Creating

CREATING A a
Fair- Learning
FAIR- LEARNING
Environment
ENVIRONMENT
IN THIS LESSON, YOU ARE
EXPECTED TO:
 Display the ability to recognize, fair-learning environment
concepts promoting peace, gender sensitivity, ethnicity,
and human rights among the teachers and learners
 Design learning environments demonstrating principles of
gender, ethnicity and human rights.
HOW CAN PEACE EDUCATION
BE ADVOCATED IN SCHOOLS?
Schools should primarily be peace zones (Harris, 2003).
As teachers promoting peace, there is a need to be able to
identify the learners' tendencies to be violent and be able
to manage these tendencies. When aggression is
effectively managed, many will feel safe- physically,
economically, socially, or emotionally. Likewise, when
learners feel safe in school and their communities, their
quality of life improves and learning new skills likely
occurs.
Peace education addresses conflicts in school and the community by using
resolution approaches that are informed by the community's political structure,
historical forces, and cultural beginnings. Harris (2003) emphasizes that the
role of teachers in maintaining peace in classrooms is to primarily provide
learners with awareness regarding how conflicts arise and how to control their
emergence.

Secondly, teachers create opportunities for learners to explore approaches to

resolve conflicts.

Lastly, teachers encourage learners to become promoters of peace and

harmony in their communities.
An important document in relation to the promotion of peace is the
United Nations Declaration of Peace (United Nations, 1999). Its
principles cover safeguarding life and practicing nonviolence by
educating people. The principles may serve as guiding posts in
engineering classroom approaches to develop concepts of peace and
promote strategies that would maintain it like:

 activities that aim at knowing and promoting human rights;

 approaches in meeting the needs of future generations;
 lessons in giving people equal opportunity and respect; exercises in freedom of expression;
 discussions on social justice and democracy, solidarity, and tolerance between and among nations.
In teaching peace education in formal (classroom) and non-
formal systems (communities), Thapa, Dhungana,
Mahalingam, & Connileau (2010) describes:
the knowledge-based approach, which is referred to as
addressing peace contexts based on how available information
present it;
the skills-based approach, which gives importance to
integrating peace concepts to one's life's skills;
the values-based approach, which is grounded on social
responsibility and ethics.
Teaching peace includes questioning beliefs about people
that discriminate them. Likewise, it encourages teachers and
learners to develop knowledge that is created from the
learners' experiences. The teacher's role in promoting peace
involves making the classroom child-friendly and inclusive.
Conditions, where both teachers and learners feel safe are
pivotal to peace education. These conditions are promoted
by the school administrators and community leaders. Lastly,
when it comes to school-community or parent-teacher
partnership, the school may be turned into a place where
dialogue on how communities may remain peaceful can
occur.
WHY SHOULD GENDER BE
STUDIED?
Gender is defined as the cultural, social, and behavioral
expectations related to a person's being male or female
(Bever, 2016). Our expectations when we find out that a
child to be born male or female are influenced by the socio-
cultural beliefs on the roles performed by the sex (e.g., little
girls will play with dolls while boys with toy cars)
 HOW SHOULD GENDER BE INTEGRATED
INTO TEACHING?
1. Promote gender equality
2. Inclusive curriculum
3. Safe and respectful classroom
4. Use inclusive language
5. Varied teaching strategies
6. Address intersectionality
7. Professional development
8. Parent and community involvement

