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W.W. Akaamaa: The Role of Education in Building a Culture of Peace
Written by Engr. Williams Wonovsuwe Akaamaa, College of Agriculture Lafia, Nasarawa State, Nigeria
Sunday, September 22, 2013
THE ROLE OF EDUCATION IN BUILDING A CULTURE OF PEACE: INTER-FAITH HARMONY, NATIONAL INTEGRATION AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
BY ENGR. WILLIAMS WONOVSUWE AKAAMAA,
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING, SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY, COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE LAFIA,
NASARAWA STATE, NIGERIA
UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE, ABUJA, NIGERIA, SEPTEMBER 21, 2013
This paper examines the role of peace education as it centers on conflict resolution typically on the social-behavioral symptoms of conflict, training individuals to resolve interpersonal disputes through interfaith, harmony, national integration techniques of negotiation and (peer) mediation. The paper addresses key issues like, learning to manage anger, “fight fair,” improve communication through skill such as listening, turn-taking identifying needs, and separating facts from emotions, constitute the main trust of this paper. Participants are also encouraged to take responsibility for their actions to brainstorm together on ideas especially as listed in the recommendations.
INTRODUCTION
Peace education has to do with the process of acquiring values, knowledge and developing the attitudes, skills and behaviors to live in harmony with oneself, with others and the natural environment.
There are numerous United Nations declarations on the importance of peace education in an effort to refocus minds and financing on the preeminence of peace education as the means to bring about a culture of peace.
Koichiro Matsuura, the immediate past director general of UNESCO, has written on peace education as being of fundamental importance to the mission of UNESCO and the United Nations. It is our argument in this paper that youth have energy, enthusiasm and ability to transform their lives and help make the world a better place in which to live if only they have peace education.
Peace education is not just about what happens in school; it is not about what you need to know to memorize to please the teacher. Peace education is about how you can help make your world a more peaceful place to live.
The inclusion of youth in peace building initiatives brings vibrancy and creativity to peace building efforts. The year 2000 has been declared by the United Nations as the international year for building the culture of peace and it is the first year in the international decade for the culture of peace and non-violence for the children of the world. The United Nations is encouraging young people to participate in the process of building peace. In September 1999, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) stated: “Young people are the present; their involvement is necessary for human development and sustainability. The strongest demand expressed today by the young people themselves is that of participation.”
They want to be considered as full and equal citizens. Young people are capable of assuming responsibility, determining roles in the society. They need only to be given the opportunity and guidance to prove their ability. They deserve to be consulted and involved in all aspects of social participation.
They can be serious and reliable partners in the conception, planning and implementation of policies and programs in their communities and societies. Young people have much to say about societal problems and potential remedies as others do. Taking into account of their concerns and suggestions will be beneficial for all. Young people should play a role in decision-making and be given opportunity to make meaningful imputes.
Our argument in this paper is that peace education should promote the participation of youth or young people. Learning is not a passive process; it is an active experience and it begins with you.
The victory over violence (VOV) initiatives hope to inspire young people throughout the world to identify and counter act the root causes of violence in their lives, homes, schools and local communities through awareness, introspection, individual empowerment and a courageous and creative commitment to dialogue. This position is very central to this paper. Believing that youth offer creative energy and active potential for the transformation of violent conflicts in the world and believing that education can be a process for nurturing cultures of peace or war. Peace educators maintain that practitioners have a responsibility to dialogue with youth on knowledge, values, skills and behaviors conducive to fostering global harmony and social justice. Peace is described as the absence of physical and structural violence and the presence of justice; therefore, people should explore the root causes of conflict, know international humanitarian and human right laws, envision alternative structures of security and learn skills for managing micro/macro conflict without violence.
Accordingly, the goal of this paper is to highlight education as an instrument for bringing about social justice, where youth are involved in the transformation of society and the construction of peaceful futures.
WHAT IS PEACE EDUCATION
The growing literature on peace education reflects a dynamic field. Harris (2004) divided peace education into 5 categories: international education, development education, environmental education, human right education and resolution education.
Peace education as a practice in schools is attributed to Maria Montessori, John Dewey and Paulo Freire, though earlier thought on education for peace is traced to Erasmus and Socrates, among other scholars.
Montessori worked to foster peace in three interrelated levels, the individual community and globe. The individual level relates to person-centered awareness of the self (i.e., body, mind, emotions and spirit) whereas the community level refers to interpersonal relations i.e. trust, openness and interdependence and the global level concerns, cultural and environmental consciousness (Montessori 1949). Dewey informed peace education through his work on the relationship between education and democracy, stating that one of education is to foster active citizenship through the participation in processes of democracy (Dewey 1916, Freire 1970) centered education on revealing systems of oppression, particularly through the exploration of language and identity.
In practice, peace education attempts to build in every person the universal values and behaviors on which a culture of peace is predicted, including the development of non-violent conflict resolution skill and a commitment to working together to realize a shared and preferred future.
Reardon (2001) defined violence as “avoidable, intentional harm initiated for a purpose of perceived advantage of the perpetrator or of those who, while not direct perpetrators are however advantaged by the harm.” Education for peace raises dialogue on critical issues as the heat of the community in order to transform oppressive system for a violent orientation toward a culture of peace.
