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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
Culture of Peace End of Decade Review In resolution 64/80, the General Assembly requested UNESCO to prepare a summary report on the activities carried out over the past ten years of the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World (2001-2010) by UNESCO, other United Nations entities, Member States and civil society, including non-governmental organizations, to promote and implement the Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace. This end of decade report was presented to the United Nations General Assembly at its 65th session in 2010.
Tug of war - Peace Through Understanding Conflict This 10-chapter 104-page book, available as a pdf, is for youth ages 8-16 interested in a peaceful world - and in understanding the forces that cause conflict, both in personal relationships and across the globe. Tug of War describes: 1) What the roots of war are. 2) How we create "The Enemy". 3) A new way to handle violence. Illustrated by award-winning artist, Rod Cameron. Part of the Education for Peace Series by Atrium Society Publications
Inter-agency P.E.P.: Skills for constructive living: Background notes for teachers 40-page pdf 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." This manual is a "summary of the major points covered in the training sessions to be used as a reference."
Nonviolence History Coloring Pages
Speak Truth to Power: Human Rights Defenders Who are Changing Our World The Speak Truth To Power curriculum (296 page PDF) introduces general human rights issues through the stories of some remarkable people working in the field, and urges students to become personally involved in the protection of human rights. The curriculum is based on a book written by Kerry Kennedy that lead to a dramatic production by Ariel Dorfman (the play script is included in the curriculum). It is illustrated with a series of photographic portraits of human rights defenders by the late Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Eddie Adams. Various editions of Speak Truth to Power have been produced, with this one drawing input from the Chicago Public Schools and Chicago Teachers Union. Also available are Cambodian, Italian, and South African editions, and an edition developed in New York State.The focus of the learning activities varies based on the age-group of students you are working with. In pre-kindergarten through grade 3, human rights learning focuses on respect for self, parents, teachers and others. In grades 4–6 the focus moves to social responsibility, citizenship, and distinguishing wants and needs from rights. For grades 7 and 8, the focus shifts to introducing and enhancing specific human rights. At the high school level, grades 9–12, the focus expands to include human rights as universal standards, integration of human rights into personal awareness, and behavior.
Practicing peace: A peace education module for standards 4 through 6 in Solomon Islands 87-page word document which presents peace education for the Solomon Islands context. "The primary method used in peace education is generally referred to as a "facilitated" or "interactive" model of teaching. In this method, the teacher becomes a facilitator of learning and a co-learner with the students. Students and teachers use experiential strategies to practice skills for peace. There is a shift in the value placed on being a teacher. Using the facilitated processes of conflict resolution and peace education, teachers and students learn together and teach each other." Covered areas include: Interpersonal skills; Understanding and accepting differences; Children's rights; Building community and Mediation.
Human Rights, Conflict Resolution, and Tolerance Education Teacher Toolkit This 233-page guide, provided as a pdf, was developed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). As the main provider of basic education to Palestine refugees, serving approximately half a million students, UNRWA has also been delivering human rights, conflict resolution and tolerance (HRCRT) education in its schools for over a decade. The HRCRT Toolkit was developed to serve as a practical tool to further strengthen the teaching and learning of human rights in UNRWA schools. It is designed to be a user friendly tool which will support the effective implementation of the HRCRT Policy, launched in May 2012. The Policy articulates UNRWA’s approach to human rights education in order to harmonize, update and strengthen it. The HRCRT Toolkit is a comprehensive and accessible resource for UNRWA’s 19,000 teachers and school management staff. It will equip them to teach human rights in a way that engages and inspires their students and to integrate human rights education into their classroom routines and curriculum subjects. Through the practical activities in the Toolkit (40 in all), teachers will be able to create a rights-based, and empowering environment for their students. The Policy and the Toolkit both seek to empower Palestine refugees, encouraging them to know and exercise their rights, uphold the rights of others, be proud of their Palestinian identity, and contribute to their society in a positive way.
Committed to building peace: The City Montessori School in India Third online chapter from, "Education That Makes a Difference: Success Stories for Conflict Resolution Educators," describes the City Montessori School in Lucknow, India. CMS is the largest private school in the world and is dedicated to teaching peace education. Original Source: Chapter 11 from People Building Peace II: Successful Stories Of Civil Society (Project of the European Centre for Conflict Prevention) by Paul Van Tongeren, Malin Brenk, Marte Hellema, and Juliette Verhoeven (Eds), Lynne Rienner Publishers (2005)
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.
Gender Toolkit: A manual for youth peace workers This guide aims to provide flexible and context-sensitive tools for supporting awareness and gender mainstreaming in youth peacebuilding organisations. It address the challenge of how to include a "gender lens" in the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of different projects while integrating gender issues at the structural and organisational levels. These challenges can be addressed first by acknowledging their existence and making corrective entries to the organisations' apparatus of power, and secondly by transforming the challenges into something positive and productive. The 69-page guide provides a short overview of internal gender mainstreaming and gender mainstreaming in project management backed up by checklists and annotated resources in every section, best practices and trouble-shooters, as well as tips, quotes and advice. An appendix provides some activity modules that will lend a hand in addressing gender issues in organisations and projects.
