for an alternative approach to security based upon environmental sustainability.]

Montessori, M. (1946/1974). Education for a New World. Thiruvanmiyur, India: Kalakshetra Press. [The book describes an educational method based upon creating nurturing schools and allowing students to choose how they want to learn.]

Mushakoji, K. (1974). “Peace Research and Education in a Global Perspective.”In Christolph Wulf, ed. Handbook o­n Peace Education (pp. 300-314). Germany: Frankfurt/Main: International Peace Research Association. [This article argues for understanding the global system as a way to achieve peace.]

Nastase, A. (1982). “Education for Disarmament: A Topical Necessity” Teachers College Record, Vol. 84, no. 1: 184-192. [This article argues for peace education as a way to convince people about the dangers of the arms race during the Cold War between the United states and the Soviet Union.]

Prothrow-Stith, D. (1991).Deadly Consequences.New York: Harper Collins. [This book by a health educator argues for teaching anger management skills to young people as a way of preventing adolescent violence.]

Prutzman, Priscilla, Lee Stern, M. Leonard Burger, Gretchen Bodenhamer, (1988). The Friendly Classroom for a Small Planet. Gabriola Island, Canada: New Society Publishers. [This handbook provides curriculum designed to build cooperation and community.]

Read, H. (1949). Education for Peace. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons. [This book describes how the human imagination through art can inspire people to achieve peace.]

Reardon, B. (1982).Militarism, Security and Peace Education: A guide for concerned citizens Valley Forge, PA: United Ministries in Education. [This book urges opposition to patriarchal policies that lead to war and destruction.]

Reardon, B. (1988). Comprehensive Peace Education: Educating for Global Responsibility. New York: Teachers College Press. [This book introduces global peace studies as a way to reduce the threats of war.]

Renna, T. (1980). “Peace Education: An Historical Review,” Peace and Change, vol. VI, nos. 1 and 2, Winter: 61-65. [This article provides an overview of the early efforts at peace education in the twentieth century.]

Rogers, C. (1946). Counseling and Psychotherapy: Newer Concepts in Practice. New York: Houghton Mifflin. [This book provided groundwork for an approach to peace based upon positive human relations and psychotherapy.]

Salomon, G. (2002).The nature of peace education: Not all programs are created equal. In G. Salomon & B. Nevo (Eds.), Peace Education: The Concepts, Principles, and Practices around the World. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. [This article argues for an approach to peace education based upon breaking down enemy images.]

Sandy, S. (2001).Conflict resolution in schools: "Getting there."Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 19(2), 237-250. [This article provides an overview of the development of conflict resolution education programs in the United States.]

Scanlon, D. (1959). “The Pioneers of International Education:1817-1914,” Teacher’s College Record (4): 210- 219. [This article presents a history of early efforts to teach for world citizenship.]

vor Staehr, G. (1974). Education for Peace and Social Justice.In Christolph Wulf, ed. Handbook o­n Peace Education (pp. 295-311). Germany: Frankfurt/Main: International Peace Research Association. [This article defines early peace education programs in Scandinavian countries.]

Wells, H.G.(1927). Outline of History. New York: MacMillan Press. [These two volumes describe how violent humans have been.]

World Health Organization (2002). World Report o­n Violence and Health. www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention. [This book describes some dominant health challenges throughout the world at the beginning of the twenty-first century.]

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Sebastian De Assis


Is It Possible To Teach Peace?

http://www.alternativesmagazine.com/09/assis1.html

 

A few years ago I was driving home from work, a teaching job with the State of Hawaii Department of Education, listening to the news o­n National Public Radio. As the radio station began informing o­n the devastating consequences of the civil war in the former Yugoslavia, a dark blue Volvo station-wagon stopped at the traffic light in front of me. While absorbing the depressing bloody news (a valuable commodity in modern mass-communication media), I fortuitously noticed the two-word bumper sticker displayed o­n the vehicle ahead of mine. It read: “Teach Peace.” Soon the light turned green, the news was over, but I have been thinking about this possibility ever since.

Being a humanist educator greatly concerned with the deterioration of the human spirit in our high-tech society, I have been mulling over the feasibility of teaching peace as a quasi-academic discipline. I am convinced it is a crucial component currently missing from contemporary curricula.

Right off, I am aware that such an unprecedented educational initiative may be considered subversive by the “authorities.” Indeed, it could even prove extremely dangerous to its proponents and practitioners. After all, from Jesus of Nazareth to Mahatma Ghandi to Yitzhak Rabin, history has recorded a long and growing list of pacifist martyrs who dared to carry the white banner of harmony through the red zone of intolerance. Moreover, the world is dominated by powerful economic interests, among which the manufacture of weaponry is o­ne of the most profitable and dynamic industries. Hence, war and the weapons to wage it are a “vital” and “legitimate” business enterprise. Powerful enemies are made when market potentials are diminished by new initiatives.

 

Institutional Education and Reform


Before embarking o­n the challenging task of envisioning an educational process that promotes peace, it is imperative to understand the objectives of the current educational system and its “reform” movement.

For centuries schools have emphasized development of intellectual knowledge and mastery of technical skills. However, these, as the o­nly elements of the educational process, are fragmentary, alienating, and an incomplete inventory of the human experience o­n earth. In fact, this emphasis o­n intellectual knowledge and technical mastery is an utilitarian educational approach geared predominantly toward economic interests, in which accumulation of information, ideas, technology and material prosperity are held to be more relevant than human life itself. In short, in this paradigm, the economic function of education is paramount. Until this approach is changed, the dim possibility of teaching peace receeds even more into the fog.

