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Peace Education Resources

A great deal of exciting educational reform and just generally good teaching falls under the heading of Peace Education. According to one international authority on this, “Peace education is a participatory holistic process that includes teaching for and about democracy and human rights, nonviolence, social and economic justice, gender equality, environmental sustainability, disarmament, traditional peace practices, international law, and human security” (Hague Appeal for Peace, 2005)

Conflict Resolution Education is typically understood to focus on the local/domestic level while the focus of Peace Education is generally more global in perspective. Peace Education also “has a stronger emphasis on social justice orientations and larger systemic issues of violence than conflict education programs” (Jones, 2004).

A portion of the growing collection of free Peace Education print resources found in our catalog is displayed at the bottom of this page. You can also choose to directly browse the full list of items categorized under peace education in our catalog. Other especially relevant materials include

all of which are hosted by our site. Lots of good content!

If you are interested in a broader bibliography of Peace Education readings, check out this Peace Education resource collection from Ian Harris and Mary Lee Morrison.

Videos of Possible Interest

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Sample Catalog Resources

Below you'll find a randomized listing of up to 20 related items (we may have more...) drawn from our Resource Catalog.

Resource Title Description Links
Peaceful Conflict Resolution Guide for Primary and Secondary Schools (Croatia) This training guide for schools consists of three primary modules: 1. damiri/ice - Conflict and Communication 2. spajalice - Peer Mediation 3. kazimiri/ice - Peer Education The guide is the result of the work on the project Peaceful Problem Solving in Schools and Trauma Alleviation, Youth for Youth - Peer Mediation, initiated and supported by UNICEF Office for Croatia in co-operation with Croatian Ministry of Education and Sports. The Project was carried out by NGO "Mali korak" - Centre for Culture of Peace and Non-violence Zagreb. In the school year of 1999/2000 it was implemented in 52 primary schools, most of which were schools of special social care in previous war affected areas. The purpose of this program model was to change attitudes, behaviors and experiences related to conflict and violence: improve coping with problem and conflict situations, develop awareness of prejudice, of one’s own rights as well as the rights of others both in those who participate in the program (students) and those who deliver it (teachers).
Teach Peace Pack Elementary (updated edition) In Teach Peace you will find a set of ten lesson plans for use as assemblies or workshops aimed at 5-12 year olds. The pack also contains follow-up activities and resources, prayers, and reflections on peace. The original pack was so popular that we decided to produce an updated edition with three new lesson plans, providing educators with further resources to champion peace education.
For the Sake of Children: Peacebuilding Storytelling Guide Online version of a book of story-based activities focused on promoting peace awareness in young people. "The intention of the peace-building stories and activities presented in this book is for any person involved with children, whether a parent, a grandparent, a teacher, a child-care worker, or a health care professional, to ignite children’s imaginations and expand their understandings about peace and how it can be created and become an active part of the creation process." The activities promote the development and sharing of stories with the following identified peace-building elements. - happy endings - everyone winning - nonviolent resolution - imaginative and creative - challenges existing stereotyping - faith and hope - peace with the environment - finding personal peace - elements that support the idea that peace is possible
Nonviolence History Coloring Pages
Peace Education Online Learning Module - UNESCO Education Server This modular online learning unit on Peace Education is available via the international UNESCO education server D@dalos dedicated to civic and peace education. The content was developed by the Institute for Peace Education in Tübingen, Germany. Main sections include: What is Peace Education?; What does Peace mean?; Why do we need Peace Education?; What do Peace Educators do?; and Peace Education and Fair Play. Includes a section on conflict analysis that provides 10 models for how to approach this task.
Gandhi's Nonviolent Values and Skills This 295-page guidebook, subtitled "A Violence Prevention Guidebook for High Schools", is available online as a series of pdfs. It provides a basic methodology for proceeding from "awareness" through "concern" to "action" building on the ideas of nonviolent activist Mohandas Gandhi. The units in the Guidebook are designed to help teachers nurture in their youth and in themselves: 1) a disciplined mind - awareness - there are other ways of thinking and acting, you can control your feelings and thoughts, you have an important role to play in the world; 2) a compassionate heart - concern - becoming empathetic and deepening the desire to act on behalf of others; 3) a courageous hand - action - putting compassion into practice by standing with others in service and against the forces and forms of oppression/domination (social change); 4) a committed will - perseverance - pledging to be a doer of peace and a teacher of peace. It provides a pledge of nonviolence as a key element of the program that can be used in various settings. The units include the following: Unit 1: Introducing Gandhi and His Principles Unit 2: Respect Unit 3: Anger Unit 4: Nonviolent Problem-Solving & Nonviolent Resistance Unit 5: Making Amends & Forgiveness Unit 6: Our Oneness with the Earth & Challenging Materialism Unit 7: Courage & Solidarity: Overcoming Our Fears & Standing with Others Who Are Treated Unfairly Unit 8: Courage: Challenging the -ISMS: Sexism, Racism, Nationalism & War
