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PEACE EDUCATION

IV. LESSON PROPER

LET’S BEGIN!

PEACE EDUCATION
Peace education is the process of acquiring the
values, the knowledge and developing the attitudes, skills,
and behaviors to live in harmony with oneself, with others,
and with the natural environment.

FORMS OF PEACE EDUCATION

Conflict resolution training

Peace education programs centered on
conflict resolution typically focus on the social-
behavioural symptoms of conflict, training
individuals to resolve inter-personal disputes
through techniques of negotiation and (peer)
mediation. Learning to manage anger, "fight fair"
and improve communication through skills such
as listening, turn-taking, identifying needs, and
separating facts from emotions, constitute the
main elements of these programs. Participants
are also encouraged to take responsibility for their
actions and to brainstorm together on
compromises
Democracy education
Peace education programs centered on democracy education typically focus on the
political processes associated with conflict, and postulate that with an increase in democratic
participation the likelihood of societies resolving conflict through violence and war decreases.
Justice education
Education for justice is the process of promoting the rule of law (RoL) through educational
activities at all levels. Education for justice teaches the next generation about crime prevention,
and to better understand and address problems that can undermine the rule of law. It promotes
peace and encourages students to actively engage in their communities and future professions
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Human rights education
Peace education programs centered on raising awareness of human rights typically focus
at the level of policies that humanity ought to adopt in order to move closer to a peaceful global
community. The aim is to engender a commitment among participants to a vision of structural
peace in which all individual members of the human race can exercise their personal freedoms and
be legally protected from violence, oppression and indignity.
Worldview transformation
Some approaches to peace education start from insights gleaned from psychology which
recognize the developmental nature of human psychosocial dispositions. Essentially, while conflict-
promoting attitudes and behaviours are characteristic of earlier phases of human development,
unity-promoting attitudes and behaviours emerge in later phases of healthy development. H.B.
Danesh (2002a, 2002b, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008a, 2008b)

Aims of Peace Education

• To help students understand some of the complex processes leading to violence and
conflict at the individual, group, national and global levels, and be aware of some of the ways in
which these conflict may be resolved.
• To encourage attitudes that lead to a preference for constructive and non-violent resolution
of conflict.
• To assist students in developing the personal and social skills necessary to live in harmony
with others and to behave in positive and caring ways that respect the basic human right.
• To develop human learning communities in which students and teacher are encouraged to
work together cooperatively to understand and find resolution to significant problems.
• To respect the diversities and disparities of culture at national and international level.

The Principles and Theoretical Foundations of Peace Education Programs

Since the psychologist Gordon Allport formulated his well-known contact hypothesis in 1954, this
theoretical framework became the most applicable principle for programs whose main goal is to change
the relationships between groups in conflict. According to Allport's theory, for the intergroup contact to
be successful and accomplish positive changes in attitudes and behavior, it must fulfill four basic
conditions: the contact groups must be of equal status, the contact must be personal and manifold, the
groups must depend on each other working for a superordinate goal, and there must be institutional
support for the equality norm. The numerous re-search projects that tried to verify the predictions of the
contact hypothesis provided contradictory results, raising serious doubts about the major cognitive,
affective, and behavioral shifts that occur as a result of organized meetings between representatives of
conflicting groups. Almost every new study added new conditions that must be fulfilled in order for the
contact to be successful.
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Even if there is a positive change in the attitude toward members of the outgroup in direct contact,
there is a question of the generalization of the newly formed attitude to the other members of the
outgroup. The key problem of peace education is not the interpersonal conflict but the collective conflict
between groups, races, nations, or states. Therefore, the issue of transferring the positive attitudes
toward members of other groups–attitudes achieved in safe environments such as classrooms,
schools, workshops, and the like–to all members of the outgroup and all other outgroups remains the
pivotal issue of peace education. Children learn about peace and the need for peace in safe protected
environments and then return to a wider society where there is still injustice, asymmetry of power, a
hierarchical structure, discrimination, and xenophobia. Therefore, each program for peace education
must not only strengthen the capacity of an individual for critical thinking but also strengthen the
individual's ability to resist the majority, if the majority is one that discriminates. As stated by Ervin
Staub in 1999, for change to happen and spread there is a need for a minimum mass of people who
share attitudes, a culture in which they can express those attitudes, and a society that accepts the
attitudes.
Based on the contact hypothesis, a very successful technique was developed for improving the
relations among groups, highly applicable as a general teaching and learning method. It is the
cooperative learning technique in which a smaller group of student’s study in face-to-face interaction,
cooperating to complete a common task. This technique was very successful both in lower and higher
grades of elementary school, not only as a teaching method but also for creating a positive atmosphere
in the classroom, reinforcing student’s relationships, and creating intergroup friendships.
On the other hand, based on the idea that adopting knowledge and developing skills is the basis
for gaining positive attitudes and behavior, intercultural training programs were also developed. These
basically involve a group of techniques that accept the primary notion that differences between cultures
are what lead to misunderstandings and conflicts between groups. Such programs assume that
information about the values, customs, and practices of the members of a different culture contributes
to better understanding of others, thereby reducing prejudices, negative stereotypes, and tensions
between people who belong to different cultures. Research has shown that ignorance about others
plays a significant role in the development and perpetuation of prejudices. Educating students about
both cultural similarities and differences is a significant factor in reducing prejudice.