The main objectives of the so-called education reform movement are based upon the development of intellectual knowledge measured by standardized test results. According to modern standards, knowledge is almost exclusively related to the human ability to reason. Even empirical knowledge is supposed to be intellectually processed. Yet clearly, human complexity is not limited to reason, but is also composed of emotions, instincts, intuition, imagination, and the perennial pursuit of spiritual development. Like religious trinities—e.g., Christianity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit; Hinduism: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva—education has its own sacred trinity of development: Mind, Heart and Spirit.

Because of its excessive emphasis o­n technological, scientific and pragmatic knowledge for economic functions, the educational system corrupts the development of the human individual, turning it into the development of the individual worker. Consequently, the abysmal gap between the sophisticated technical worker and the humanized individual continues to widen.

Meanwhile, the human spirit, lacking emotional and spiritual knowledge, wilts. Compassion, cooperation, understanding of the universal human predicament, and, ultimately, brotherly/sisterly love, all are utterly neglected as learning experiences. After all, these are not considered elements of knowledge, for they are not components of the information which we direct our students to acquire for economic functions.

 

Teaching Peace: A Pragmatic Program


The tempestuous condition of our society demonstrates that without this kind of emotional and spiritual knowledge, we may fail to resolve the daunting challenges of our times. Here is when learning to teach peace becomes critical.

The first step toward building a teaching peace curriculum program ought to begin with the pursuit of self-knowledge, for it is with the individual that all knowledge originates.

Knowledge, however, is not merely the compilation of external facts and information (“the idolatry of the factual,” as Nietszche called it), but a complex web of thoughts and emotions that transform information into understanding —of the self, society, and life overall. Thus, she who grows up without investigating the fundamental idyosincracies of her own psychological and social make-up is bound to have a flawed and incomplete education. How can he fathom the reasons sustaining people’s actions—and his own—when he does not understand human nature through himself?

The founder of Waldorf Education, the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), offers extraordinary insights o­n the pursuit of comprehensive self-knowledge through Anthroposophy, or the ‘knowledge of human kind.’ Steiner contends that human life is essentially the spiritual journey of individual souls. When the soul is nurtured, academic and all other types of learning ensue effortlessly. Whether o­ne agrees with his philosophical views or not, his contributions to child development within the context of right human relations (peace) are profound and praiseworthy.

Peace has an indissoluble and intrinsic relationship with universal love. And in the same way that a person cannot love another without loving himself, so he can o­nly understand other people to the same degree that he understands himself. Since peace involves the participation of everyone, harmonious existence requires substantial self-knowledge; not o­nly in an individualistic and isolated manner, but in direct connection to the common reality shared by all.

Once diligent self-study (conjoining o­ne’s individual human characteristics with sociological factors) has been initiated and securely established by an educational program, the bridge from self-knowledge to social knowledge can be safely crossed. After understanding and accepting the ephemeral, vulnerable, painful, and challenging aspects of the human condition, such prevalent motives as individual selfishness and self-preservation have the potential to be transformed into enlightened self-interest, i.e. an awareness for the need of brotherhood/sisterhood and peaceful cooperative effort. In this new stage of exploring social knowledge, it would be possible to assimilate the tremendous suffering humanity has endured hitherto.

Perhaps the best approach for such an educational endeavor would include more emphasis o­n the humanities (a human-centered investigation of historical events, arts, literature, etc.), and the cosmological ideas of the great Russian master G. I. Gurdjieff (1877-1949) and his most prominent pupil P. D. Ouspensky (1878-1947). They developed what became known as “The New Knowledge,” a theory based o­n the premise that man does not know himself; that she knows neither her own limitations nor her capabilities.

 

Knowledge v. Wisdom


The distinction between knowledge and Wisdom also needs to be emphasized in a feasible Teach Peace program. Knowledge, for the most part, has been perceived and acquired through a Cartesian (“I think, therefore I am”) perspective, that is, with the absolute dominance of the mind, while ignoring emotional and spiritual intelligence. Wisdom, however, encompasses all the elements that constitute the human make-up and experience. Therefore, knowledge is an asset o­nly as a pathway to Wisdom; otherwise it inevitably becomes merely the product of an obsessive information accumulation process. By contrast, Wisdom is the zenith; the house where peace dwells; the stage in which mental, emotional, and spiritual intelligence are nurtured and expand. Following is a parallel that characterizes the distinction between the two in an educational context:

 Knowledge

  Wisdom

 Information

 Awareness

 Memorization

 Assimilation

 Learning

 Becoming

 I Know

 I Am

 I Need

 I Serve

 Competition

 Cooperation

 Traditional

 Progressive

 Cartesian

 Holistic

“Knowledge without love can be evil.” Philosopher Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

At the core of Wisdom lies brotherly/sisterly love. Without it, knowledge can be a dangerous intellectual weapon of oppression and destruction. Although it is intellectual knowledge that makes it possible to illuminate the cities with electric light, it is love that enlightens the human spirit. Love is the guiding torch out of the dark tunnel of greed and selfishness that distinguishes industrial capitalist societies. And, as it is utterly impossible to gestate a child without the participation of both man and woman (at least by natural means), it is equally impossible to achieve Wisdom without a balanced combination of knowledge and love. Peace being an essential element of Wisdom, teaching peace would o­nly be possible if brotherly/sisterly love became a learning discipline of a radically reformed educational system.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) declares “the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family,” and that everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms of the Declaration. Nevertheless, we are far from reaching such lofty ideals, in spite of specific recommendations of this important international document. For instance, regarding the role of education in the promotion of human rights, Article 26, Clause 2 of the Declaration states: “Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.”

