Quaker Peacemakers Poster Collection

This set of 10 letter-size posters describes the work of 9 Quakers (members of the Religious Society of Friends) active in various domains of peacemaking. Featured peacemakers include Lewis Fry Richardson, Adam Curle, Bayard Rustin, Elise Boulding, Kenneth Boulding, Priscilla Prutzman, Jennifer Beer, Bill Kreidler and George Lakey. Also featured is the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP), a Quaker-founded program working in prisons and community settings. Each poster includes a quote, a stylized picture and biographical background information on the featured person or project.

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.”

Learning About Human Rights

In 2008, the United Nations initiated a year of human rights learning to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In the UK, UNA-UK teamed up with UNESCO Associated Schools to produce materials to help secondary school teachers and students explore human rights together.

The resource, now posted to the web as a series of pdfs, contains a teacher’s handbook with slide presentations and corresponding factsheets for students. The five topics covered are:

– the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights
– the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
– child rights and armed conflict
– child rights and climate change
– human rights and international development

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).

Human Total: A Violence Prevention Learning Resource

Human Total is a 303-page pdf manual created by Human Rights Education Association (HREA), the International Center for Alcohol Policies (ICAP) and the Instituto Mexicano de Investigación Familia y de Población (IMIFAP).

Targeted towards young people between the ages of 10 and 14, the manual helps learners understand attitudes that promote violent behavior (often brought about by the misuse of alcohol) by males and cultivates methods to minimise these behaviors’ harms and prevent their perpetuation.

Human Total contains 32 adaptable lesson plans, including ways to recognise and understand violence in social contexts and techniques for minimising violence through education about human rights and active participation in the community. The manual also features a note for facilitators on how to use it, tools for outreach to parents and guardians, recommendations for additional resources, and eight annexes with supplemental information. The resource was piloted in El Salvador and Kenya.

Human Total: A Violence Prevention Learning Resource is currently (July 2013) available in English and will soon be available in Spanish.

Leading a Workshop on Conflict Management for Teaching Assistants

Article Abstract: The aim of this article is to share a conflict management workshop that the authors developed to train teaching assistants to proactively manage conflict, achieve productive results for conflict, and establish a climate of trust in which relationships beneficial to learning can flourish. The article begins by defining an approach to conflict management and explaining the rationale behind the workshop. A detailed plan of the workshop is then presented. Finally, results are reported of a “before the workshop” and “after the workshop” survey from two recent groups of workshop participants that shows improved perceived ability to deal effectively with conflict.

Exploring Humanitarian Law Curriculum Package

Exploring Humanitarian Law (EHL) is an adaptable toolkit that gives educators easy-to-use materials to expose students to issues of international humanitarian law, the rules that ensure respect for life and human dignity in war. The toolkit offers educators primary source materials and strategies that reinforce and enrich existing curricula and educational programs. The full curriculum is available for download as a 360+ page pdf.

Humanitarian law is a body of international law that aims to protect human dignity during armed conflict and to prevent or reduce the suffering and destruction that results from war. All nations are party to the Geneva Conventions, and therefore have a legal obligation to encourage the study of humanitarian law as widely as possible. These laws, together with the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, should be viewed as an integral part of today’s basic education.

Aligned with social studies requirements around the country, Exploring Humanitarian Law offers educators activities that can be used as a whole or mixed and matched into current lessons. High-quality materials, including news accounts, photos, letters, videos, case studies and interactive projects bring real events and people to life, helping teachers connect lessons of the past with events of today.

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.

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.”

Teaching tolerance: Posters and stuff

Website that allows free downloads of posters, fliers, stickers and web banners to accompany the Mix It Up program sponsored by Teaching Tolerance, a Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

In the mix lesson plan: Cliques, friendship groups, or boxes

Web based lesson plan which “helps students explore the social ‘boxes’ that they place themselves in or are put in by others, and focus on how they judge one another. The lesson can also serve as a training session for students who wish to be Big Brothers and Sisters to incoming freshmen, or student facilitators of Human Relations groups — two programs that promote a greater sense of community within schools.” Draws on materials provided by PBS’s In the Mix program http://to.pbs.org/2sX2aD2

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.”

Culture of power, The

Pdf article from Conflict Management in Higher Education Report, Volume 5, Number 1, (Sept 2004), which examines the culture of power particularly within educational institutions.