PEACE EDUCATION

Peace Education as Transformative

Education
(WEEK 9)
 Peace Building
The greatest resource for building a culture of
peace are the people themselves, for it is through
them that peaceful relationships and structures
are created. Hence, educating people toward
becoming peace agents is central to the task of
peace building.
What is Peace Building?
Peace building refers generally to the long-term project of
building peaceful communities. One can readily see how
peace education is therefore both a significant peace
building strategy (as in the case of a post-conflict
situation) and an effective way of preventing violent
conflict. In a peace building framework in the Philippines,
peace constituency-building is indicated as an important
element. The latter includes education aimed at
promoting a peace culture and agenda.
What is Peace Education?
Peace Education, or an education that promotes a culture
of peace, is essentially transformative. It cultivates the knowledge
base, skills, attitudes and values that seek to transform people’s
mind sets, attitudes and behaviors that, in the first place, have
either created or violent conflicts. It seeks this transformation by
building awareness and understanding, developing concern and
challenging personal and social action that will enable people to
live, relate and create conditions and systems that actualize
nonviolence, justice, environmental care and other peace values.
Peace Education
The learning process that is utilized in peace education is holistic
and it tries to address the cognitive, affective and active dimensions of
the learner. A usual procedure includes the introduction of relevant
new knowledge or reinforced knowledge, posing valuing questions and
using discussion and other participatory methods to cultivate concern,
and eliciting/challenging/encouraging appropriate personal and social
action.
The action towards transformation may include action against
prejudice and the war system, or action for social and economic
justice. Paying attention to all these levels – the cognitive, affective and
active – increases the possibility that the peace perspective or value
that is being cultivated would be internalized.
Why Educate for Peace?
• Betty Reardon, reminds us that Peace Education has an important social
purpose. It seeks to transform the present human condition by “changing
social structures and patterns of thought that have created it”. The main
purposes of peace education are the elimination of social injustice, the
rejection of violence and the abolition of war. With the universal peace
education there is some hope that we may be able to move toward
having a critical mass that will demand and address needed changes.
• Cora Weiss, president and initiator of the Hague Appeal for Peace has
aptly said:
• “Hague Appeal for Peace has decided that to sustain a long-term change
in the thought and action of future generations ….. our best contribution
would be to work on peace education”.
Peace Education is a Practical Alternative
• Educating for peace will give us in the long run the practical benefits that
we seek. It is expected to build a critical mass of people who will demand
for and address the needed personal and structural changes that will
transform the many problems that relate to peace into nonviolent,
humane and ecological alternatives and solutions.
• Peace education challenges the long-held belief that wars cannot be
avoided. Often this belief is based on an underlying view that violence is
inherent in human nature. Peace education can transform people’s mind
sets with regard to the inevitability of war and can in fact enable people to
see that alternatives exist and that there are ways by which violent conflict
can be prevented. Political advocacy of nonviolent resolution of conflict is
a key element of peace education and you can just imagine the benefits
that will be reaped when this becomes the dominant mind set and value
in our world.
 Peace Education is an Ethical Imperative
• Educating for peace is an ethical imperative considering the
negation of life and well-being caused by all forms of violence.
The ethical systems of the major world faith traditions,
humanitarian ethics and even primal and indigenous spirituality
have articulated principles that inspire the striving for peace.
These ethical principles include the unity and value of life, not
only of human life but also other life forms in nature; respect
for human dignity; nonviolence; justice; and love as a social
ethic. They are principles that are highly encouraged for
actualization because they are expected to bring us to the
common good.
Schema of Knowledge, Skills and
Attitudes/Values
The Schema is an attempt to list the key knowledge areas, skills,
attitudes and values that are integral to peace education.
Knowledge and Content Areas
1.Holistic Concept of Peace
• It is important that students understand that peace is not just absence of
direct/physical violence but also the presence of conditions of well-being,
cooperation and just relationships in the human and ecological spheres.
This perspective will help them analyze peace issues in an integrated way.

2.Conflict and Violence

• Conflicts are natural part of person’s social life, but they become problems
of violence depending on the methods of conflict resolution used.
Students can study the problems of violence in various levels from the
personal to the global and including direct, structural, socio-cultural and
ecological violence. They can also examine the roots and consequences
of violence.
3.Some Peaceful Alternatives

a. Disarmament – Learners can be introduced to the al of abolishing war and

reducing global armed forces and armaments. It is good for them to see the folly of
excessive arms and military expenditures and the logic of reallocating resources
toward the fulfilment of people’s basic needs (food, housing, health care and
education).
This is a springboard for the exploration of the meaning of true human
security which springs from the fulfilment of both basic needs and higher needs of
humans (the exercise of fundamental freedoms).

b. Nonviolence – Learners can study the philosophical and spiritual underpinnings of

nonviolence as well as its efficacy as a method to effect change. Case of individuals
and groups who have advocated nonviolence as a philosophy and method can be
examined. Some of these are Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King,Jr., Aung San Suu
Kyi, Thich Nhat Hanh, Desmond Tutu and Wangari Maathai.
c. Conflict Resolution, Transformation and Prevention
Students can study effective ways of resolving conflicts non-violently (e.g.
collaborative problem-solving) and how these can be applied into their
lives. They can move on to examine how a conflict that has been resolved
can be transformed into a situation that is more desirable. Ways to
prevent conflict can also be explored because as Johan Galtung has said,
like in the medical field it is better to prevent than “remedy a situation
that has gone wrong.”