Will you listen?: Young voices from conflict zones 28-page pdf report which accompanies "the official 10 year Graca Machel Strategic Review report ... submitted to the UN General Assembly on October 17, 2007. It compiles the views and recommendations from more than 1,700 young people from 92 countries through focus group discussions ... [which] included children and young people who have experienced conflict themselves, with many of the participants speaking about how their own lives have been affected. Facilitators tried to ensure a safe environment, to use the local language where appropriate and to create a certain 'comfort level' for the participants despite the unique challenges in each country."
Peace & Disarmament Education: Changing Mindsets to Reduce Violence & Sustain Removal of Small Arms This book summarizes the learnings from a partnership between the Hague Appeal for Peace and the United Nations Department for Disarmament Affairs exploring disarmament as an essential issue for peace education. It seeks to provide educators with ways to bring attention to weapons both as tools and symbols of the culture of violence that perpetuates war and armed conflict. The project invites critical reflection on the acceptance of the inevitability of war, the logic of force in politics and the conflation of conflict with violence. The participating peace educators in Albania, Cambodia, Niger and Peru have challenged these assumptions in community - and schools-based learning experiences that have taught both substantive and symbolic lessons in disarmament.
UNESCO Peace Pack (Combined) The UNESCO Peace Pack is a set of materials for the elementary school teacher. It was prepared following a series of seven subregional Culture of Peace Children's Festivals held in 1995. A thousand Peace Packs were produced on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations and UNESCO (1995). These resource materials were tested successfully in 125 countries. As its contribution to the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World, UNESCO distributed the Peace Pack worldwide beginning in 2001. The various pieces are no longer directly available via UNESCO's website, but this combined document retrieved from the internet archive extends its availability. Included in the combined document is a teacher's handbook explaining and describing the various materials in the package. Also included is a set of topical posters on a series of topics of concern to children with corresponding questions for discussions. In addition, there are seven activity cards which deal with the following topics: - What is peace? - Tolerance and respect - Conflict the wrong way - What are my rights? - It's our world - Getting to know you - intercultural learning - Learning together Also included is a set of Appeals to world leaders that were written by the children at the seven regional UNESCO Peace Festivals. Students are encouraged to review the appeals and suggest changes or additions.
World of possibilities: CRE and peace education around the globe, A 34-page Powerpoint presentation given at the Sustaining Conflict Resolution Education: Building Bridges to the Future conference in Fairfax, VA, which "presents summaries of several important activities related to global expansion of conflict resolution education and peace education."
The Role of Education in Peacebuilding: A synthesis report of findings This 40-page report by UNICEF provides evidence that education can be a catalyst for peace and highlights the need for education sectors to integrate a peacebuilding perspective. The report has 2 main parts: a literature review, and three case studies focusing on Lebanon, Nepal and Sierra Leone. The report is part of the knowledge generation component of the Education and Emergencies and Post-Crisis Transition (EEPCT) programme – a partnership between UNICEF, the Government of the Netherlands and the European Commission.
Teachers Without Borders Dr. Joseph Hungwa Memorial Peace Education Program This 300+ page guide provides a full professional development curriculum in peace education. It was developed by Teachers Beyond Borders. The goal is to bring Peace Education to new audiences around the world. The program is divided into three units, which progress on a continuum from theoretical to practical. Unit 1 provides the history of peace education, a selection of definitions, an overview of the key thinkers in the peace education field and the core concepts. Unit 2 focuses on the Scope of Peace Education, reviewing different approaches to peace education, or different lenses through which peace education can be viewed. Unit 3 moves from theory to practice, addressing the pedagogical approaches to peace education and practical ways to introduce peace education into your classroom and community.
Peacebuilding Toolkit for Educators - Middle School Edition The Peacebuilding Toolkit for Educators is designed to support the work of educators as peacebuilders. It is a resource developed by and for educators, to help introduce peacebuilding themes and skills into the classroom. The Toolkit can help develop students’ understanding of, and interest in, global peacebuilding, and develop their skills and capacities to act as peacebuilders. It can help teachers develop their own understanding of key concepts and skills, and enhance their capacity to teach about global peacebuilding themes and issues. There are two volumes of the toolkit––one for middle school and one for high school. The Middle School Edition of the toolkit is designed for a general audience of students in grades 6–8. The content can be modified for older students and some of the content can be modified for younger students. Engaging young audiences in conversations about peace and conflict is important. It is the authors' hope that young students will engage in these topics and continue to reflect on them as they progress through high school and move into the world. The lessons have been developed with great detail to be useful for educators who are new to the methods employed that engage students in experiential learning and critical thinking. The lessons are intended for traditional and alternative education settings. The toolkit is organized around basic themes within the field of international conflict management. Theme 1: Conflict is an inherent part of the human condition. Theme 2: Violent conflict can be prevented. Theme 3: There are many ways to be a peacebuilder. The 15 lessons in the toolkit are interactive and encourage students to work collaboratively to understand concepts and solve problems. The lessons are designed to be detailed enough for a new teacher or a teacher unfamiliar with interactive or experiential methods to pick them up and use them as intended. The middle school lessons include teacher direction, guided practice, and independent practice.
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.
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."
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