Peace Education Discrepancies: Individual, Group Conflict

In the active process of achieving positive peace, peace education is faced with a few basic
discrepancies: discrepancy between the individual and the group, discrepancy between groups within
one society or from different societies, and the discrepancy of conflict as an imbalance of different
interests that need to be resolved without violence.
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Discrepancies between individual and group.
The modern liberal theory puts the individual's equality, values, and rights in the center of a
successfully functioning society. This basic thesis is the beginning of the philosophy and practical
protection of human rights. From the individual psychological point of view one thinks in terms of
educating a complete person. In the educational system this does not mean transmitting only the facts,
but it includes the complete social, emotional, and moral development of an individual; the
development of a positive self-concept and positive self-esteem; and the acquisition of knowledge and
skills to accept responsibility for one's own benefit as well as for the benefit of society. The
development of a positive self-concept is the foundation for the development of sympathy for others
and building trust, as well as the foundation for developing awareness of interconnectedness with
others. In that sense a social individual is a starting point and a final target of peace education efforts.

Discrepancies between groups.

People are by nature social beings, fulfilling their needs within society. Many social psychologists
believe that there is a basic tendency in people to evaluate groups they belong to as more valuable
than groups they do not belong to. This in-group bias is the foundation of stereotypes, negative feelings
toward outgroups, prejudices, and, finally, discrimination. In the psychological sense, the feeling of an
individual that his or her group is discriminated against, or that he or she as an individual is
discriminated against just for belonging to a particular group, leads to a sense of deep injustice and a
desire to rectify the situation. Injustice and discrimination do not shape only the psychological world of
an individual but also shape the collective world of the group that is discriminated against–shaping the
group memory that is transmitted from generation to generation and that greatly influences the
collective identity. Belonging to a minority group that is discriminated against could have a series of
negative consequences on the psychological and social functioning of its members, for example,
leading to lower academic achievement or negatively influencing the self-concept and self-esteem.
Therefore, peace education is dealing with key elements of individual and group identity formed by
historical and cultural heritage, balancing the values of both of these, and trying to teach people how to
enjoy their own rights without endangering the rights of others, and especially how to advocate for the
rights of others when such rights are threatened. This motivating element of defense and advocating
for the rights of others is the foundation of shared responsibility for the process of building peace.
Three Harmony of Peace Education
To be in harmony with yourself you have to:
 Tune the details of your life to what you want.
 You need to have goals and wishes and they must be yours.
 You must feel good, therefore you must eat good, do sports, have friends and have some
fun in life.
 If something is wrong in one area of your life, there will be an imbalance and you will feel
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uncomfortable. Find out what it is and do something about it.
Many people live with an imbalance to which they have become accustomed. They are astonished
that they become ill. Often they get a chronic illness which often results from this imbalance. In such a
case one has to examine all areas of life and remove imbalances. If you are ill there is a reason which
you have to find.
Live in Harmony with Others:
Living with harmony with others is easier said than done, especially in a world filled with conflict,
catastrophes, and differing opinions. You may struggle to feel in sync with people close to you and with
society at large. Start by connecting with friends, family, partners, and neighbors. Focus on dealing with
any disharmony in your life in a generous, compassionate way and giving back to people in your
community. Make sure you also maintain your own personal sense of harmony, as this will help you feel in
sync with others.
 Connecting with Others
 Overcoming Differences and Disagreements
 Giving Back to Others
 Maintaining Your Own Sense of Harmony

Being in harmony with the environment

means to cherish what the environment provides us. Because we have unlimited desire yet few
resources, the destruction we cause now will have a long term, everlasting effect. And most of all, the
environment isn’t only for us humans but for all species on earth. And we only have one mother earth.
Everyone has desires, yet they’re unlimited. And because of these desires, humans take more and
more from the environment in order to improve living standards. Due to the fact that resources are
limited, the amount we want is just way too much for the environment to provide in time. If we don’t
cherish these resources, we wouldn’t have any more to use in the future.

We had just finished the discussion on Peace Education Let’s move on to the next higher
level of activity/ies or exercise/s that demonstrates your potential skills/knowledge of what you have
learned.