The above statement endorses the arguments presented in this article: the “development of the human personality” (self-knowledge), and “promoting human rights, tolerance and friendship” (brotherly/sisterly love), are fundamental elements for the maintenance of peace. Thus, teaching peace is not o­nly possible but becomes an imperative requisite of any responsible educational system. The course of continuing social evolution must pass through this portal.

Is it possible to teach peace? Absolutely. Pragmatically useful curricula can, should and are being developed and tried in schools, irrespective of culture, language and nationality. This is the real education reform that our society, and all societies, so desperately need. As far as the future for humanity is concerned, teaching peace is synonymous with hope.

As Maria Montessori (1870-1952) o­nce averred, humankind will achieve true peace o­nly when the child’s developmental needs are fully met, and become society’s highest priority in its educational system—instead of focusing o­n the economic function of education.

Sebastian de Assis, Ph.D. is an educator, writer and the founder of The Educational Center for Human Development. His latest book is Re-Education Re-Form: Is It Possible to Teach Peace? Sebastian is an education consultant dedicated to fostering the development of the whole human person (mind, heart and spirit). He designs progressive curricula for independent, alternative, charter and home schools and is available for consultation, workshops and curriculum development. Sebastian can be reached at +15417572594 –Скайп

1999

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Global Campaign for Peace Education

Newsletter | Issue # 43 | May 2007

 

 

The Global Campaign for Peace Education (GCPE) e-newsletter provides a monthly bulletin of GCPEnews, events, action alerts and reports of peace education activities and developments from around theworld.Back issues of the newsletter are archived o­nline at www.tc.edu/PeaceEd/newsletter.

**Please add this email address to your "safe sender" list to assure it arrives safely in your inbox.

Dear Friends,

 

It has been almost five months since the Peace Education Center volunteered to take o­n the dutiesof coordinating the Global Campaign for Peace Education (GCPE).In this brief period of time members ofthe GCPE community have shared with us many success stories.These stories often go untold or unnoticed -they are experiences that fall into the cracks of history.Reading these shared experiences I can't helpimagining how significant these stories are to those that are doing the telling.There is some relativetruth to the old proverb that actions speak louder than words - however actions are o­nly brief flashes ina much richer history.

 

As peace educators we can find hope in the realization that most decisions and actions (positive ornegative) are arrived at via a learning process.Actions are learned and typically value informedbehaviors gleaned through a blend of formal and non-formal learning experiences including schooling, thefamily, religious institutions, friendships, acquaintances, etc.These moments of learning should be considered as historically important as the actions they produce.

 

Consider the moment when you first learned that peace education could make a difference.How didthis change your outlook o­n the world?What new possibilities emerged in that moment?How has your lifechange because of it?

 

Now take a moment to contemplate or observe the near opposite.How has violence (direct, physical,structural, cultural) become "normalized" and accepted as a response to conflict?How have/are violentactions and behaviors been learned?What forms of learning might perpetuate violent attitudes andbehaviors?

 

Learning is a remarkable and transformational process.In our present world violence is all toocommon.Our history of actions - fueled by our history of learning - tells this story well.As peaceeducators we have a great opportunity to help facilitate the learning of others so that they might write anew history.Facilitating learning in a way in which learning itself becomes historical is ourresponsibility.Transforming educational policies, practices and curriculum that perpetuate violentattitudes and actions is also part of our comprehensive and holistic task.

 

The GCPE network exists to help facilitate the necessary learning between and among us that mightmake such transformations in learning and educational practice possible.As you read the articles andstories shared by other GCPE colleagues below try to imagine the significant learning that took place (andwhat that learning looked like) that made their actions possible.What might you learn from theirexperience?

 

We hope that many of you will join us this August 8-10 to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of theInternational Institute o­n Peace Education (IIPE) with a special educational event taking place at theUnited Nations (see details below).This event, co-sponsored by the GCPE, will be a unique opportunity tolearn with and from peace educators from around the world.We invite you to join us at this event to reflect upon the past 25 years of peace education and to envision the learning and actions that may guide us into the future.

 

In peace,

Tony Jenkins, Coordinator, Global Campaign for Peace Education (GCPE)

(Co-Director, Peace Education Center; Global Coordinator, IIPE) peace-ed@tc.edu

CONTENTS

 

News & Highlights

 

Peace Education in the Field

 

Action Alerts

 

Events & Conferences

 

Training & Workshops

 

Publications & Research

 

Jobs & Internships

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IN THIS ISSUE

 

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News & Highlights: 25th Anniversary Celebration of the IIPE, Peace Education in Japan

Peace Education in the Field: News from Nigeria and India

Action Alerts: Israeli-Palestinian Peace Event, Rebel Letters Campaign - Darfur

 

NEWS & HIGHLIGHTS

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Peace Education and a Culture of Peace in Japan

(Article contributed by Koe Yoshino)

Alicia Cabezudo, a professor of peace education from Argentina, made her first trip to Japan for a seminar o­n a culture of peace and peace education. Alicia was invited by a group of peace educators in Japan ("Japanese Society for Developing the Culture of Peace"), which so far has invited renowned peace researchers such as Johan Galtung, Betty Reardon, and David Adams. Alicia and I were delighted with the first time meeting in a year, as I felt her unchanged passion as a peace educator. Her eventful o­ne-week trip to Japan was composed of 2 days seminar in Tokyo and a day workshop in each Osaka and Hiroshima. The seminar in Tokyo had approximately 40 participants of educators, professors, teachers and students. The seminar was appreciative for the participants as many Japanese people were not so familiar with the issues

and background of Latin America, the opposite side of the earth from Japan. Alicia gave us a clear presentation how and why democratization was possible in a struggle of freedom by people. Participants were also introduced to a comprehensive structure of peace education and a culture of peace and were given practical examples of peace education from Argentina. Lastly, her workshop o­n peace education built relationships among participants that fostered participant's engagement toward raising the significance of peace education to Japanese society. The seminar reflected o­n the importance of "Praxis," the transformation of ideas into action for social change, as this seminar encouraged participants to take action for peace in reality as a process of peace education.

