Tips for developing peace education curriculum: Some lessons from Vietnam

4-page tips document, the abstract states, “Teachers and schools around Australia are being asked to take responsibility for ensuring safe schools and promoting citizenship among students. This is part of an international movement to use school-based education to promote a global culture of peace. The International Conflict Resolution Centre at the University of Melbourne recently co-developed a national peace education curriculum for primary schools in Vietnam with Vietnamese educators. This experience highlighted three important peace education tools that can also be used within an Australian context: The UNESCO “peace keys,” physical games and reflective material.”

Two faces of education in ethnic conflict, The: Towards a peacebuilding education for children

54-page PDF study which, “should be considered as a first attempt to explore a set of highly complex and controversial issues. Its potential contribution is twofold: a focused and critical examination of the peacebuilding and peace-destroying role of education; and the placement of children on the mainstream peacebuilding and reconstruction agenda in a way that goes beyond their necessary but narrow inclusion as child soldiers … The project began with the observation that formal education is often viewed as a neutral or technical process of information dissemination set within a given societal context. It found that this starting point inhibited consideration of the role of education in the creation of a “constructed” – rather than “given” – societal context. The broadening of the analytical focus reveals that implicitly and explicitly, intentionally and unintentionally, education inevitably has a societal impact – for good or for ill.”

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.”

Tolerance: the threshold of peace: A teaching/learning guide for education for peace, human rights

42-page PDF document which was “prepared to serve as an introductory resource material, to provide some understanding of what is involved in and required of education for tolerance. It provides a statement of the problems of intolerance, a rationale for teaching toward the goal of tolerance, and concepts and descriptions for identifying both the problems and the goals … Each chapter of the guide comprises material that can be used for study and discussion on issues of tolerance and peace. Organizations, groups and formal classes of secondary level and above can explore together the issues raised and problems identified…”

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.

Teaching about peace through children’s literature

16-page PDF article in which author, Stan Steiner discusses teaching about peace and conflict resolution using children’s literature. He believes that the instructor should: have more books than readers, have a wide variety of books in terms of level of difficulty, length and points of view and make sure that readers consume a number of books. Steiner mentions small group discussions vs large group discussions, providing readers with open ended questions prior to reading assignments and being open to differing points of view. The article concludes with a 10-page bibliography.

Opening the door to nonviolence: Peace education manual for primary school children

Electronic version of the second edition of a teacher’s guide for teaching peace education to primary school students. “Part I is designed as a training in affirmation, cooperation and communication. Part II deals with the healing of trauma; Part III is about bias and prejudices. Part IV introduces peaceful problem solving and nonviolent conflict resolving and Part V is about peaceful living. There are 20 chapters/sessions in the book, each session developed through step-by-step activities.”

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.”

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.”

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.”

Community-Based Institutes on Peace Education (CIPE) organizer’s manual: A peace education planning

78-page pdf manual “designed to assist formal, non-formal and grass-roots educators and educational planners by providing ideas and tools for the development of community-based peace education learning projects that might contribute to the reduction of violence at all levels of the global social order. More specifically, it has been developed to aid in the planning of “Community-Based Institutes on Peace Education (CIPE),” a special community-centered initiative of the International Institute on Peace Education (IIPE) … As you explore the contents you will see that this manual is arranged like a workbook. It is organized around inquiries into practical considerations for designing peace education initiatives in multiple and varying contexts. These inquiries are designed to engage you – the educator/planner – in reflections upon your own unique situation and possibilities for affecting change through education.”

Workshop on peace education for educators in Southeast Asia: January 19 to 23, 2009

2-page Word report on a workshop for peace educators which “sought to train a core of formal and community educators on the knowledge base, attitudes, and skills that comprise peace education; encourage them to generate doable action plans that they can implement in their schools, organizations and/or communities; encourage them to serve as a beginning core team for the promotion of peace education in their country.”

Peace education curriculum: Programa pendidiken damai (pdf)

84-page pdf translation of the Indonesian “Kurikulum Pendidikan Damai” which “was the first of its kind to be developed in Indonesia, representing peace education from an Islamic and Acehnese perspective. It promotes a positive, comprehensive peace encompassing peaceful relations with God the Creator, with oneself, with one’s fellow humans, and with the environment. The curriculum teaches communal peace in accordance with the positive Islamic approach, namely the absence of war and discrimination and the necessity of justice in society. This manual emphasizes that peace is neither a subjugation to situations nor a passive acceptance of injustice, discrimination, and war, but rather a recognition of these problems and addressing them in a peaceful manner. The curriculum also stresses the importance of process and ends, since peace is both process and results, as reflected in active involvement of students in a system of learning by doing … The materials and learning activities were authored in such a manner to allow the students dominant roles in the learning process. The students are guided to observe, analyze, and seek for solutions to existing conflicts. We feel that this strategy can better improve the students’ knowledge on conflict and peace, build their skills in managing conflicts without violence, and actualize them all in their real life.”

Peace education curriculum: Programa pendidiken damai

92-page word document translation of the Indonesian “Kurikulum Pendidikan Damai” which “was the first of its kind to be developed in Indonesia, representing peace education from an Islamic and Acehnese perspective. It promotes a positive, comprehensive peace encompassing peaceful relations with God the Creator, with oneself, with one’s fellow humans, and with the environment. The curriculum teaches communal peace in accordance with the positive Islamic approach, namely the absence of war and discrimination and the necessity of justice in society. This manual emphasizes that peace is neither a subjugation to situations nor a passive acceptance of injustice, discrimination, and war, but rather a recognition of these problems and addressing them in a peaceful manner. The curriculum also stresses the importance of process and ends, since peace is both process and results, as reflected in active involvement of students in a system of learning by doing … The materials and learning activities were authored in such a manner to allow the students dominant roles in the learning process. The students are guided to observe, analyze, and seek for solutions to existing conflicts. We feel that this strategy can better improve the students’ knowledge on conflict and peace, build their skills in managing conflicts without violence, and actualize them all in their real life.”

Practicing peace: A peace education module for standards 4 through 6 in Solomon Islands

87-page pdf 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.