Peace Education

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Peace Education
By
Irshad Narejo

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Peace Education
Concept
Peace Education is the process ofacquiring the values, the knowledge anddeveloping the attitudes,
skills, and behaviors to live in harmony with oneself, with others, andwith the naturalenvironment.
Peace education is more effective and meaningful when it is imparted taking into account the social
and culturalcontextandthe needsofa country. Peace education, hence, can be defined in manyways.
There is no universally accepted definition as such.
Here are a few pertinent definitions from the peace literature.
Peace education is an attemptto respond to problems ofconflictandviolence on scales ranging from
the globaland nationalto the localandpersonal. Itis aboutexploring ways of creating more just and
sustainable futures — R.D. Laing (1978)
Peace education is holistic. It embraces the physical, emotional, intellectual, and social growth of
children within a framework deeply rooted in traditionalhuman values. Itis based on a philosophy that
teaches love, compassion, trust, fairness,co-operation andreverence for the human family and all life
on our beautiful planet — Fran Schmidt and Alice Friedman (1988)
Peace education is skill building. It empowers children to find creative and non-destructive ways to
settle conflictand to live in harmony with themselves, others, andtheir world...... Peace building is the
task ofevery human being andthe challengeofthe human family —Fran Schmidt and Alice Friedman
(1988)
These are inner peace, socialpeace and peace with nature. These can be analyzed further as under:
1. Inner Peace:
Inner peace is peace with self – self-contentedness. One, ‘whose mind remains unperturbed amid
sorrows, whose thirstfor pleasure has altogether disappeared, andwho is free from passion, fear and
anger’ is said to have achieved inner peace. For example, harmony and peace with oneself, good
health and absence of inner conflicts, joy, sense of freedom, insight, spiritual peace, feelings of
kindness, compassion, and content, appreciation of art.
2. Social Peace:
Social peace is ‘learning to live together’; indeed one of the important four pillars of learning as
enunciated in the UNESCO report, “Learning: The Treasure Within.” Human beings are social
beings; they cannotlive in isolation. Social peace implies harmony in human relationships, conflict
reconciliation and resolution, love, friendship, unity, mutual understanding, co-operation,
brotherhood, tolerance of differences, democracy, community building, human rights, morality, etc.
3. Peace with Nature:
Planetearth is the cradle ofhuman civilization. Peace with natureimplies stoppingthe violationofher
dignity through environmental and ecological degradation, exploitation, etc. Peace with nature is
harmony with naturalenvironment and mother earth. For instance, a community income-generating
project may neglect the aspects of inner peace, such as moral or spiritual values of a particular
community. Peace has to be viewed holistically not fragmentarily.

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Scope of Peace Education
Peace education can be considered at different levels:
1) Individual or self-development level,
2) School or community level,
3) National level, and
4) Global level.
There are many importantself-developmentneeds in children that are not sufficiently addressed to in
the process ofschooling.To live peacefully, an individualhas to have many skills, like those related to
affirmation, positive thinking, empathetic listening and communication, assertive behavior, decision-
making and critical thinking, etc. School should help children to develop such skills so that they are
empowered as individuals in the society.
At the schoollevel, the predominantneedis to have a peaceful climate, i.e. a peace culture. In such a
culture, children willnaturally absorb the spiritof peace. By way ofdevelopinga friendly andmutually
respectfulteacher-pupilrelationship, a peaceculture will bloom naturally in the school. To ensure it,
the schoolhas to introduce a living system of peace values, norms and practices into the daily life of
the school. Itwould be necessary to changethe teacher-centered classroomapproach to child-centered
learning. When thereis active and participative learning in the classroom using interesting teaching
and learning methods in a friendly and lively atmosphere marked by creative expressions of potentials
and self discipline, peace will emerge naturally. Teachers have to identify effective strategies and
practices that could transform the school into a place of harmony.
At the national level, a school has to focus on the citizenship education needs of the nation or the
country. This aspect of citizenship education is an integral part of peace education. Education is
entrusted to produce good and productive citizens to the nation. In this regard, learning and
understanding the current socio-political and economic problems and issues is also important.
Students as future citizens need to develop healthy and realistic perspectives to view problems in the
society.
Coming to the global level needs, it is important to recall the fact that the ultimate purpose of
education is to produce a world citizen. No country can live in isolation any more. Children have to
develop a sensible worldview. The need here is to broaden the world vision. With this objective in
mind, the schoolcan selectcurrentissues; generate discussions and debates on world issues to raise
the global awareness in the students. Some such issues are:
♦ Commonality and diversity of human cultures
♦ Population
♦ Destruction of the ecosystem/pollution
♦ Gender issue
♦ Racism
♦ World poverty
♦ Problem of war/terrorism