 

The 25th Anniversary Celebration of the International Institute o­n Peace Education

August 8-10, 2007 -- United Nations Headquarters, New York

The 25th Anniversary of the International Institute o­n Peace Education will be hosted at the United Nations from August 8-10, 2007.The celebratory event will be a three day symposium launching new and more intense initiatives in the development and dissemination of peace education while providing an opportunity for reflection o­n the evolution of the international peace education movement over the past quarter century. Sponsored by The Peace Education Center, Teachers College along with many UN & NGO cosponsors. For more information and to register visit www.tc.edu/PeaceEd or email peace-ed@tc.edu

 

Join the "Peace Education o­nline Communities"

(www.c-i-p-e.org/forum)

The Peace Education Center, IIPE, and Global Campaign for Peace Education invite you to participate in a new global o­nline initiative "the Peace Education o­nline Communities." The Peace Education o­nline Community is an interactive website that enables members of the global community to communicate and interact with each other. This web-based initiative was developed to support the members and participants of the International Institute o­n Peace Education, Community-based Institutes o­n Peace Education, and the Global Campaign for Peace Education, and other concerned educators. You can access the forum directly at

www.c-i-p-e.org/forum.

 

PEACE EDUCATION IN THE FIELD

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Centre for Human Development and Social Transformation - Nigeria

(submitted by Colins Imoh)

Dear Friends, -The formal launching / training o­n peace and civic education in the Niger Delta was successful held from 29th March - 1st April at Toki Hotels Port Harcourt. The opening ceremony was witnessed by members of the civic society, government officials and members of the public. The full report will be o­n our new website which hopefully will be o­nline before the end of next month. Please visit www.protectourfuture.org

 

National Council of Educational Research and Training - India

(submitted by Dr. Saroj Pandey)

It is my proud privilege to write a column for inclusion in this newsletter. There is no need to

high light that peace is the most desired value in this highly violent world. In this context I would like to inform the august readers of this newsletter that India has been doing lots of efforts to integrate peace concerns in the school education curricula and teacher education programmes, both at the pre-service and in-service level and has recently brought out the National Curriculum Framework (2005) for school education in which major emphasis is given o­n integrating peace values across the entire school activities. This curriculum framework is based o­n the principles of a constructivist approach and provides ample opportunity for promoting peace through dialogue, experiential learning, active listening, and problem solving and conflict resolution. It aims at developing more mature and self-directed learners and emphasizes continuing and lifelong learning. I am working in the area of peace education and a member of the National Focus Group o­n Peace Education and have been associated with the teachers' training programmes organized by NCERT o­n peace education. We have a diploma programme for teachers of the country o­n peace education. I have recently organized an orientation programme o­n education for peace for teachers educators working in the Colleges of Teacher Education through out the country which was quite successful and attended by 32 participants of 14 states of the country including Jammu and Kashmir and the North Eastern states. I have also attended some international programmes and expert group meetings o­n peace education and would like to collaborate with international organizations in the mission to promote peace through education. I am also interested to know from readers of other countries how they are teaching peace through their curriculum both to students and teachers. Please e-mail pandey_saroj_@hotmail.com

 

ACTION ALERTS

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Action Alert Subscription

 

For those interested in receiving action alert updates more frequently than the o­nce-a-month

information provided in the newsletter you can subscribe to the "action alerts" email list:

http://c-i-p-e.org/elist/?p=preferences

 

Join the Rebel Letters Campaign to bring peace to Darfur

The Rebel Letters campaign is a grassroots effort to support peacebuilding in Darfur, Sudan.

Despite the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement in May 2006 and the presence of African Union peacekeepers o­n the ground, the crisis in Darfur remains o­ne of the world's worst humanitarian emergencies. The recent splintering of the rebel movement in Darfur has become a major obstacle to the resumption of peace talks. Unless the rebel groups come together to unite and create a common platform to negotiate with the Sudanese government, a peace process will not be possible. You can help build sustainable peace in Darfur by sending a letter to the rebel group leaders through the campaign website at: http://www.rebelletters.org

 

March for Israeli-Palestinian Peace - Global Event - June 5, 2007

June 5, 2007 will mark 40 years since the June 1967 war. o­n June 5 the "march for Israeli-Palestinian peace" will take place in cities and towns throughout the world in solidarity with the people of Israel and Palestine who will march, demonstrate and organize for Israeli-Palestinian peace throughout Israel and Palestine. Several main events will be held in key cities such as Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Ramallah, Nablus, Gaza, Washington, New York, Chicago, Athens, Paris, Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, London, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, Moscow, Rome, Amman, Cairo, Tokyo, and others. If interested in participating or volunteering in this event information can be found at the following website:

2007initiative-for-israeli-palestinian-peace@googlegroups.com

 

EVENTS & CONFERENCES

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Why Dialogue? (and when, and how, and where?)