Collaboration across fields: Implementation and sustainability of SEL, CRE, PE and CE 73-page PDF conference reader from the two-day summit, "Collaboration across Fields: Implementation and Sustainability of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), Conflict Resolution Education (CRE), Peace Education (PE), and Citizenship Education (CE), held in Cleveland, Ohio on June 19th and 20th, 2009. The conference "brought together government representatives from among the 50 states and invited countries (Ghana, Kenya, Montenegro, Philippines) and their non-governmental organization partners. Organizations were invited because of their interest in developing legislation and policy in peace education, social and emotional learning, conflict resolution education, and/or civics education and their interest in securing ways to strengthen implementation and achieve sustainability of these efforts ... this capacity building summit offered a dynamic opportunity to develop a global infrastructure to advance the work in the fields of conflict resolution education, peace education, social and emotional learning, and citizenship education. The summit brought together policymakers, researchers and educators representing regions across the United States and select member countries of the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict GPPAC). These national and international guests exchanged successful macro level policy design and implementation models at the state-wide or national level, and macro level evaluation methodology and tools for states and countries. Specific areas of focus included: Teacher education, research and evaluation, and policy implementation options for primary, elementary and secondary education at the national or state levels."
Preparation of pre-service teachers for a culture of dignity and peace, The 38-page PDF article which argues the necessity of peace education for future teachers. Abstract: This paper argues that since schools are considered spaces for critical transformation and teachers play a vital role in creating conditions where students can become loving, caring members of society, peace education should be made explicit in teacher education. It asserts that the teacher education culture in Ontario is keen and positioned for this endeavour to take place despite implicit and marginalized peace education content and practices. It continues by suggesting how a move to prepare teacher candidates with education for and about peace through the magnifying of current implicit peace practices may strengthen the overall momentum of producing just societies, thereby, building human dignity. Drawing from findings derived from a small-scale study, three implications for teacher education are given: teacher education must recognize the proclivity of teacher candidates for partnership pedagogy; create space for sharing experiences; and expose teacher candidates to peace education knowledge. Six recommendations are provided for increasing possibilities for peaceful and equitable social pathways. The overarching purpose is to stimulate further discussion and networking among Ministry of Education in Ontario and faculties of education by advocating how peace education aligns with the goals inherent in their own philosophies and those of the global peace agenda.
An Integrated Primary Peace Curriculum: A Beginning This resource package includes integrated primary peace education activities and worksheets related to language arts, literature, math, science, social studies, art, music and drama plus ideas for peace themed presentations and multicultural activities. Peace education web sites are also listed.
Youth and Conflict: Best Practices and Lessons Learned Mercy Corps, as an international NGO focused on "saving and improving lives in the world's toughest places" believes youth are a force for positive change -- the generation that can help transition their countries into productive and secure nations. However, youth are the primary participants in conflict today. The reasons they participate in conflict are multi-dimensional - they lack economic opportunities, political voice and a sense of belonging or connection to their communities. Often the only way young people can imagine changing their predicament is through violence. In Mercy Corps programs the focus is on catalyzing youth's desire for change into positive outlets. This 11-page pdf publication is a sample of Youth and Conflict Best Practices and Lessons Learned drawn from Mercy Corps' programs, other agencies, donors, think tanks and researchers. It is divided into six sections: * General Program Design and Implementation. This section includes advice on training, as it is a central part of many of our youth programs. * Economic Engagement * Political Participation * Youth-to-Community Connections * Youth-to-Youth Connections * Addendum: Lessons from Our Colleagues
Peace and Nonviolence Curriculum Grades 1-6 This curriculum focused on nonviolence in daily life provides profiles of 12 peacemakers and provides suggested activities and a bibliography with suggested readings. The peacemaker profiles include Franz Jagerstatter, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Anwar Sadat, Eleanor Roosevelt, Dag Hammarskjold, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, Albert Einstein, Albert Schweitzer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Will Rogers.