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♦ Trading relationship
♦ World cultures
♦ Animal rights/animals threatened by extinction
Curriculum Development in Peace Education
Curriculum developmentin peace educationhas to followan unconventional path. Unlike otherschool
subjects, like mathematics or science, peace education does not derive from any known structure of
knowledge. It is an interdisciplinary subject. The curriculum development must involve every one –
teachers, parents and students, in one way or the other. Peace education is not a part of the formal
course work. There would be no examination and certification. Its foundation is assurance,
understanding and appreciating its need in the individual, community, national and global life.
The Culture ofPeace through World Heritage specifies the followingobjectives under the categoriesof
knowledge, attitudes and skills:
Knowledge
To help students develop knowledge and understanding of:
♦ World Heritage sites as a testimony of peace, human rights and democracy.
♦ The ethical message of UNESCO and the world Heritage Convention.
♦ The importance of racial non-discrimination, tolerance and respect for all people and their
cultures.
Attitudes
To encourage students to:
♦ Respect other people and their cultures, and motivate them to search for peaceful conflict
resolution in their lives.
♦ Cooperate in the spirit of solidarity in support of World Heritage conservation.
Skills
To help students develop their ability to:
♦ Work together as a group (teamwork).
♦ Resolve conflicts peacefully among themselves and help others learn about peaceful conflict
resolution.
♦ Participate democratically in political and civil life.
♦ Contribute to UNESCO's World Heritage conservation efforts. Itprovides coverage to the sites
that symbolize peace.
♦ The Waterston Glacier InternationalPeacePark – situated on the border between Canada and
United States of America
♦ The Hiroshima Peace Memorial, Japan
♦ Old City of Dubrovnik, Croatia.
The UNESCO Handbook on Peace Education offers a model consisting of ten themes that can
accommodatethe mostmeaningfulpeace values and concepts thatcanprovide it the framework of the
curriculum for peace education. Let us review the model.

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* Peaceful Person
* Build Peace in Care for the Community Planet
* Think Critically Resolve Conflict
* Non-violently
* Respect Human Be Your True
* Dignity Self
* Discover Inner Learn to
* Peace Live Together
* Think Positive Compassionate
* and Do No Harm
Think Positive: develops positive self-concept and also attitude of accepting others with respect,
and appreciating them.
Be Compassionateand Do No Harm: develops qualities like love, kindness,sympathy andso
on.
Discover Inner Peace: develops ability to control anger and build soothingness within.
Learning toLiveTogether: builds ability ofsharing, mutual help, trust building and accepting
group responsibility, including leading and following.
Respect HumanDignity: develops respects for human rights, duties andjustice; ‘do unto others
what you expect others do unto you’.
Be YourTrue Self: develops strength ofcharacter to be honestin expression ofone's feelings and
thoughts without letting down others.
Developing Critical Thinking: develops the essential skill for problem solving involving
analysis and synthesis, looking at the issue from alternative standpoints.
Resolve Conflict Non-violently: develops skills of conflict analysis, negotiation, active
listening, mediation, creative problem solving and seeking alternative solution.
Build Peacein Community: develops understanding of social realities and people’s problem
and skills and attitudes to work with them.
Caring for the Planet: develops understanding of the immediate environment, the national and
global environment, and need for protection of the mother (planet) earth.
Pedagogy
The conventionaleducationalpractice is thatstudents listen to the lectures in the classrooms, and take
notes, followed by readingtextbooks andclass-notes athome.In the newgeneration learning theories,
each learner is respected notonly as a uniquebeingbutalso as a uniquelearner. Unlike the beliefheld
earlier, they are no ‘tabula rasa’; not the clean slates ready to be scratched with information and
knowledge. Instead, they bring with them to the school a whole range of meaningful information and
knowledge, beliefs andvalues,and experiences; indeeda worldviewoftheir own, howsoever malleable

