PEACE

EDUCATION:
A
Transformative
Response to
Major Societal
Challenges

Group 4
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Learning Outcomes:

• Define peace education and explain its key themes

• Determine the contribution or importance of peace

education

• Describe the attributes of a peaceable classroom and

teacher

• Apply effective learning approaches in peace education

INTRODUCTION

“The greatest resource for building

a culture of peace are the people
themselves.”
The simplest and most widespread understanding
was that of absence of death and destruction
as a result of war and physical/ direct violence.
Betty Reardon, a peace educator who has
made significant contributions to the field,
defines violence, “humanly inflicted harm”.
Peace Education as Transformative
Education

– Peace education, or an education that promotes

a culture of peace, is essentially transformative.
It cultivates the knowledge base, skills, attitudes
and values that seek to transform people’s
mindsets, attitudes and behaviors that, in the
first place, have either created or exacerbated
violent conflicts.
The Peaceable Teaching-Learning
Process

Cognitive Phase
(Being aware,
Understanding)

Active Phase Affective Phase

(Taking Practical (Being concerned,
Action) Responding, Valuing)
Educating for peace is an ethical
imperative considering the negation of
life and well-being caused by all forms of
violence.
Peace Education’s Schema of Knowledge,
Skills and Attitudes/Values

Integral to peace education is a schema that lists

the key knowledge, skills and attitudes/values.
The list is not exhaustive and is expected to
evolve, as peace education practice and
experiences as well as corresponding reflections
and insights on these experiences increase.

Knowledge
1. Holistic Concept of
Peace
2. Conflict and
Violence-causes
3. Some Peaceful
Alternatives
(Disarmament,Non-
Violence Philos. &
Practice, Conflict Reso.,
Transformation,
Prevention, Human
Rights, Human 2. Critical Thinking & Analysis
Solidarity,
Democratization. Dev’t
Based on Justice,
Sustainable Dev’t 6. Conflict Resolution
Attitudes/Values
1. Self-respect
2. Respect for Others
3. Gender Equality
4. Respect for Life/
Nonviolence
5. Compassion
6. Global Concern
Ecological Concern
8. Cooperation
9. Openness & Tolerance
10. Justice
11. Social Responsibility
12. Positive Vision
The list is based on a
survey of peace education
literature and of key
informants/ peace
Skills educators that was done
1. Reflection by the Center for Peace
Education of Miriam
3. Decision Making
College.
4. Imagination
5. Communication
7. Empathy
8. Group Building
PEACE THEMES
• UPHOLDING HUMAN DIGNITY
1.

• CHALLENGING PREJUDICE AND BUILDING

2. TOLERANCE

• PROMOTING NONVIOLENCE
3.

• CHALLENGING THE WAR SYSTEM

4.

• SHARING THE EARTH’S RESOURCES

5.

• RESOLVING AND TRANSFORMING CONFLICTS

6.
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Peace Theme 1. Upholding
Human Dignity

• Upholding human dignity is at the center of the

values system that we associate with social
peace. Human dignity is defined as the
fundamental innate worth of a human being, a
principle that is now universally accepted but has
not taken root in the actual practice of many
gov’ts, communities and other non-state actors.
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 Education that seeks to uphold human dignity is
often referred to as human rights education,
which is the umbrella we call peace education. In
peace education, one of the central concerns is
the promotion of human dignity and well-being
because of the conviction that this is the
foundation for peace. The achievement of
positive conditions of human rights provide the
foundation of a nonviolent social order and
greatly reduce the causes of armed conflict and
war (Reardon, 1995).
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Peace Theme 2. Challenging
Prejudice And Building Tolerance

• Gordon Allport (1959) asserts that humans have

propensity towards prejudice. This propensity
lies in their normal tendency to form
overgeneralization and categories whose content
represents in oversimplification of their world of
experience.
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 Prejudice is the negative feeling or attitude
towards a person or a group even if it lacks basis.

 Types of Prejudice
 Racism- belief that one’s own cultural or racial
heritage is innately superior to that of others,
hence, the lack of respect or appreciation for
those who belong to a ‘different race’.
 Heterosexism- negative attitudes towards
lesbians and gay men.
 Classism- distancing from and perceiving the
poor as ‘the other’ (Lott,1995)
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 Linguicism- negative attitudes which members pf
dominant language groups hold against non-dominant
language groups (Chen-Hayes, Chen & Arthar, n.d)

 Ageism- negative attitudes held against the young or the

elderly.

 “Looksism”- prejudice against those who do not measure

up to the standards of beauty. The usual victims are the
overweight, undersized, and the dark-skinned (Nario-
Galace,2003).

 Religious intolerance- prejudice against those who are

followers of religions other than one’s own.
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 Stereotype refers to the negative opinion about a

person or a group based on incomplete
knowledge.

 Discrimination refers to negative action toward

members of a specific social group that may be
manifested in avoidance, aversion or even
violence (Franxoi,1986)
 z Education for Tolerance and
Respect
 Tolerance is not just tolerating what is unjust
but it is respecting, accepting and
appreciating the rich diversity of cultures
and various forms of human expression
(UNESCO,1995).

