About Peace Education
A different approach to assessing the impact and the power of small programs.
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Do you like to write down New Year intentions, strategies, and commitments? Well, so do we each time we start a new independent Peace Education project.
We set new intentions, strategies, and commitments, exercise a lot of hope, and self-encouragement, and work hard to build, what nobody knows what exactly will become at the end.
Why we don´t know? Because the meaning of Peace and Education is individual, culturally, and education-oriented, so each outcome depends on all parties´ cultures, situations, states of mind, and flexibility. Each program is a world per se.
The schools, the scenarios, the participants, and the families, all play a central role in the big orchestra.
This is important to understand because here may be at the end the real value and power of small projects like the one AFS launched last year. The Rebuilding Peace study abroad program, that is shared by one student from Israel and another one from Gaza.
Let´s go back to Peace Education for a minute and explain what that means.
There is no consensus about the general meaning of peace. In the 1950s and 60s, the definition of peace was confined to the absence of war.
Then, the focus shifted to the role of the individual’s moral and ethical disposition and is now zeroed down to the ‘human values’ that guide the conduct of individuals.
According to Wikipedia Peace Education is the process of acquiring values, knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviors to live in harmony with oneself, others, and the natural environment.
I like this simple explanation because it includes “with oneself” and makes everyone doing serious inner-work, everyone taking care of their own harmony, a potential peace-maker.
Why is this so important?
Let´s imagine an orchestra with diverse instruments, where each instrument commits itself to making the best music it can, harmoniously. Let´s imagine a healthy body where the different organs, with their different duties, love what they are and do, and commit to work in harmony together. Would be nice, isn´t it?
We need here two factors, the education in inner work and the commitment to peace, to allow harmony. This is Peace Education in my opinion, and the work of the conductors.
Peace Education programs may be big or small, focus on looking good, or focus on doing good but all of them should be community-oriented and touch on Reflective Thinking and Tolerance on some extension, and avoid becoming simple indoctrination.
To become more tolerant means to keep an open mind, to eliminate negative stereotypes and prejudice, to learn about the contributions of people from different groups, to challenge biased views and attitudes, and to engage in thoughtful dialogue about controversial issues (Bullard, 1996; Vogt, 1997).
Remain open to alternative views, and experiential learning with an emphasis on skepticism, critical thinking, and creativity is a continuous learning process, for all parties involved.
Peace educators strive to provide insights into how to transform a culture of violence into a peaceful culture.
The curriculum on peace education, as developed by the UNHCR peace education program, which is now known as the Peace Education Programme of the Interagency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE), has in its content specific skills that help in promoting the ideas of peaceful living. These include:
- Understanding similarities and differences
- Active listening
- Better communication (two-way)
- Handling emotions
- Understanding that perceptions vary and avoiding bias
- Understanding others’ situations and feelings (empathy practice)
- Cooperation
- Appropriate assertiveness
- Problem analysis and problem-solving
- Negotiation
Having said that, Peace education in the practice looks sometimes a bit different, in content and tempo depending on where we focus.
Our focus is basically on helping participants (parties) on the Transformation Path and is here where the most powerful rival appears, our own mind and paradigm. Is easier to keep the things as they are, same values, same families, same friends, same enemies…this feels good! It feels known, it feels home, it feels familiar.
This is the reason is so important to be sure, that participants are willing, capable, and committed to taking the challenging path.
We mentioned The AFS Rebuilding Peace study abroad program, which engages students from extremely complicated and conflicted areas. In that program, the fact that it is a small one works as a fantastic opportunity to focus on the individual inner- work (from all parties) and on the whole group work, bringing hope (the cherry on top of peace education cakes) to the participants.
In Peace Education programs in general, sometimes, students report being frustrated, tired, and traumatized, not believing they can change a thing. They may see Peace Education goals as too big and impossible to achieve. (“A peace that is not supported by at least a majority of society will always be at risk of breaking down. Salomon-Cairns, 2010))
So, what should be done? Should we leave peace education and wait for the appearance of all the conditions for the development of programs?
The idea of Small Steps normally has a relaxing effect on the students. One step at a time, concentrate on the inner-work, improve yourself, and increase empathy in the small frame as a beginning.
So by setting new intentions, strategies, and commitments in the New Year and for new projects, I like to imagine duets, trios, or quartets, that learn to play the best they can to attune together, hopping we can be part of an enormous and harmonious orchestra one day.
And if not, I still love the small and powerful ensemble that shows what they can do and what is possible. For now.
Monica Shakéd Wasserbach, educator and founder of the Intercultural Communication Center.