Learning to live together: Building skills, values and attitudes for the 21st Century 167-page pdf study which, "represents an attempt to interpret the aim of ‘learning to live together’ as a synthesis of many related goals, such as education for peace, human rights, citizenship and health-preserving behaviours. It focuses specifically on the skills, values, attitudes and concepts needed for learning to live together, rather than on ‘knowledge’ objectives. The aim of the study is to discover ‘what works’ in terms of helping students learn to become politely assertive rather than violent, to understand conflict and its prevention, to become mediators, to respect human rights, to become active and responsible members of their communities—as local, national and global citizens, to have balanced relationships with others and neither to coerce others nor be coerced, especially into risky health behaviours ... The recommendation emerging from the study for national policy-makers and curriculum specialists is that a core national team of educators committed to the goals of peace-building, human rights, active citizenship and preventive health should be created, in order to put together and pilot test materials and methodologies related to these goals."
Training Module for Education for a Culture of Peace This module, released in January 1999, is based on experiences working in Sierra-Leone. It was written to provide some relevant information on practical ideas to enhance women's traditional conflict resolution and mediating practices since they are also stakeholders in conflict situations but are often left out in conflict resolution initiatives. The material is divided into 8 units. Unit 1 - Understanding Gender and distinguishing between Gender and Sex Roles Unit 2 - Trauma Healing and Counselling Unit 3 - Conflict Resolution Unit 4 - Gender Awareness in Conflict Resolution/Reconciliation, Concept of Repentance and Forgiveness Unit 5 - Mediation and the role of Women in Peace Building within the Family, the Community, the School and the total Social Environment Unit 6 - Raising Awareness of Gender Issues and Peace Building through the use of Drama Unit 7 - Understanding Basic Rights and Freedom and their Limitations Unit 8 - Practices for sustaining Peace after the Resolution of Conflict/Institutionalizing transformation
Classrooms in peace: Preliminary results of a multi-component program 24-page PDF article from the "Ineramerican Journal of Education for Democracy," vol. 1, no. 1, September, 2007. Abstract: "Classrooms in Peace is aimed at preventing aggressive behaviors and promoting peaceful coexistence through 1) a curriculum for the development of citizenship competencies in the classroom; 2) extracurricular reinforcement in groups of two initially aggressive and four prosocial children; 3) workshops for, visits and phone calls to family mothers/fathers. A first implementation of the complete program showed a drastic decrease in aggressive behaviors and indiscipline and a considerable increase in prosocial behaviors, adherence to rules, and friendship networks among classmates. The combination of universal components and targeted components for those most in need seems to be highly valuable, especially in violent contexts."
Does CRE make a difference Powerpoint presentation about conflict resolution and peace education.
Peace education in UNICEF: Working paper 52-page PDF paper "produced to describe Peace Education programmes in UNICEF. Peace education programmes have been developed in a number of UNICEF country offices and National Committees for UNICEF over the past decade. Ideas are continually evolving about how to use the full range of children's educational experiences to promote commitment to principles of peace and social justice. The purpose of this working paper is to stimulate further discussion and networking among UNICEF colleagues, to move towards a clearer articulation of good practice in Peace Education, and to pave the way for further exploration of how best to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of this area of UNICEF activity."
Drama for Conflict Transformation Toolkit: Youth Theater for Peace Youth leaders and adult facilitators can use the Drama for Conflict Transformation Toolkit to create a customized training agenda based on their needs, timetable, and cultural context. Across Kyrgyzstan, youth participants in the Youth Theater for Peace (YTP) program are using the Drama for Conflict Transformation methodology introduced in the toolkit to create community conversation about conflict issues. Since 2010, participants have collaborated with more than 50,000 audience members to talk about solutions to bullying in schools, labor migration, bride kidnapping, resource scarcity, and substance abuse.
Inter-agency peace education programme: Skills for constructive living: Overview of the programme 46-page pdf document which provides an overview "of the components of the Peace Education Programme and the implementation structure of the programme. It is designed for education managers of ministries dealing with both formal and non-formal education and from agencies who may be implementing education activities on behalf of the government ... The programme is currently being implemented in eleven countries in Africa and has been integrated into complementary programmes in Sri Lanka, Kosovo, and Pakistan. In these latter situations, training and initial materials were provided but the implementation costs were borne by the agencies concerned." Related to this overview are 15 pdf documents that make up the Peace Education Programme kit with individual entries in this catalog.
Inter-agency P.E.P.: Skills for constructive living: Community course booklet 35-page pdf manual which "is one of the components of the Inter-Agency Peace Education Programme, the programme is designed for education managers of ministries dealing with both formal and non-formal education and for agencies which implement education activities on behalf of the government ... a handout booklet, which outlines the major concept areas covered in the community course."
Encyclopedia of peace education Online resource which, "provides a comprehensive overview of the scholarly developments in the field to date as well as new insights from across the globe from the various actors involved in advancing peace education internationally. Thus, this online resource serves as a living reference guide that traces the history and emergence of the field, highlights foundational concepts, contextualizes peace education practice across international and disciplinary borders, and suggests new directions for peace educators."