Peace education includes the cultivation of peace building skills, e.g., dialogue, mediation, artistic endeavors. Peace educators, then teach the value of respect, understanding and non violence, present skills for analyzing international conflict, educate for alternative security systems and use a pedagogy that is democratic and participator. Thus, peace education as a practice and philosophy refers to matching complementary element between education and society, where the social purpose (i.e., why teach), educative process are conducive to fostering peace. Accordingly, peace education is dialogical experience conducted through participatory learning, where learners communally and cooperatively grapple with contemporary issues (i.e., talking points) related to local and global contexts.
PEACE IS NOT NAÏVE AND IMPOSSIBLE
Peace should not be perceived as a silent and non-confrontational, peace is dynamic, active and is overt with its intention to confront, understand and resist violence. Yet because peace education is clear with its objectives, it is not a process of indoctrination – “conflict is man-made therefore peace must be made to happen (uhemba 2013) when this is put into practice it creates a range of thought and perspectives for cultural understanding, non-violent communication and conflict management. Youths begin to see old events, experiences and structures in a new light. They begin to question their previous assumption and values. The dialogue and reflection is grounded in politics and political theories of educators, political scientists, environmentalists, practitioners and philosophers, such as John Dewey (1916), Maria Montessori (1949) Paulo Freire (1970) Immanuel Kant (2005/1795) Kenneth and Elise Boulding (1988) David Bohm (1996) Betty Reardon (1988, 2001) and Vandana (2005).
PEACE EDUCATION FRAMEWORKS: THE CONTENT OF PEACE EDUCATION
There are several peace education frameworks. Two of these frame works highlight peace education content as the exploration of root causes of conflict, knowing international humanitarians and human right law, envisioning alternative structures of security and learning skills for managing micro/macro conflict without resorting to violence.
They are then learning to abolish war models (Reardon and Cabezudo 2002) and flower petal model of peace education.
The learning to abolish model emphasizes four strands of learning;
- Root causes of conflict
- International law
- Conflict management
- Global disarmament, which are summarized below;
This framework is particularly concerned with the role of international law in maintaining global justice, the construction of peace building mechanism and the formation of personal lifestyles and behaviors conducive to fostering a culture of peace. It relies on an exploration of what constitutes peace, dialogue at the intersection of identifying violence and as a process of re-defining human security in terms of needs and social welfare.
The flower-petal model of peace education sees a culture of peace as a set of values, attitudes, traditions, modes of behavior and ways of life based on respect for life, ending of violence and promotion of the practice of non-violence through education, dialogue and cooperation; promotions of freedom and all the fundamental human rights. Commitment to peaceful settlement of conflicts, effort to meet the development and environmental needs of present and future generation, respect for and promotion of equal right and opportunities for women and men (UN 1999).
RECOMMENDATION
I recommended an action plan for reflection below:
Fostering a culture of peace through education.
Is there a conflict prevention and resolution trainings program at your school?
Promoting sustainable social and economic development.
What steps can you start taking today to help safeguard the future of our planet?
Promoting respect for all as a human right.
Do you think violence in movies and televisions affect children? Is there anything you can do about violence in the media?
Ensuring equality between women and men.
What are some examples in your community of ways that women are not equal to men? Do you believe that women have a special role in creating a culture of peace? Why?
Fostering democratic participation.
Do schools in your area teach democratic citizenship? What can you do to help children learn responsibility?
Advancing understanding, tolerance and solidarity.
Do you have friends from other countries or cultures? What are you doing to fight prejudice and stereotyping?
Supporting participatory communication and the free flow of information and knowledge.
Do you know to access the internet on a computer? What could you do to help people in poorer communities get the equipment and the knowledge that you have?
Promoting international peace and security.
What are you doing to promote peace? UNESCO has educational resources for many of these action areas.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, peace education as a practice aims to confront and resist violence to transform societies toward culture of peace. Peace education focuses both on education about peace and education for peace while addressing the knowledge, values, skills and behaviors needed to nurture a peace culture. The content of peace education include knowledge of peace movements, peacemakers, negative and positive, peace, direct and indirect violence, peace as an active process, human right and responsibility word views and ideologies, non-violent communication community and dialogues. This includes negotiation and mediation practice, journaling, reflection circles and alternative futures exercises.
REFERENCES
Boulding, E. (1988) Building a Global Civic Culture; Education for an Independent World. New York Teachers College Press
Dewey, J. (1916) Education and Democracy. New York: Free Press
Freire, J. (1970) Pedagogy of Oppressed. New York: Continuum Publishing
Galtung, J. (1969) "Violence, Peace and Research." Journal of Peace Research 6 (3): 167-191.
Galtung, J. (1996) Peace by Peaceful Means: Peace and Conflict Development and Civilization. London: SAZE
Harris I. and Morrison, M. L. (2003). Peace Education, 2nd Ed. Jefferson, NC: Mcfarlano
Harris I. (2004) "Peace Education Theory." Journal of Peace Education 1(1) 5-20
Jenkins T. (2007) "Community Based Institutes on Peace Education." CIPE Organizers Manual. New York: IIPE