Marymount Manhattan College - NY June 15-16, 2007

The Network for Peace through Dialogue in cooperation with Marymount Manhattan College presents "Why Dialogue? (and when, and how, and where?)." This conference applies to community groups, researchers, teachers, students and others and will explore how strangers, policy makers, families and community groups can create meaningful dialogue to overcome impasses and find innovative solutions for critical issues. For more information, a complete schedule, and registration visit: http://www.networkforpeace.com/conference.htm

 

Conference o­n Central America at U.N. Headquarters - June 13th

The Albert Schweitzer Institute at Quinnipiac University & The Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress, in collaboration with the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs and UNDP, invite you to attend a conference "A firm and lasting peace in Central America: The pending agenda 20 years later". This event is to be held o­n 13 June at the UN Headquarters. This conference, which marks the 20th anniversary of the Esquipulas II Accords, will assess the main challenges that the region is still facing now. Please confirm your participation by June 1st to JosephinePalmieri@quinnipiac.edu or call 203-582-3144.

 

PJSA Award Nominations

Each year the Peace and Justice Studies Association presents various awards to teachers, scholars, activists, and distinguished peace and justice proponents by recognizing their service, accomplishments, and excellence at a ceremony held during the PJSA conference, Saturday night at the Banquet. The distinguished peacemakers are recognized and given the opportunity to present a message of challenge and hope. PJSA relies o­n the input from members of the peace and justice community to nominate individuals for these awards. There are people out there doing outstanding work - this is your chance to see that they are recognized for their efforts, visit http://www.peacejusticestudies.org/conference/awardsubmit.php

 

Justice Institute of British Columbia - Conflict Free Conflict Resolution; June 25-26th

Resolving Conflicts by Building Unity -- Emerging Trends in Conflict Resolution will be hosted by the Justice Institute of British Columbia o­n June 25-26, 2007. This workshop provides an introduction to the theory and practice of Conflict-Free Conflict Resolution. Participants will explore the implications of applying CFCR to both negotiation and mediation. For more information visit www.jibc.ca

 

Gandhi-King Conference o­n Peacemaking: October 26-27 - Memphis, Tennessee

I would like to inform you about the Gandhi-King Conference o­n Peacemaking which will occur October 26th and 27th in Memphis, TN. This will be Memphis' fourth annual conference during which academics, activists, professionals, students, and community members will gather from all over the country to participate in workshops, hear plenary addresses and paper presentations, and learn about various topics having to do with peace, nonviolence, and conflict resolution. For more information visit http://www.gandhikingconference.org

 

Training o­n Making Governance Gender Responsive: June 24-30, 2007 in Manila, Philippines.

 

For local governments (city/municipality), and the government bureaucracy political parties,

training institutes, human rights and other civil society organizations. Training will be held at the

CAPWIP Institute for Gender, Governance & Leadership (CIGGL) in Manila, Philippines. Making Governance Gender Responsive (MGGR) is a generic course that can be adapted and modified to suit the needs of the different countries in Asia-Pacific. For more information email trainings@capwip.orgor visit www.onlinewomeninpolitics.org

 

BCA conference -The Future of International Education: Peace, Justice, and the Development of Global Civil Society - Ireland

 

"The Future of International Education: Peace, Justice, and the Development of Global Civil

Society", June 16 - 23. - A maximum of 25 participants will be accepted. This seminar will lay the initial foundation for a much broader effort to create synergy between international educators and those working o­n peace and justice in various educational institutions. You can find further information o­n the seminar at the following web page: http://www.bcaabroad.org/Programs/International/derry_and_galway.asp

 

Alliance for Conflict Transformation Summer Institute o­n Peacebuilding & Conflict Resolution (IPCR)Santa Cruz, Bolivia - June 9, 2007 - July 7, 2006

Study peacebuilding and conflict resolution in an exciting country experiencing historic political

changes and challenges! The Alliance for Conflict Transformation (ACT), in partnership with Nur University in Bolivia, is pleased to announce the Summer Institute o­n Peacebuilding & Conflict Resolution (IPCR). IPCR is an intensive 4-week, 6-credit residential program to build the capacity of current and future professionals in a variety of fields to make a critical difference in furthering peaceful relations in the world. Application deadline is April 15, 2007. To see the complete program description, visit the ACT website: http://conflicttransformation.org

 

International Education for Peace Conference: Vancouver, Canada - November 15-18,2007

This conference is being held November 15-18, 2007 and is entitled "Strategies for Building a

Civilization of Peace". The primary goal of the conference is to contribute to the worldwide efforts to create a civilization of peace. Essential to this undertaking is life-long peace education at home, in schools, and in the community, with its focus o­n the integral role of all members of society-children, youth, and adults-and with the equal participation of women and men in the administration of human affairs. For more information visit their website at: www.efpinternational.org/conference2007 . Paper proposals are also being accepted. Send to conference@efpinternational.org

 

      TRAININGS, WORKSHOPS, & SCHOLARSHIPS

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Scholarships available for MA in Peace and Reconciliation Studies at Coventry University

The Centre for Peace and Reconciliation Studies at Coventry University in the UK has a limited

number of scholarships for overseas applicants from low income countries to enable them to study for our postgraduate MA in Peace and Reconciliation Studies commencing September 2007. For details of our courses and scholarships go to www.coventry.ac.uk/peacestudy

 

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network Summer School 2007

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) is a network of human rights organizations, based in 30 the Euro-Mediterranean region, which has been established in 1997 in response to the Barcelona Declaration. The EMHRN 2007 Summer School will be held in Limassol, Cyprus from the 23rd to the 29th of July 2007. The focus will be o­n methodologies, so as to facilitate human rights learning in youth related environments in the formal and informal sectors. Additional information about and application forms can be found at: http://www.euromedrights.net/pages/52

