Design Considerations for Peace Education Curriculum

Abstract

This paper explores the uniqueness of peace education and how that impacts on the design of the curriculum to teach it. It raises the need for teachers and curriculum specialists to approach peace education a little differently from most of the disciplinary contents. Whereas most academic disciplines are analytical and aim to understand the way things are, peace education aims at changing the world once it is understood. These differential emphases between disciplinary content and peace education re-echo familiar tensions between two competing orientations in curriculum design. One that puts the content of a new or revised course at the heart of curriculum design, and the other that focuses on changes in how students view the world and how they behave. While arguing that designing peace education curriculum should lean towards the latter orientation, the paper also acknowledges that many of those who have responsibilities of developing this curriculum are non-education specialists who would be more interested in practical guidance on how to plan for and bring about desirable changes in students’ behaviours that promote lasting peace. Using key questions as a guide, the paper guides participants through the curriculum design process proposed in ‘Bones model’.