 Education for tolerance aims to consider

influences that leads to fear, discrimination and
exclusion of others.
Nonviolence is the refusal to do harm to
other humans as life is sacred and is an
absolute value. It is anchored on the
belief that humans have potential to
change.
• It is both an ethical and moral choice.
• Destruction is not the law of humans
(Gandhi, 1995)
• Nonviolence is a practical choice. Tools
and effects of violence are costly.
• Nonviolence works.
 What is War?
› A classical or international if it is between
states, or civil or internal, if it occurs between
rival groups or communities within state.
› Aggression and major armed conflicts are
interchangeably used with the word war.

› Aggression is defined as the used of armed

force by a State against the sovereignty,
territorial integrity or political independence
of another State, or in any other manner
(www.undocuments.net)
 Territorial disputes is defined by Huth (1998) as the
disagreement between states or groups within a state
over where their homeland or borders should be fixed.

Lack of Tolerance

Ideological or power structures

History of colonialism and the process of

decolonization

Competition for resources, extreme abuse of human rights,

desire of leaders to stay in power, narrow or extreme
nationalism, and sympathy for kin across borders.
Massive death
Commitment of atrocities

Causes people to flee their homes

Causes weapons to proliferate

Holds back dev’t as huge amount of gov’t budgets are

allocated for defense
People lose their livelihoods and their access to food
supply
Loss of investments, destroy property and the environment
and new opportunities for tourism
Disrupts children’s education, and create fear and trauma
among the population.
Peace Theme 5: Sharing The
Earth’s Resources
 This highly uneven distribution of wealth and
resources is a situation of violence known as
structural violence.

 This violence refers to the systems,

institutions and policies that meet some
people’s human needs, rights, or wants at the
expense of others, and hunger and poverty
are the symptoms of this violence.
 These systems, institutions and policies are
well-entrenched in a global economic
international order controlled by powerful
nation-state; international agencies and
transnational corporations where inequitable
trade practices prevail resulting in more tragic
gaps between the rich and the poor.
Causes of Poverty
>Environment
>War and other > Corruption
conditions
armed conflicts >Over consumption
>Lack of
>Greed >Political systems
opportunities created by local
>Inequitable for political elite that have
distribution of employment combined with profit-
wealth and motivated economic
> Lack of systems
resources
education
 From the Latin word conflictus which means
striking together with force.

 It occurs when one’s actions or beliefs are

unacceptable to and resisted by the other
(Forsyth, 1990). It occurs in dyads, groups or
larger social structures.
 In dealing with conflicts, two variables are
generally considered by disputants. On is the
relationship with the adversary and the other
one is the importance of the issue at hand.
 Avoidance or withdrawal
 Aggression
 Accommodation
 Compromise
 Collaboration or collaborative problem
solving
PEACEABLE
CLASSROOM
 +Communication
+Appropriate
expressions of
feelings
+Appreciation
for diversity
+Affirmation
+Peaceful
+Cooperation
conflict
resolution

Characteristics
of a Peaceable
Classroom
Ways to help create the atmosphere of love
and acceptance:
Declare your classroom as a zone of peace and establish
rules to achieve it
As the teacher, let this peace begin with you.
Affirm your students.
Express feelings appropriately and encourage students to
do so.
Encourage respect for and acceptance of difference.
Teach students how to resolve conflict peacefully and
constructively.
Attributes of a Peace Educator
Teachers have the power to affect the lives of
children and youth. Peace educators must serve
as models for the qualities and skills they are
helping the young people to develop in the
peaceable classroom and school. Thus, there is a
need to take challenge of personal
transformation so that they can be credible
agents of peace message.
>The teacher of peace is a responsible
global citizen, an international agent
of culture of peace, person of vision,
capable of hope and the imagining of
positive change.
>S/He is motivated by service and is
actively involved in the community.
>S/He is a seeker of mutually
enhancing relationships that nurture
peace and a sense of community.
>S/He is gender sensitive and alert to
any possibility of gender bias in self
or students.
>A teacher of peace intentionally
develops the capacity to care by
knowing the learners in their charge
as individuals.
>S/He is an inquirer.

Attributes of a
Peace Educator
(Reardon,2001)

>S/He is a lifelong learner, one who

continues to improve one’s own
learning abilities and keep abreast of
the field.
>S/He practices cooperative learning
by encouraging cooperative learning
tasks and discouraging negative
competition or in-group-out-group
(exclusion) among students.
>A teacher of peace has the skills of
communication and conflict resolution.
>S/He practices cooperative learning.
>A teacher of peace inspires
understanding of alternative
possibilities for the future and for a
culture of peace.
TEACHING-LEARNING APPROACHES AND
STRATEGIES IN PEACE EDUCATION
Holistic education
Participatory education
• Teaching approaches that
are compatible with peace Cooperative Learning
education are:
Experiential education
Humanist education

Discussion Pair-Share
• Teaching-learning Visualization/Imagination Exercise
strategies that are Perspective taking
compatible with the
approaches to peace Role playing Simulation games
education are: Problem-solving Encouraging action
Web-Charting Show and Tell
• Thank you!