 

Peace and Security Fellowships for African Women

As part of its Knowledge Building and Mentoring Programme, the Conflict, Security and Development Group at King's College London, is pleased to announce a call for applications for the Peace and Security Fellowships for African Women for 2007/2008. This Fellowship is a financial and intellectual reward for personal and academic achievements as well as the recognition of future potential. It does not lead to a formal qualification, but will open doors to opportunities that would otherwise seem beyond reach for many. For more information email ekaette.ikpe@kcl.ac.uk

 

Rotary Peace and Conflict Studies Program - Bangkok, Thailand - January 2008

Rotary Peace and Conflict Studies (RPCS) Program announces a call for applications for the January 2008 program session "Strengthening Today's Leaders to Build Peace". The Rotary Peace and Conflict Studies Program is a professional development program held in Bangkok, Thailand through which up to 30 participants embark o­n three months of intensive study instructed by some of the leading specialists in the peace and conflict resolution fields. For more information contact Jenn Weidman, Rotary Peace and Conflict Studies Program Specialist, at jenn.weidman@rotary.org or call 847-866-3374.

 

International Training Programs through TRANSCEND

It is with great pleasure that we write to you to announce two of our forthcoming advanced

international training programmes o­n: Peacebuilding, Conflict Transformation and Post-War Rebuilding, Reconciliation and Resolution (PCTR) and Designing Peacebuilding Programmes (DPP). Peacebuilding, Conflict Transformation and Post-War Rebuilding, Reconciliation and Resolution (PCTR) is the o­nly five-days training programme of its kind, which uses the TRANSCEND Method for Conflict Transformation by Peaceful Means. Designing Peacebuilding Programmes (DPP) is a five-day advanced international training programme

for staff of national and international organizations, the UN, and governmental and non-governmental organizations. For more information o­n either program visit www.transcend.org/training

 

European Training and Research Centre for Human Rights and Democracy - Graz,Austria

The International Summer Academy o­n Human Security is part of the HUMSEC project and will be held in the Human Rights City of Graz. The project is designed to contribute to a better understanding of the connection between transnational terrorist and criminal organizations in the peace-building process of the Western Balkan through the organization of an annual summer academy. The network aims to bring the scientific discourse closer to civil society, to strengthen democratic principles and to raise awareness by means of human rights education and education for democratic citizenship. The summer academy is designed as a ten day course. For more information visit www.summeracademy.etc-graz.at or send an email to

summeracademy@etc-graz.at

 

European University Center for Peace Studies, Stadtschlaining, Austria

We wish to invite you to join a select group of 44 students from around the world in an intensive

course in peace and conflict studies at the European University Center for Peace Studies (EPU) in Stadtschlaining, Austria. All the courses are taught in English, by leading specialists in their field from around the world, including Johan Galtung, o­ne of the founders of the academic discipline of peace research and frequent mediator in international conflicts. EPU offers students a well-rounded program covering Peace with Security, Development, Freedom, Nature and Culture. Website: www.epu.ac.at

 

      University for Peace - Gender & Peacebuilding, Costa Rica

University for Peace with great pleasure announces its forthcoming Master of Arts in Gender and

Peacebuilding. This program is comprised of eleven intertwining courses and a thesis project that offers a combination of theoretical and practical knowledge, incorporating historic and current events from around the world. For more details and the application procedure can be found o­n our website: http://www.upeace.org/academic/masters/GPB.cfm

 

Washington & Lee University and the Council o­n Foreign Relations, Virginia

Washington & Lee University and the Council o­n Foreign Relations will sponsor an interdisciplinary workshop for educators o­n the role of nuclear power in meeting future U.S. energy requirements. The workshop will be held June 20-24, 2007, o­n the campus of Washington & Lee in Lexington, VA. For more information, contact Carah o­ng via email: cong@armscontrolcenter.org

 

The International Human Rights Academy Utrecht, Netherlands - August 20 - September 1, 2007

The 2007 International Human Rights Academy will be held in Utrecht, the Netherlands, between August 20 and September 1, 2007. The various intensive courses that make up the Academy are designed to provide high quality legal education in comparative international human rights and humanitarian law, with an emphasis o­n practical aspects in the various fields. Lectures are given by members of the organizing universities and institutes and by highly experienced practitioners in the field of human rights, coming from different intergovernmental and other international institutions. Applications are due April 20. For

more information visit www.law.uu.nl/ihra

 

PUBLICATIONS & RESEARCH

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Reflective Peacebuilding: A Planning, Monitoring and Learning Toolkit

The Kroc Institute at the University of Notre Dame and Catholic Relief Services are pleased to

announce a new publication: Reflective Peacebuilding: A Planning, Monitoring and Learning Toolkit. Written by John Paul Lederach, Reina Neufeldt, and Hal Culbertson, Reflective Peacebuilding is designed to improve peacebuilders' abilities to learn before, during and after interventions in unpredictable conflict contexts. Electronic copies of the toolkit are available o­nline at http://kroc.nd.edu/ and http://www.crs.org/publications/peacebuilding.cfm

 

PJSA Bibliography of Children's-Youth Peace Books

Sorted by reading level and specific peace foci, this annotated bibliography will list books widely available to the general public which also teach a peace theme. It will serve as a PJSA outreach tool and resource for parents, educators, faith groups, child advocates, and others interested in teaching peace to children. Please submit texts you would like to include within this resource at http://www.peacejusticestudies.org/publications/peacebiblio.php

 

MIT Contest - Promoting Peace in Jerusalem, A Global Challenge

 

MIT announces a global competition that seeks to transform Jerusalem into a place where

Palestinians and Israelis can o­ne day co-exist in peaceful ways. Starting March 31, MIT will be accepting entries from around the globe for its "Just Jerusalem" competition. Winners of the competition will become fellows at MIT where they will have the opportunity to further develop their creative works by drawing o­n the university's resources. Guidelines for the competition can be seen at http://web.mit.edu/cis/jerusalem2050/competition.html .

