Education for Peace and International Understanding

Abstract

The interrelated areas of education for peace and education for international understanding are subsets of the broader area of values education (see Values Education in A Changing World), alongside other subsets such as, moral education; education for justice, equity and freedom; civics and citizenship education; education for democracy and human rights; and education for conflict resolution. Education for peace links closely with another area of educational inquiry, that of school violence and bullying (see Bullying in Schools). The two share a number of common goals and teaching strategies, including peace building through peer mediation, conflict resolution and the development of interpersonal harmony. Education for international understanding links closely with education for crossor inter-cultural understanding. While both focus on the exploration of social, political and cultural differences between nations, the latter also can include the study of cultural and social differences within a nation state, with the aim of building national harmony and cohesion. The interrelations between education for peace and education for international understanding require clarification. The former is a broader concept that encompasses the latter. Most writers assume that education for international or cross-cultural understanding is one of the key avenues for the promotion of peace. While this seems a logical assumption we are not aware of any empirical evidence to support it, at least in the Asia-Pacific region. Nevertheless we will accept the assumption, and from here on use ‘peace education’ as an inclusive term that includes education for international understanding.