Peace Education Programs Research Articles

The power of narratives and the limitations of peace education programs

The power of narratives and the limitations of peace education programs

The transformative imperative: the National Peace Academy as an emergent framework for comprehensive peace education

Betty Reardon’s Comprehensive Peace Education: Educating for Global Responsibility, authored in 1988, has influenced many educators in their efforts to shape and transform education for peace. In the time since this seminal work was authored, few models of comprehensive peace education have emerged. This article, drawn from reflections and observations of the development and design of a comprehensive peace education program framework at the National Peace Academy (NPA), concludes that there are five essential elements that contribute to a transformative imperative and which may be adaptable to other contexts and conditions in which educators are seeking to develop comprehensive peace education. The transformative imperative, in the context of comprehensive peace education, seeks to facilitate transformations in worldviews, attitudes, behaviors, institutions, and social, political and ecological relations toward the reduction and elimination of all forms of violence and the nurturance of a culture of peace. The elements that comprise the anatomy of NPA’s approach may also be looked at as a peace system. These five foundational elements are: (1) strong, ethical foundations that are framed as inquiry and open to change; (2) transparently identified social purposes; (3) an intentionally transformative peacelearning pedagogy and peacelearning processes; (4) holistically presented knowledge and skills; and (5) transformative oriented outcomes.

Peace education: an impact assessment of a case study of UNESCO-APCEIU and the university for peace

Each year the Asia-Pacific centre of education for international understanding (APCEIU), operating under the auspices of UNESCO, hosts a peace education training-of-trainer’s program for teacher-educators from Asia-Pacific member states. In this paper, I examine through a qualitative case study approach the programmatic design and evaluation of the APCEIU training program, seeking to monitor its medium-term impact on educators in order to understand the broader implications of peace education training. Research findings are based on consultation records, documentary analysis, observations, and questionnaire responses from participants of the 2009 peace education training program. In the medium-term impact assessment report, 14 educators offered data pertaining to their post-program implementation of peace education concepts and practices into their work. Data was also collected from several participants two years later to continue monitoring progress. These results are further compared to impact data gathered from eight graduates of the University for Peace. Findings indicate that among the 23 educators who participated in the study all have gone on to develop peace education programs or policies in their home countries.

School-based Peace Education Programs: An International Showcase

School-based Peace Education Programs: An International Showcase

Environmental Education to Promote Peace and Cooperation: A Case Study of Tree Nurseries in Nakuru, Kenya

This field report describes a peace education program in the Nakuru district of Kenya that focuses on environmental education through tree nurseries. The peace clubs introduced tree nurseries as a way of equipping children to take care of their environment. The interaction required to maintain these nurseries strengthens these relationships and promotes cooperation. By planting and caring for tree nurseries, children are able to express their commitment to their community and to the lasting health of their environment.

Environmental Education to Promote Peace and Cooperation: A Case Study of Tree Nurseries in Nakuru, Kenya

This field report describes a peace education program in the Nakuru district of Kenya, focusing on environmental education tree nurseries. The peace clubs introduced tree nurseries as a way of equipping children to take care of their environment. The interaction required to maintain these nurseries strengthens these relationships and promotes cooperation. By planting and caring for tree nurseries, children are able to express their commitment to their community and to the lasting health of their environment.

Harvesting Social Change: a peace education program in three acts

This article narrates the story of how a peace education program, over the course of a year, shifts from a more traditional form of peace education as conflict resolution skill building to a critical form of peace education. The path of this journey was neither straight nor direct; rather it meandered through an iteration of itself that actually produced another form of violence among its educators. Thus, in this one-case study, three different forms of peace education are observed – a traditional form, an ‘unpeaceable’ form, and a critical form. Building on Noddings’ notions of care, Freire’s notion of critical consciousness and Bajaj’s and Brantmeier’s complementing notions of a critical peace education, the author argues that it is not until the program identifies a space where youth and the facilitator can be vulnerable in meaningful dialog, that the program becomes critical. As the data from this activist research project show, it is in these dialogs that youth have the opportunity to make sense of the direct and structural violence inflicted on them and come to a critical consciousness that makes possible responsible social action.

A plea for improved education about ‘the Other' in Israel and Palestine

This study outlines the current and recent ‘state of play’ in Israeli and Palestinian schools concerning the education of students about ‘the Other’. This is seen to be far from satisfactory. An examination of the complexities involved in learning about ‘the Other’ and of education programmes in other countries that have been afflicted by internal conflict show the need for a properly developed peace education programme to be developed in Israel and Palestine if real peace in the region is to be promoted.

What do students learn when we teach peace? A qualitative assessment of a theater peace program

This is a qualitative assessment of a theater arts peace education program for high-school students. We present the results of qualitative interviews with students who participated in a peace education program. They tell us in their own words what they believe they learned. Given that most peace education evaluation is quantitative or focuses on the views of teachers and administrators, giving space to the voices of the students themselves remains essential. We present the results of qualitative interviews with students who participated in a peace education program. They tell us in their own words what they believe they learned. Given that most peace education evaluation is quantitative or focuses on the views of teachers and administrators, giving space to the voices of the students themselves remains essential.