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thatbe. They also bring with them a fairly developedway oflearning, indeed learning styles that have
just begun to settle down.
Peace education activities will comprise lectures, inputs through audio and video programs,
interactive CD, self-learning, a whole range of cooperative learning in groups – in pairs, , small and
large groups, teams, case studies, simulations, problem solving, researching and exploring, etc. All
these channels and activities can be classified into two broad categories;
1. Direct Teaching – indirect learning,
2. Indirect teaching – direct learning.
Direct Teaching-Indirect Learning
Direct teaching is of two kinds – conventional lecture in the old behaviorist format and in the new
constructivist format. Since all teachers know the conventional format, we will present only the
constructivist mode of classroom teaching. The classroom instruction needs to be divided into a few
stages.
1. In the first stage, teachers will set performance standard and knowledge standard.
Performance standard: Students will be able to collect information and data, analyze and derive
inferences on peacefrom a variety of socialincidences,and willbe able to explain concepts and their
learning inside and outside the classroom.
Knowledge standard: Students will understand concepts related to peace, and will learn to solve
problems related to violence and aggression.
2. In the second stage, the teachers specified the concepts they want students to understand after
completing the lessons. This stage primarily comprises identifying the concepts and making a
brief note on each of the peace related concepts.
3. At the third stage teachers should be able to generate the essential questions that he/she would
expect the students to be able to respond.
4. Fourth stage comprises determining the criteria for success – how will the teacher know whether
students have actually gained understanding of the concepts. At this stage, the real challenge is
developing the quality indicators and benchmarks.
5. The fifth stage is identification ofthe resources thatstudents may have to access in order to build up
their learning besides and beyond listening to classroom lectures by the teachers.
Students need to enrich their learning with a variety of supportive activities; and all that requires
identifying learning resources. Such resources may be printed essays on peace and violence, printed
stories and incidences, films and videos and Internet based resources. This particular format of
teaching of peace related concepts can be done in five stages namely engage, explore, explain,
elaborate and evaluate.
♦ Engagement is to involve the students in the learning activities.
♦ Exploration comprises accessing the resources and exploring the information
necessary to solve the problem and/or define the peace related concepts to be learnt.
♦ Explaining implies that students will be able to explain the concepts learnt, and also
the methods of solving the problem of violence.