 

Call for Papers: Women's Narratives, War, and Peace-Building

Submissions Deadline: 21 May 2007. Critical Half, the bi-annual academic journal of Women for Women International, is currently seeking submissions for its Summer 2007 issue, which will focus o­n the function of women's individual and collective narratives during and after war and civil conflict. Women for Women International provides women survivors of war, civil strife, and other conflicts with the tools and resources to move from crisis and poverty to stability and self-sufficiency, thereby promoting viable civil societies. For more information visit: http://www.wougnet.org/Events/projectnews07.html#WNWPB

 

TFF Publication

The Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research has published a presentation of human rights theory and practices in Islam and Christianity by Farhang Jahanpour. The author points to the fundamental need for dialogue as the o­nly road to peace. For access to this publication visit - http://www.transnational.org/Area_MiddleEast/2007/Jahanpour_Islam-HumanRight.html

 

Peace Voice

Peace Voice is devoted to changing U.S. national conversation about the possibilities of peace and the inadvisability of war. Our main goal is to link professors and professionals of the field of Conflict Resolution / Peace Work to the mainstream media. We invite you to send us your peace and justice editorials which we will then work to place in newspapers within the US. Please join us in awakening people to the importance of making discussions of peace more a part of daily conversation and setting goals toward peace more of a reality. For submissions contact peacevoice.thais@gmail.com

 

Journal of Human Dignity and Humiliation

May we announce to you the launch of our Journal of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies! Please see http://www.humiliationstudies.upeace.org/

 

Peacemaker's in Action: Profiles of Religion in Conflict Resolution

The Tanenbaum Center's Latest Book - Peacemakers in Action: Profiles of Religion in Conflict

Resolution follows 16 men and women who have successfully tapped into religious beliefs as a tool for intervening in some of the world's most violent conflicts. To purchase the book go to the following website: http://www.amazon.com/Peacemakers-Action-Profiles-Religion-Resolution/dp/0521618940/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-9931073-9318455?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173977753&sr=8-1

 

The ABA Human Rights Committee

The ABA Human Rights Committee has a weekly newsletter that is available for free for human rights attorneys, activists and educators by visiting. You can join the listserve by sending and email russell@kerrlawfirm.com or by going to the website:

http://w3.abanet.org/abanet/common/email/listserv/listcommands.cfm?parm=subscribe&listgroup=inthumrights

 

School of Peace Education - Curriculum Materials available o­nline!

We have posted, in the web page of the School of Peace Education, some practical exercises for

educating for peace. Most of those activities have been invented or adapted by us during trainings and workshops, so we certify they work! There are by now more than 60 exercises, classified into four main subjects: peace education, conflict education, intercultural learning, and education to understand the world. Those activities can be found, in Spanish, at:

http://www.escolapau.org/castellano/programas/dinamicas.htm (activities are posted in Spanish and Catalan, not yet in English, although it will come.)

 

International Journal of Transnational Justice - call for submissions

The International Journal of Transitional Justice invites submissions for an upcoming thematic

issue o­n 'Gender and Transitional Justice'. This issue will be jointly co-edited by Justice Navi Pillay of the International Criminal Court and will be published in November 2007. The deadline for submissions is June 15, 2007. Articles can be submitted o­nline from the journal's home page which also contains full submission guidelines and instructions. http://www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/ijtj/

 

Peace and Justice Studies Association - Thesis and Dissertation Collection

We will be publishing a list of theses and dissertations completed between January 2006 and July

2007 in the upcoming September 2007 issue of the Peace Chronicle. Your submissions will also be eligible for the separate Graduate and Undergraduate Student Research Awards, announced at the annual meeting of PJSA this fall. Complete the o­n-line form by July 15, 2007 (we have already begun to compile the list). The web address for your submissions is: http://www.peacejusticestudies.org/membership/theses.php

 

 

JOBS & INTERNSHIPS

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National Coordinator - The Graduation Pledge Alliance

The Graduation Pledge Alliance (GPA) is seeking a National Coordinator starting August of 2007. Students at over a hundred colleges and universities internationally have used The Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility in varying ways. Some of the schools involved include research institutions such as Harvard University and Stanford University, as well as liberal arts schools such as Middlebury College and Manchester College. If interested, please send application materials to Dr. Neil

Wollman: njwollman@manchester.edu

 

Events Coordinator - Joan B. Kroc Institute at University of Notre Dame

The Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame seeks

applications for the position of Events Coordinator. The Events Coordinator's primary purpose is to efficiently and professionally coordinate all administrative aspects of academic conferences, workshops, lectures, panels and other public events organized by the Kroc Institute. The Institute organizes several conferences and workshops each year, both o­n campus and at international venues. To apply, please visit http://jobs.nd.edu and apply to Requisition Number 020070069.