Remember that every classroom and educational setting is unique, so it's important to consider the
specific needs of your students and adapt your teaching approach accordingly. By incorporating these
strategies, you can create a more inclusive and supportive learning environment for all students,
regardless of gender.
The society's culture, national identity, and values are found in every classroom. The teacher's
challenge is to empower learners to work beyond what their culture has imposed on them. Listed are
strategies in promoting a gender-fair and inclusive classroom:
1. What's in the Box.
2. . Taking Turns.
3. Working on Our Goal Together.
4. Let's Rotate.
5. What You Think Matters.
6. Working Together.
7. My Team.
8. Wellness Break.
9. Box of Gender-Ideas..
10. Winning Moments.
 WHAT SIGNIFICANT TENETS IN INDIGENOUS
PEOPLES EDUCATION SHOULD BE INTEGRATED IN
DESIGNING INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS?
Alleviation from poverty is a motivation for most indigenous people to seek
education. Due to the distance of indigenous peoples' communities from the urban
and rural communities, illiteracy rates among these special groups is high. Education
among people in indigenous communities seen as an advantage and a disadvantage.
As an advantage, education is believed to advance literacy among people in these
communities. As a disadvantage, education is perceived as a means of alienation.
Discussion question: How would education make indigenous peoples value their
culture while addressing ways to improve the quality of their lives? One of the things
teachers should be prepared for is the support needed by indigenous peoples when it
comes to school adjustment. Specifically, they need to be guided in understanding the
school policies and the culture between and among learners. Likewise, as teachers,
we need to provide information to our learners to be sensitive of the cultural
background of their classmates who are members of indigenous groups and to be
sensitive and mindful as to how they relate with these learners (e.g., not to impose on
their classmates do what they do because they are used to it).
As teachers, we need to make our learners aware of the culture of indigenous peoples in the region in particular and
in the Philippines in general. Tauli-Corpuz (2010) listed the following teaching principles in addressing the needs
of indigenous peoples:

1. Worldviews are integral in designing teaching approaches for indigenous education (formal or nonformal).
Arrangements must be made if bilingual education is to be integrated in the primary grades.
2. . Contents of materials to be distributed among learners must be thoroughly checked for discriminatory
contents and erroneous historical accounts. This is to ensure that there is no false information made about
them. If there is malicious information, these must be corrected..
3. . Local contexts must be considered in curriculum design. The information and activities afforded to them
must be in relation to the day-to-day activities and indigenous peoples have and integrate how communities
function. Opportunities to get information from community elders-both from the integration communies tod
the indigenous peoples-must be utilized to learn about how they have been co existing.
4. Curriculum design for basic education should integrate respect for indigenous peoples and
discussions of their culture and ways of life. Explorations should be made with regard to their
pedagogies (e.g., stories, songs, practices, and ways of knowing).

5. Education for indigenous peoples should be designed with learning paths that highlight the value
of celebrating their identity and working for the cultural enrichment of their communities. 6.

6. Schools may set up mobile schools to reach remote indigenous communities.

7. Learning resources should be made available for indigenous peoples in their communities
 HOW SHOULD HUMAN RIGHTS
EDUCATION BE TAUGHT?
An emerging field in education concerns the teaching and learning of human rights or Human
Rights Education (HRE). This was prompted by the growing concerns on human rights in the
world and how learners should be able to practice and encourage community members to
practice respect and acknowledge the dignity of one another.
As an educational theory and practice, HRE seeks to integrate relevant concepts in mainstream
education, specifically human rights, norms, values, and social justice. The United Nations
defines HRE as "training, dissemination, and information efforts aimed at the building of a
universal culture of human rights through the imparting of knowledge and skills and the
molding of attitudes" (United Nations, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights,
1997, p. 5). Specifically, HRE is directed to teach respect for human rights and our fundamental
freedoms; focus on the development of the person and sense of dignity; promote understanding,
gender equality, and tolerance among all nations; and enable people to participate in a free
society.
When HRE is applied in classrooms, teachers need to consider that its principles are for lifelong learning. This
actualizes a fair-learning environment and a safe learning space for learners. When learners feel safe in the
classroom, they are able to better respond to tasks given by the teacher and have greater room for creativity. The
following are the kinds of pedagogy promoted by HRE:
1. Experiential and Activity-centered. The learners' learning about how they learned about their rights and the
rights of others are explored.
2. . Problem-posing. The learner's prior knowledge of human rights, if found oppressing, are challenged and
explained by the teacher.
3. . Participative. The teacher explores ways in which learners can provide others with better information on
their misconceptions. This often involves soliciting ways to promote equal rights among learners.
4. Dialectical. The learners are encouraged to share their thoughts and clarify their beliefs. Clarification may
be supplemented by credible sources (e.g., learning resources).
5. Analytical. The teachers ask the learners how they learned about their conceptions of human rights and
how they practice it in their communities.
6. Healing. The teachers and learners promote inter- and intrapersonal support to address human rights
violations.
7. Strategic Thinking-oriented. The teachers and learners explore ways of achieving the goals they set
without any violations of rights.
8. 8. Goal and Action-oriented. The teachers and learners promote collective action in achieving human
rights sensitivity and equality in communities.