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♦ Elaboration is for achieving higher order cognition or extended abstraction as
proposed in Briggs’ taxonomy.
♦ Evaluating learning using a set of pre-defined criteria for success.
♦ While this framework fits in the full period instruction, this method can be suitably
applied even in micro-time instructions like five to ten minutes. More competently, this
can be used by using short-time slots for each one of these stages and/or combining
one or two stages in one slot, other setof activities in the next and the following class.
Indirect Teaching-Direct Learning
Indirectteaching anddirectlearning is the student centric instructional practice in the constructivist
paradigm. This may include a whole rangeof instructionalprocesses andopportunities created by the
teacher for the students to be actively engaged in constructing their own learning. Such instructional
processes may includeself-learning, cooperativelearning, casestudies, simulations,projects, problem
solving, investigating for researching, etc. Let's take a quick reviewofvarious suchmethodologies that
provide direct learning opportunity to students.
Self-Learning:
Self-learning may be accomplished throughreading,listening, viewing, andreflecting.Printed reading
material in the form of essays, stories, episodes followed by reflective questions provide significant
self-learning opportunity to students. Similarly, listening to recorded audio cassettes, expert lectures
including extension and extra-mural lectures and interacting either with the speaker or among the
students provide anotherimportantlearningopportunity. Video cassettes and interactive CD-ROM is
the other newgeneration materialthatprovides powerfulself-learning opportunity to the students. Just
as lectures can be listened to in the schools by the students and in the colleges of education by the
teacher trainees, they canbe providedwith printed reading material, audio cassettes, video cassettes
or CD-ROM for use in the institution or at home, depending upon the availability of necessary
hardware facility.
Cooperative Learning:
Cooperative learningimplies learning through cooperative processes. Itnecessarily informs a group of
learners to accomplish a set of learning tasks. The groups may be in pairs, small and large groups.
There are several forms of cooperative learning. In one of the forms, a class is divided into teams of
four or five students. Each group is assigned the responsibility of teaching one or two particular
concepts/themes in peace education. The team works together for identifying relevant material on the
subject, preparing for the presentation including charts, models, PowerPoint presentations,
handwritten or printed notes, etc. and during the process of instruction also to cooperate with each
other.
For example, when one member of the team faces the question from the class and finds it difficult to
respond, then the othermembers ofthe team take over and assistin solvingthe problem. As this moves
on from one group to other, students learn not only concepts and themes of peace education but also
loves to cooperate with others which in itself is an important peace-value. In another form, such
batches work on selected themes ofpeaceeducation and develop a project report. Subsequently, they
meetin a poster presentation session where each batch displays their posters on the classroom wall.
Students move from one poster corner to another. The batch that worked actually on the particular
theme presents it to the others. Such poster presentation may now take the form of PowerPoint
presentation.

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Teams:
With certain variation in the cooperative learning, it is also possible to develop interesting team
learning mechanisms. In this case, the students are divided into two or three teams. The teams will be
engaged in a game, and on the basis of the performance they will be declared as winners.
For example, in one such mechanism, the two teams willbe given the same peace conceptand theme to
be transacted and taughtin two different sections in one of the junior classes; students of these junior
classes can be tested on a pre-designedtest. The team thatdealtwith the class that scored higher than
the other will be declared as the winner. In the other form of the game, the class generates two teams
of eleven players each, each team will choose its captain; two other students are umpires, and yet
another is the third umpire. The team that wins the toss will decide to bowl or bat. The job of the
bowlers is to field questions on peacerelated concepts and practices to the batting team. The batting
team will respond to these questions. Ifthey respondcorrectly, the individualand the team geta score.
Whoever fails to respond correctly gets out. The captains of both the teams decide who should bowl
and who should bat. Theteams settheir own rules so thatone bowler is notallowed to field more than
a certain number of questions. Similarly, even if a batsman is excellent he/she has to retire after a
certain amountofscore. This is primarily to facilitate allthe members ofthe team to participate in the
game. Such team games with healthy competition make learning interesting and student centric.
Case Studies:
Case analysis is an important tool for constructivist learning. There are large number of episodes
every day thatcontain violence and peace messages.Suchincidencesand episodes can be documented
carefully enough to be readable and interesting. At the end, there can be a few questions which the
students either individually or in pairs or in small groups will be expected to respond. It is not
necessary that all groups will converge on single type of answers, since students would and should
prefer their perception of the problem and their response. What is important in this kind of
instructional technique is to recognize that there are alternative views on such value-related
incidences.
Simulations:
There are severalforms of simulations in teaching,namely role-play, games, etc. stray incidences and
episodes, identified both from the contemporary experiences as well as from the history. From such
episodes the differentcharacter rules canbe identified and described. Different students will be given
the role description, notthe dialogues to be spoken during the simulated drama. The students will be
asked to play their role and generate the dramatic scriptby themselves andinstantly. Such simulations
provide alternative scenario; where an originally violentscenario canbe converted into peacefulscene
by changing the role-play.
Problem Solving:
Problem solving is an important active learning tool. This is particularly important for practical
application of peace concepts. Let the Cold War be an interesting experience. I was conducting a
program on youth leadership for the college union leaders. In one of the simulated exercises, a role-
play, one ofthe youth leaders was asked to play the role of the college principal and two others were
asked to play the role ofcollege union presidentandthe secretary. The presidentand the secretary had

