What is education for peace?

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INTRODUCTION

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The first module of this project, Education for peace, will be undertaken by Osnovna škola Petra Preradovića, Zadar, Croatia.

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What is education for peace?

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We all want to live in a society that is peaceful. What does that mean exactly ?

Our children deserve a future which brings them happiness, fulfillment and inner peace. They need to learn how to become balanced, compassionate, loving people who can live in peace with others.

How can we help them achieve this ?

Children need to be taught how to become  better listeners, how to resolve their anger issues and to avoid explosive outbursts, how to develop greater empathy, conscience and self esteem. They should be able to accept differences in others and become responsible human beings. Peace starts with each individual.

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Education for peace is a process. It is about creating a culture for peace. How do we acquire the values, skills and knowledge needed to live in harmony ? It is through education that we can make a difference. Lessons in the classroom are lessons for life. Educators shape and develop young minds. They can empower individuals to schieve a society where all human rights are valued and respected. An active approach of promoting social justice, cultural diversity and environmental awareness should be encouraged in schools and learning institutions. Critical thinking, team building, promoting positive attitudes and productive dialogue can all be taught. Education is an interactive and participatory process of instruction and learning. Thus we believe that a culture and understanding of peace can be realised from a very early age. Through practice the skills and values can be learned and perfected.

 

The values and aims of education for peace

 

The values we need to encompass are:

• Empathy

• Respect and appreciation of diversity

• The belief that individuals can make a change to society as a whole

• Respect for others despite differences in race, gender, religion, nationality, appearance, physical or mental ability

• Valuing yourself and promoting self esteem

• Commitment to nonviolence

• Commitment to the environment.

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The aims of our module are:

• To encourage children to accept each other

• To understand the nature of violence and equip them with skills to resolve personal conflicts

• To create frameworks for achieving peaceful and creative societies

• To encourage healthy relationships and a sense of community

• To allow children to take responsibility for their actions

• To understand that their behaviour can affect others and has consequences

• To guide them and help them to choose peaceful options in conflicts

• These are the aims, morals and values we wish to instil in our children.

 

According to UNICEF’s Peacebuilding, education and advocacy programme, 2013, Children and adolescents can build peace. They can draw from their life experiences, natural resiliency, capacities, talents and personal, familial and cultural assets to embrace peace and introduce peaceful behaviours to their community. We can empower and equip children to assume a peacebuilding role in their schools, communities, and countries by teaching key peacebuilding competencies and then providing children with opportunities to apply them.

This report includes a draft outline of competencies reflecting the knowledge, attitudes, and skills that children need to become peacebuilders. These competencies use simple, concrete language and first person statements (“I” or “We”) to illustrate peacebuilding behaviours and emphasize the role of the child. They are adaptable to different levels of knowledge, skill, and attitude acquisition depending on children’s age, developmental capacity, literacy, and psycho-social needs and could be sequenced to reflect those capacities (e.g. “I speak up for myself” proceeds “I speak up for myself and others.”)

This process of validating competencies, matching them to appropriate activities, and field-testing both competencies and activities is the first recommended step in this proposed “children as peacebuilders” approach to peace and conflict resolution education.

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As a conclusion, imagine a world where our children learn to communicate and contribute to a peaceful and harmonious society.

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Imagine a world where our children learn how to deal with their frustrations, anger and confrontation.

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 Imagine a world where our children learn the skills to respect one another, listen, empathise, respect differences and develop compassion.

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Imagine a world where our children learn to take responsibility for their actions , where they learn how to resolve disputes through negotiation and mediation.

 

The Education for peace and transversal skills

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Our aim is to begin this process of educating for peace with our Year 7 pupils, then the entire school and local community.

All our participants will develop their transversal skills:

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Digital skills

• The ability to search, collect and process (create, organize, distinguish relevant from irrelevant, subjective from objective, real from virtual) electronic information, data and concepts and their systematic use.

• The ability to use appropriate aids (presentations, graphs, charts, maps) to produce, present and understand complex information.

• The ability to access and search a website and use Internet services such as discussion forums and email.

• The ability to use information and computer technology to support critical thinking; creativity and innovation in different contexts at home, leisure and work.

• Understand and apply ethical principles in the interactive use of information and computer technology.

 

Civic skills

• Understanding codes of conduct and manners generally accepted or promoted in different societies.

• Awareness of concepts of individual, group, society, culture and historical evolution of these concepts.

• Knowledge of how to maintain good health, hygiene and nutrition.

• Understanding of the intercultural dimension in European and other societies.

• The ability to communicate constructively in different social situations (tolerating the views and behaviour of others, awareness of individual and collective responsibility).

• Ability to create confidence and empathy in other individuals.

• The ability to detect frustration in a constructive way (control of aggression and violence or self-destruction of forms).

• Awareness and understanding of national cultural identity in interaction with the cultural identity of Europe and the rest of the world; the ability to perceive and understand different points of view that are a consequence of differences and that constructively contribute their own views.

• The ability to negotiate.

• Showing interest in others and respecting them

• Willingness to overcome stereotypes and prejudices.

• The tendency of reaching a compromise.

• Integrity

• The awareness of belonging to a community, country, EU and Europe in general and (your part of) the world.

• Being prepared to participate in democratic decision-making at all levels.

• Disposition to volunteer and participate in civic activities, support for social diversity and social cohesion.

• Readiness to respect the values and privacy of others with a propensity to react against anti behaviour.

• Acceptance of the concept of human rights and equality as a basis for solidarity and responsibility in the modern democratic societies of Europe, the acceptance of equality between men and women.

• An appreciation and understanding of the discrepancy and value systems of different religious or ethnic groups.

• Critical reception of information from mass media.

 

Entrepreneurship

• Skills for planning, organising, analysing, communicating, doing, de-briefing, evaluating and recording.

• Skills for project development and implementation.

• The ability to work co-operatively and be flexible as part of a team.

• The ability to recognize their own strengths and weaknesses.

• Ability to act proactively and respond positively to changes.

• Ability to assess and take risks as and when warranted. Self-initiative.

• Positive attitude to change and innovation.

 

 

Education for peace agenda

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Throughout a period of eight weeks all our Year 7 pupils will participate in various workshops and activities orientated towards developing the above mentioned skills and understanding Education for peace. They need to become peacemakers and peacekeepers.

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The activities have been devised and adapted specifically for this project  by a varied group of experts. Teachers from our school, pedagogical experts, the Youth society for extracurricular activities in Zadar, the Psychology faculty of Zadar University, sociological experts and several willing helpers and volunteers from the local community.

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The five main themes of the Education for peace module are: Peace within yourself and peace with others; Others and me, respecting differences; Cooperation; Peaceful conflict resolution and Prosocial behaviour.

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The outcomes of these activities and workshops will be in a variety of forms : brochures, newsletters, pamphlets, posters, photographs, a video diary, questionnaires and with the evaluation at the end we will understand how to further our work in the local community.

Imagine a world where our children do not only learn the traditional subjects. This is a world of peace.

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