Analyzing peace pedagogies

Eleven articles on peace education published in the first volume of the Journal of Peace Education are analyzed. This selection comprises peace education programs that have been planned or carried out in different contexts. In analyzing peace pedagogies as proposed in the 11 contributions, we have chosen network analysis as our method – enabling the categorization and visualization of qualitative data on differing content and forms preferences. In the analysis, our purpose is to visualize how the authors relate their arguments for specific content and form preferences to peace education. Before and after the empirical analysis of content and form preferences in the 11 peace education programs, a theoretical model is briefly introduced in which the interrelations not only between contents and forms are highlighted but also the interrelations between contents, forms and contextual conditions.

Contributing to the debates on quality

I am pleased to introduce the December 2011 issue of Prospects, which brings together research articles on topics as seemingly varied as selective teacher attention and student achievement, girls’ performance in primary education, in-service teacher development for rural teachers, links between higher education and the labour market, and international education and peace and human rights education. Although this is not a special issue with a specific topic, these articles do share an underlying focus on improving the quality of education in various ways. The authors move the research agenda forward with respect to quality by presenting evidence, analyses, and contextual differences that highlight key policy challenges today. They do this by raising attention to girls’ performance progress in the EFA Fast Track Initiative (FTI) countries (the poorest countries where it is hardest to achieve the EFA goals); by questioning the pervasive effect of teacher inattention that marginalizes the poorer performing students when it should seek the opposite; by pointing at the need to develop more sophisticated measures of teacher capacity, such as knowledge of subject matter in studies of teachers’ effect on achievement; and by highlighting the need for curriculum changes in higher education in countries like Egypt and Oman, to address the mismatch between education credentials and employment requirements. A second set of articles directly addresses the relevance of quality in content, thus focusing on UNESCO’s core mission: ‘‘building peace in the minds of men and women’’. They do this in three ways. One considers dilemmas in the integration of human rights values within peace education programmes in conflict and post-conflict societies. Another conducts a discourse analysis of the 1974 UNESCO Recommendation concerning Education for International Understanding, Co-operation and Peace and Education relating to Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, recognizing its full force today as an international normative guide that was collectively constructed and therefore allows politically, economically, and culturally different actors to find their own solutions based on their own

Peace and human rights education: Dilemmas of compatibility and prospects for moving forward

This article addresses the dilemmas emerging from efforts to integrate human rights values within a peace education programme being carried out in a conflict situation. Although the article is largely theoretical, it is grounded in the author’s reflections on a series of teacher workshops and his overall experiences conducting ethnographic research on issues of human rights and peace education in conflict and post-conflict situations, especially in his home country, Cyprus. The article outlines several interpretations and critiques of the human rights framework, offers an overview of human rights education and peace education, and then discusses two dilemmas that emerge from efforts to integrate human rights values within peace education programmes. Finally, it argues that an approach to human rights that is based on values and oriented towards praxis, with an emphasis on cross-cutting principles such as non-discrimination and equality, could perhaps be more compatible with peace education efforts.

Four major challenges facing peace education in regions of intractable conflict.

Although peace education all over the world faces numerous challenges, such as conflicting collective narratives, historical memories, contradictory beliefs, and severe inequalities, there are additional challenges that transcend content and method. Four such major challenges that pertain to the very core of peace education are discussed: (a) the creation of a “ripple effect” whereby the impact of peace education programs spreads to wider social circles of society; (b) increasing the endurance of desired program effects in light of their easy erosion; (c) the need for differential programs given the differences in culture and in the role that each adversary plays in a conflict; and (d) the need to find ways to bridge between general dispositions, principles, and values and their application in specific situations where competing motivations are dominant. I argue that the four major challenges are also common to other kinds of programs, such as human rights, antiracism, and tolerance.

Religion as a basis for dialogue in peace education programs

Religion could play a positive role in intergroup relations. However, this potential is usually overlooked and religion is often perceived as divisive and polarizing, perhaps even a source of intergroup conflict. This study examined religion as a possible tool for achieving positive intergroup encounters. A randomized control trial research design was used to study the contribution of religion to the enhancement of positive relations between Jewish and Arab high school students in Israel. The 255 eleventh‐grade students were randomly assigned into three groups: encounters based on religious content, encounters based on social content, and a control group. Findings revealed that the religion‐based intervention was more effective than the social‐based one, which merely slowed down the deteriorating relationships between the groups. The results suggest that religion can serve as a common denominator for different national and social groups and be used for enhancing tolerance and understanding between conflict groups.

