Cultivating Peace – Taking Action

This 66-page pdf is a curriculum packet developed for use in Canadian classrooms. “This resource encourages students to examine their own beliefs regarding the need for change in our world and their personal responsibility in taking action. The preconditions necessary for a culture of peace are explored through the examination of global issues in sustainable development, economic disparity, fair trade, human rights and consumerism. Students are given opportunities to explore the range of actions possible, the ways in which change occurs, the barriers to participation and the factors that support youth involvement. The resource includes a teacher’s guide, a video, a poster series and a student guide to taking action. It is designed for use in grades 10-12.”

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.

Learning to Live Together: An intercultural and interfaith programme for ethics education

Learning to Live Together is an interfaith and intercultural programme for Ethics Education that contributes to nurturing ethical values in children and young people. The programme was developed by the Interfaith Council on Ethics Education for Children in close collaboration with UNESCO and UNICEF and tested through the Global Network of Religions for Children to contribute to the realization of the Right of the Child to full and healthy physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development, and to education as set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), in article 26.1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), in the World Declaration on Education for all and in the Millennium Development Goals.

Learning to Live Together is a programme for educators (teachers, youth leaders, social workers) to nurture ethical values and spirituality in children and youth that will help them strengthen their identity and critical thinking, ability to make well grounded decisions, respect and work with people of other cultures and religions, and foster their individual and collective responsibilities in a global community.

Learning to Live Together is built in two modules, “Understanding Self and Others” and “Transforming the World together”. It is based on four ethical values: respect, empathy, responsibility and reconciliation. The learning process focuses on methodologies based on experience, cooperation, problem solving, discussions and introspection.

Additional materials and versions in other languages are available at http://www.ethicseducationforchildren.org

Ways of Peace – URI Youth 4 Unity Brochure

This illustrated foldable brochure was created by the youth wing of the United Religions Initiative (URI) Peacemakers’ Circle CC in the Philippines – Youth 4 Unity – as a way to share expressions of the Golden Rule in different religions, spiritual expressions and indigenous traditions. It also shares simple ways to practice inner peace, harmony with others and healing of the Earth.

Proposed Guiding Principles for Israeli/Palestinian Academic Cooperation

Short version (29 page pdf) of a UNESCO study conducted by the Palestinian Center for the Dissemination of Democracy and Community Development (PANORAMA), with Walid Salem heading the Palestinian team, and by the Center for Research and Cooperation Jerusalem (CRC), with Edy Kaufman heading the Israeli team, within UNESCO’s Civil Societies in Dialogue Programme. The goal of the project is to explore avenues for significantly increasing the percentage of Israeli and Palestinian academics and intellectuals engaged in constructive dialogue who can contribute towards a just peace. This document was launched in 2004 by UNESCO, which commissioned a study on the obstacles and promises of establishing a sound basis for academic and intellectual cooperation across the Israeli/Palestinian divide.

Companion: A campaign guide about education and learning for change in diversity, human rights …

80-page PDF manual, “designed to help those involved in learning for democracy and learning for change. The issues it raises and the methods which are proposed have been developed as a part of the campaign, but the manual can and should be used after the formal end of the campaign … This is not a campaign for young people. It is a campaign by young people. The slogan of the campaign “All different, All equal” combines the freedom of diversity and the equality of rights, and it reflects the Council of Europe philosophy in tackling all forms of discrimination and exclusion.”

Tolerance in multiethnic Georgia: Training methodology manual for educators

156-page pdf training manual, “on the management of interethnic relations intended for teachers and youth leaders (educators). It also includes the description of the ethnic groups residing in Georgia and covers the themes like the nature of ethnic stereotypes and attitudes, peculiarities of intercultural dialogue, the essence of ethnic identity and conflicts. The suggested training system is based on the findings of the empirical research carried out with the teachers in the public schools of Georgia, youth leaders in patriot camps and future teachers. The system underwent an additional testing with 195 training participants. The given book can be useful to psychologists, students, ethnologists and those who are involved in the fields of education and interethnic relations.”

Cultivating Peace in the 21st Century: Ready to Use Student Activities

This 60-page pdf is a lesson pack developed for use in Canadian classrooms. It consists of 7 distinct lessons “designed to actively engage secondary school students in the search for a deep understanding of the forces that can bring about tragedies such as the attack on the World Trade Center, and the means by which they can personally contribute to the ongoing search for peaceful coexistence. It provides teachers and administrators with concrete mechanisms for integrating peace education into the curriculum and the school environment.”

Tolerance Stories Booklet

55-page collection of stories, “to teach tolerance because stories are the first and most enduring literary form and they have the power to shape people’s understanding of the world and to change their lives … it is our hope that this resource booklet will facilitate educators in elementary and secondary schools to introduce discussions of tolerance by supplying a wide array of narratives that illustrate principles of tolerance, and by so doing, enable their students to be leaders of tolerance in their homes, neighborhoods, and communities.”