d. Human Rights – It is important for learners to have an integral

understanding of human rights and to reject all forms of repression and
discrimination based on beliefs, race, ethnicity, gender and social class.
They should be encouraged to respect the dignity of all especially the
weak and the powerless.
e. Human Solidarity – Many commonalities bind together divergent
religious, cultural, local and national groups. All humans have common
basic needs and aspirations and a shared membership in an
interdependent human/global community. We have only one home
(planet earth) and a common future. The major world religions also have
shared values and principles. Students can look at how to increase inter-
religious, inter-cultural and inter-group trust, empathy, respect and
cooperation, as well as discourage stereotyping and prejudice.

f. Development Based on Justice – Learners can be made critically aware

of the realities and tragic consequences of structural violence and how a
philosophy of development based on justice is a preferred alternative.
They need to understand that development is not economic growth
alone but also the equitable sharing of its fruits.
h. Sustainable Development – Learners need to understand the
interdependent relationship between humans and the natural
environment and understand the changes that are necessary to ensure
the well-being of the earth’s ecosystems such that it can continue to
meet future and present needs. They need to rediscover the wisdom of
our indigenous peoples who have always respected nature.
 Attitudes and Values
It is suggested that the following attitudes and values be cultivated.
1. Self-Respect- Having a sense of their own worth and a sense of pride in their own
particular social, cultural and family background as well as a sense of their own
power and goodness which will enable them to contribute toward positive change.

a. Respect for Others- Having a sense of the worth and inherent dignity of other
people, including those with social, religious, cultural and family backgrounds
different from their own.

b. Respect for Life/Nonviolence- Valuing of human life and refusal to respond to an

adversary or conflict situation with violence; preference for nonviolent processes
such as collaborative problem-solving and other positive techniques as against the
use of physical force and weapons.
2. Gender Equality- Valuing the rights of women to enjoy equal
opportunities with men to be free from abuse, exploitation and
violence.
3. Compassion - Sensitivity to the difficult conditions and suffering
of other people and acting with deep empathy and kindness toward
those who are marginalized/excluded.
4. Global Concern-Caring for the whole human community
transcending or going beyond the concern which they have for their
nation or local/ethnic community.
5. Ecological Concern- Caring for the natural environment, reference
for sustainable living and a simple lifestyle.
6. Cooperation- Valuing of cooperative processes and the principle
of working together toward the pursuit of common goals.
7. Openness/Tolerance- Openness to the processes of growth and
change as well as willingness to approach and receive other
people’s ideas, beliefs and experiences with a critical but open
mind; respecting the rich diversity of our world’s spiritual traditions,
cultures and forms of expression.
8. Justice- Acting with a sense of fairness towards others, upholding
the principle of equality (in dignity and rights) and rejection of all
forms of exploitation and oppression.
9. Social Responsibility- Willingness to take action to contribute to
the shaping of a society characterized by justice, nonviolence and
well-being; sense of responsibility toward present and future
generations.
10. Positive Vision- Imaging the kind of future they prefer with a
sense of hope and pursuing its realization in ways that they can.
Skills
1. Reflection- The use of reflective thinking or reasoning, through
which they deepen their understanding of themselves and their
connectedness to others and to the living earth.
2. Critical Thinking and Analysis- Ability to approach issues with an
open but critical mind; knowing how to research, question, evaluate
and interpret evidence; ability to recognize and challenge prejudices
and unwarranted claims as well as change opinions in the face of
evidence and rational arguments.
3. Decision-making- Ability to analyze problems, develop alternative
solutions, analyze alternative solutions considering advantages and
disadvantages, and having arrived at the preferred decision, ability
to prepare a plan for implementation of the decision.
Skills
4. Imagination- Creating and imagining new paradigms and new
preferred ways of living and relating.
5. Communication- Listening attentively and with empathy, as well
as the ability to express ideas and needs clearly and in a non-
aggressive way.
6. Conflict Resolution- Ability to analyze conflicts in an objective
and systematic way and to suggest a range of nonviolent solutions.
Conflict resolution skills include appropriate assertiveness, dialogue,
active listening and collaborative problem solving. Communication
skills are important foundational skills in conflict resolution.
Skills
7. Empathy- The ability to see the perspective of another person or
group and to feel what that person or group feels. It is a skill that
helps in broadening the learner’s own perspectives especially in the
search of fair and constructive analysis.
8.Group Building- Working cooperatively with one another in order
to achieve common goals. Cooperation and group-building are
facilitated by mutual affirmation and encouragement by the
members. The assumption is that everyone has something to
contribute, everyone is part of the solution.
“Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers,
quietly building new structure.”

-John F. Kennedy -
 End of Presentation……

Let’s do our best for

PEACE!!!!!
Betty A. Reardon
• Betty A. Reardon (born 12 June 1929)
• founder and director of the Peace Education Center and Peace
Education Graduate Degree Program at
Teachers College, Columbia University.
• leader in peace education and a scholar in human rights education at
the primary and secondary levels.[1][2][3][4][5]
• considered part of the "pioneering generation of women in peace studies
" because of her efforts to highlight the dominance of "white haired wise
men" in the field, and her desire to make women’s ideas and issues a
central part of the debate on world peace. [6]
• Her publications comprise over 300 works in a number of subject areas
including: peace studies, peace education, human rights, gender, and
ecology.