Cooperative learning: a dialogic approach to constructing a locally relevant peace education programme for Bougainville

Bougainville is a post‐conflict society where armed violence ceased in 2001. For Bougainville to sustain a peaceful future, its development must be based upon politically, economically, socially and ecologically just practices. A peace education curriculum is one way through which this goal could be achieved. Consequently this paper describes how local education stakeholders were involved in a dialogic process of curriculum development with peace academics from Australia. This collaborative process was facilitated by the adoption of active, cooperative learning strategies to develop a locally relevant peace curriculum, which could be integrated into the school curriculum and used by civil society organisations. This paper reports on the first and second phases (in more detail) of a three‐phase project where a workshop of community stakeholders produced themes that they viewed as important for peace in Bougainville. The first phase of the project considered the ‘what’ and ‘why’ aspects of a peace education curriculum and these themes were developed and prioritised by community stakeholders, thus facilitating the identification of relevant content, skills and values for the peace education project. Phase 2 progressed on to examine ‘how’ to approach the teaching of peace, which entailed an exploration of cooperative learning structures and processes used to enhance discussion and collaborative decision‐making among participants. Process, an equally important facet of curriculum development, has been addressed explicitly. Ultimately, it is argued that a locally generated peace curriculum will prove more sustainable as educators and community members will have ownership of it due to their active participation in its design.

Durability of peace education effects in the shadow of conflict

Value-oriented instructional programs, such as anti-racism, may often face societal barriers. A case in point are peace education programs in conflictual contexts. Close analysis of peace education programs in regions of conflict and tension suggest that they face formidable barriers that would appear to prevent the attainment of their goals of mutual legitimization, changed attitudes and empathy. However, positive research findings suggest otherwise. A possible solution of this contradiction is the distinction between strongly held and not easily changeable attitudes and beliefs, called “convictions” (Abelson, American Psychologist 43: 267–275 1988) and more regular attitudes. Possibly, the barriers facing peace education may pertain to convictions while the positive impact of peace education may pertain to less strongly held attitudes and beliefs. The present study examined the possible differential changes in more or less central beliefs when Israeli Jewish and Israeli Palestinian youth participated in a year long, school-based peace education program. This study also examined the durability of the program’s effects on the 956 adolescent study participants divided into program and no-program controls. Findings showed that such a peace education program can effectively influence adolescents’ more peripheral beliefs but not the core beliefs that stand in the center of the groups’ collective narratives. However, peripheral beliefs that are more easily affected can as easily change back, apparently by the context of adverse social and political forces.

Peace Education in Canada: Teacher Perceptions of the Cultivating Peace Education Program

Many Muslims, Arabs, and other minority communities in Canada experienced the backlash of the September 11, 2001 events. Although these groups were discriminated against in a number of institutions, Muslim children in secondary schools in particular experienced different types of discrimination and violence. In order to help reduce incidents of discrimination in schools, with the help of academics at the Ontario Institute for Studies of Education (OISE), the Classroom Connections (non-for profit organization) developed a peace education program, the Cultivating Peace. Using qualitative methods, this paper examines the perceptions of teachers who used the Cultivating Peace program. Four themes emerged from the data collected for this research: flexibility, utility, relevance, and challenges. The findings reveal that educators believe the Cultivating Peace program promotes a culture of peace in Canada. Teachers find the Cultivating Peace flexible in that it fits well in the curriculum. In particular, teachers believe the program fits well in a social science and humanities curriculum. In addition, educators perceive the program is useful in teaching conflict resolution, communication, and problem-solving skills. They also find that the Cultivating Peace program is relevant to students’ lives because it teaches values that promote a culture of peace. Teachers mentioned two major challenges: lack of time and distribution problems.

Gender differences in peace education programmes

Peace education programmes have become part of the school curriculum all over the world, as a way to enhance positive relationships between conflict groups. However, although gender differences are being taken into account when planning various educational programmes, this is usually not the case with peace education. The present study aimed to reveal gender differences regarding peace and peace pedagogy. One hundred and eighty Israeli Jewish and Arab high school students participated in a peace contact education programme. Gender and group differences were examined both before and after participation in the programme. The findings revealed that the Jewish and Arab female youths were more dovish than the males both before and after participating in the programme, and gained more from the encounters. Implications for conflict resolution and peace pedagogy are discussed.

Towards a sustainable and holistic model of peace education: a critique of conventional modes of peace education through dialogue in Israel

This article explores ways of improving peace education, placing emphasis on peace education programmes in Israel that use dialogue to foster mutual understanding and respect. This article offers a critical assessment of contemporary Israeli peace education initiatives, emphasizing that current peace education programmes in Israel have failed to significantly improve social attitudes between Arabs and Jews. Critiques of contemporary forms of peace education focus on their psychological and social contexts, and the ways in which the framing of peace education has substantive impacts on the likelihood of its success and its sustainability. Emphasis is placed on the importance of incorporating affective rather than primarily cognitive models for promoting coexistence; the importance of pursuing long‐term peace education programming rather than the predominant short‐term ‘encounter group’ model; and the need for a comprehensive social and political approach to peace education that extends beyond schools and embraces society as a whole.

Living peace: an exploration of experiential peace education, conflict resolution and violence prevention programs for youth

The authors review the types of experiential peace education programs available to teens in the US and provide a classification guide for educators, parents, other concerned adults and teens who may be interested in developing conflict, peace and/or violence prevention knowledge, skills and attitudes. The authors identify experiential programs in the US and the tools that are effectively achieving peace education, violence prevention and conflict resolution objectives. They conclude by offering an explanation of the orientation, mission and activities in each type of program and explain the contributions each program makes towards the goal of experiential peace education.