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a demand thatcertain students be admitted in the collegewhich the principal would notacceptbecause
they didn't qualify according to the criteria set up by the college admission committee.
At the end of the day, the youth leader playing the role of the college principal approached me and
asked, "What should I do now?"I asked him whatwas the problem. He took out a sheet of paper from
his pocket and indicated that the simulation exercise given to him was the real problem in his own
college where he was fighting for with the principal for admission of certain students who do not
qualify for admission accordingto the criteria setup by the academic committee. He also said that now
he realized that principal cannot admit. Yet, he had to salvage his prestige as leader of the students
union. I advised him to go back to the principaland submithis problem as frankly as he did it to me. I
gota call from the principalin the evening informingme thatatan outstandingproblem thathad led to
studentagitation has beensolved; the leader of the union and the principal negotiated to admit three
best candidates from the list to salvage the prestige of the president of the union, yet without
significantly affecting the quality of student intake in the college.
This problem was solved primarily to cognitive reorganizationofthe agitating student leader since he
did not appreciate the logic put forward by the principal of the college.
Researching and Exploring:
Another importantmechanism ofindirect teaching and direct learning is researching and exploring.
Students, individually butpreferably in groups,can be provided with a problem or a hypothesis to be
tested. In order to solve the problem and test the hypothesis, they need to identify sources of
information, collect them, collate and classify, and draw inferences. The whole process needs to be
documented in the form of the research paper or research report.
For example, students will be asked to develop a research report on a local conflict between two
families, or two groups of people, or two communities. As they get into the depths of the problem, a
rich learning occurs because it leads to the identification of the source of the conflicts. If the conflict
could be nipped in the bud before the outburst, it would have saved life, property and relationships.
Since such conflicts can occur again and again, students will learn not only how to forestall such
conflicts in the community but also learn lessons for their own life.
While these are some ofthe broad methods oftransacting peace education in the classroom situation,
they can be significantly increased with a large number of activities like debating, colloquy, fishbowl,
buzzing, brainstorming, puzzles, self-expression, creative drama and storytelling and composing
poetry, drawing, guided fantasy, ice-breakers, energizers, etc.
In this newpedagogy, teachers’ role undergoes massivechange.Teacher is no more the reservoir and
sole dispenser of knowledge. He/she is a planner, initiator, climate builder, facilitator and guide,
mediator, knowledge organizer and evaluator. In the peace education pedagogy, teacher writes the
script, sets the stage, directs and produces the drama (learning), leaving the actual acting to the
learners; for, students are the heroes and heroines. It is their learning.

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References
 Universal Declaration of Human Rightshttp://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Pages/Introduction.aspx
 United Nations Educational, Scientific and CulturalOrganization (UNESCO): www.unesco.org
 European Commission(EU) Education and Training section: ec.europa.eu/education/index_en.html
 UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) - http://www.unicef.org
 UN High Commissioner for Refugees - http://www.unhcr.ch
 UN High Commissioner for Human Rights - http://www.unhchr.ch
 Amnesty International - http://www.amnesty.org
 InternationalPeace Bureau (IPB) - http://www.ipb.org/
 World Peace Clubs- http://www.peaceclub.com/
 http://www.ei-ie.org/en/websections/content_detail/5411

Peace Education

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