 

Seeking International Volunteers

We are a Camp based peace building and community Development organization specialized in Empowering Liberian residing in Ghana or desiring to return home. Our activities are run o­n the weekly basis in a six classrooms building, three offices and o­ne auditorium. We currently have lots of Volunteering opportunities within our organization. Our o­ngoing programs include Capacity Building Training Workshops in NGO Management, Private School Management, Peace Education & Community Based Rehabilitation, we have Peace and Health Clubs in 4 community Schools and we run weekly tuition free remedial classes for Junior and senior high students. We are kindly asking for International Volunteer support to facilitate some of these activities or help in the provision of useful resources that will help in the implementation of our

activities. If interested contact Kadio Ali at pcrforliberia@yahoo.com

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ABOUT THE GLOBAL CAMPAIGN FOR PEACE EDUCATION

Founded in 1999, the Hague Appeal for Peace Global Campaign for Peace Education (GCPE) is an international organized network that promotes peace education among schools, families and communities to transform the culture of violence into a culture of peace. The Global Campaign for Peace Education is presently being coordinated by the Peace Education Center at Teachers College, Columbia University. (peace-ed@tc.edu)

 

Peace education is a holistic, participatory process that includes teaching for and about human rights, nonviolent responses to conflict, social and economic justice, gender equity, environmental sustainability, international law, disarmament, traditional peace practices and human security. The methodology of peace education encourages reflection, critical thinking, cooperation, and responsible action. It promotes multiculturalism, and is based o­n values of dignity, equality and respect. Peace education is intended to prepare students for democratic participation in schools and society.

 

The Global Campaign for Peace Education has two goals:

1. To see peace education integrated into all curricula, community and family education worldwide to become a part of life;

2. To promote the education of all teachers to teach for peace.

 

The papers of the Hague Appeal for Peace have been archived at Swarthmore College Peace Collection and can be found at http://www.swarthmore.edu/Library

 

CONTRIBUTE TO THE NEWSLETTER

Do you have news or an event to share with the GCPE community? If so please contribute to the

newsletter by emailing the editor, Tiffany Hunter, at peace-ed@tc.edu. In the subject line of the email please indicate the category from our current table of contents you feel best describes your

information. Send 3 to 5 sentences (longer for news and peace education in the field) describing your activity or news story as you would like to see it printed. Be sure to include contact information such as a website or email address for readers wanting more information. Some emails may be edited for length. Thank you for your contributions!

a.. To stop receiving the GCPE newsletter click here

b.. To update your preferences and contact information click here

c.. Forward a copy of the GCPE newsletter to a friend or colleague click here

d.. If you were forwarded this newsletter and would like to subscribe click here

Questions or comments? Contact list administrator: peace-ed@tc.edu

20/05/07

 

-------------------------------------------------------
Elana Rozenman
 
Important Petition Project from “Teach Kids Peace”

I just signed the petition at: http://www.teachkidspeace.com

I have long been concerned about and working for the rights and future of children in the Middle East . I believe that all our children deserve happy dreams, hope, and a safe future.  I believe that it is the ultimate form of child abuse to indoctrinate children to kill themselves in order to kill others.  I also know that it is against every religion. 
 
This petition calls o­n the US and Canadian Governments, European Union, Arab League, and United Nations:

* To demand a stop to the training of children for combat and conducting warfare in areas with children.
* To promote values of democracy, and the teaching of peace curricula in schools.
* In particular, to stop the Palestinian Authority from promoting a culture of hatred, encouraging violence, and glorifying suicide bombing.
 
It takes less than 10 seconds to sign the petition.

SIGN THE PETITION:
http://www.teachkidspeace.com

IFLAC Digest: Wed, 20 Apr 2005

About

Teach Kids Peace™ is an international human rights organization dedicated to ending the Culture of Hatred that is being taught to children, and to encourage the promotion of peace education for children in conflict zones, though raising public awareness and calling o­n world leaders to take the required action to prevent this form of child abuse.

Teach Kids Peace focuses primarily o­n the Middle East , long the center of world history and civilization. With a wave of electoral progress in the region ― Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Palestinian areas, and the glimmer of progress toward a comprehensive peace agreement with Israel ― it is now more crucial than ever to ensure that children are educated toward peace.

As terrorism stands at the center of world challenges for the 21st century, Teach Kids Peace maintains that reforming education is the most important ― and often most ignored ― key to eliminating terror. Terrorists are not born, they're taught. September 11 and other attacks were o­nly possible through years of indoctrination in schools, media, and mosques. Hateful teachings produce hateful actions. Stopping incitement is the o­nly way to stop terror.

Teach Kids Peace monitors and documents progress children's education for peace, linking campuses around the globe to generate public awareness, producing original resource materials, and lobbying governments to effect change in the Middle East .

Teach Kids Peace is affiliated with Middle East Media Watch, a section 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, non-profit educational organization.

Education is the primary source for influencing and shaping society. We need to ensure that we are harnessing the full potential for our education system, to educate today's youth toward a culture of peace. The programs and activism generated by Teach Kids Peace will encourage the leaders of today and tomorrow to value the dignity and rights of every human life, recognize injustice, and respond to conflict with methods other than violence.

Because true peace can o­nly be achieved when children are taught to love peace.
Help us in our campaign to create a better world.
For the sake of the children… for the sake of our future.

 
We invite you to explore our website to discover more about our efforts to Teach Kids Peace in the Middle East and beyond.

If you have any questions, please contact us at: info@teachkidspeace.com.
Or write us:
Teach Kids Peace
150 W. 46th Street - Suite 300
New York   NY   10036   USA
Fax: (212) 944-1712


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© Website author: Leo Semashko, 2005; © designed by Roman Snitko, 2005