Education for PeaceThe Pedagogy of Civilization

Prof. Dr. H.B. DaneshDirector and Founder

International Education for Peace InstituteSwitzerland

www.efpinternational.org

Toward a New Philosophy of Peace Education

Peace Education Curriculum Must Be Comprehensive Peace Education Requires Sustained, Restorative

Approach Peace Education Must Be Transformative Peace Educations Requires a New Approach to

Curriculum Peace Education Curriculum Must Be Integrative

Conceptual Foundations of the Education for Peace Program

The Integrative Theory of Peace The Integrative Theory of Peace states that peace is

a holistic and all-encompassing condition occurring within and between individuals, group and societies that is brought about through an educative, developmental shift in worldview consciousness, characterized by cognitive, emotive, and behavioral change, capable of meeting the fundamental tripartite human needs of survival, association, and transcendence.

Subtheories of the Integrative Theory of Peace

Subtheory 1: Peace is a psychosocial and political as well as moral and spiritual condition requiring a conscious approach, a universal outlook, and an integrated, unifying strategy;

Subtheories of the Integrative Theory of Peace

Subtheory 2: A comprehensive, integrated, and lifelong education is the most effective approach for a transformation from the metacategories of survival-based and identity-based worldviews to the metacategory of a unity-based worldview;

Subtheories of the Integrative Theory of Peace

Subtheory 3: Development of such a comprehensive condition of peace requires a cognitive, emotive, and behavioral change within the parameters of a unity-based worldview; and

Subtheories of the Integrative Theory of Peace

Subtheory 4: Only a dynamic, progressive, conscious, and all-inclusive state of peace resulting from a unity-based worldview is capable of meeting the fundamental and hierarchical tripartite human needs—survival, association, transcendence—which shape all human endeavors and life processes at both individual and collective levels.

Education for Peace Curriculum

Comprehensive biological, psychological, social, historical, ethical, and spiritual

Integrative biological, psychological, social, historical, ethical, and spiritual

All-inclusive students, teachers, administrators, the support staff, and parents

The culture of peace allows no exclusion.

Universal Oneness of Humanity, Unity in Diversity, Conflict-Free

Conflict Resolution

Specific Safeguarding and celebrating the rich diversity of the worldwide

human community

The Concept of Worldview

our view of reality, our understanding of human nature, our perspective on the purpose of life, our approach to all human relationships.

Types of Worldview

Survival-Based Worldview

Identity-Based Worldview

Unity-Based Worldview

Survival-Based Worldview normal during childhood, corresponds to the agrarian and pre-industrial

periods of societal development develops under conditions of poverty, injustice,

anarchy, physical threat, and war proclivity to use force and/or conformity authoritarian modes of governance

Identity-Based Worldview corresponds to the gradual coming of age of

both the individual and the society intensity of thoughts, passions, attitudes, actions extremes of competition and rivalry adversarial democracy modes of governance competitive power structure survival of the fittest

Unity-Based Worldview phase of maturity based on the consciousness

of the oneness of humanity ultimate objective to creation a civilization of

peace: equal, just, liberal, moral, diverse, united equal participation of women with men in the

administration of human society rejects all forms of prejudice and segregation unity-based democracy

Abuse of Worldview

positive aspects of human culture such as

religion, science, modes of government, technology, family structure, and business practices are all subject to abuse and misuse within both the survival-based and identity-based worldviews.

process of unity is accelerating: world-wide economic and financial integration nations uniting: UN, EU, AU environmental issues health crises HIV/AIDS,SARS, etc. information technology has obliterated national

boundaries transportation systems have reduced distances

and brought people together

In Brief

Everything points to the fact that humanity is one and that all countries are inseparable parts of one planet

Education for Peace Experiment in Bosnia and Herzegovina

September 1999: CFCR workshop invitation May 2002: Grant by Government of Luxembourg May 2002: 2-year pilot project starts: - Six schools, 3 primary, 3 secondary

- 6000 students, 400 teachers, 10,000 parents - Banja Luka, Sarajevo, Travnik (2 each)

- Serb, Bosniak, and Croat populations

Faculty for BiH-EFP Project Senior Faculty comprised of experts in:

education, psychiatry, psychology, law, political science, conflict resolution, sociology, peace, development

On-site Faculty comprised of: 18 teachers from the six participation schools & 6 individuals with specialization training in EFP

Yugoslavia 1980–1991 After the death of Tito, doctrine of Serb nationalism

promoted by Slobodan Milosevic became the dominant force in the former Yugoslavia and ultimately resulted in the eruption of a long and barbaric war.

In BiH, the barbaric war involved 12,000 war casualties in Sarajevo alone, the massacre of 6,000 men and boys of Srebrenica, The rape of thousands of Bosniak women, and the destruction of a significant portion of homes and public buildings including schools, hospitals, roads and bridges, etc.

Yugoslavia 1980–1991 In a country of 4.4 million inhabitants, it is estimated

250,000 (mostly Bosniaks) were killed and more than 240,000 injured, including 50,000 children. More than 800,000 were externally displaced and are now living abroad as refugees, and more than one million people were internally displaced and are now living in BiH in places other than their home communities. Between 10,000 and 60,000 women, primarily Bosniaks, were subjected to rape and other atrocities difficult to understand and to recount.

EFP Program Description Integrative and Inclusive Approach Universal and Specific Aspects Peace as the Framework Culture of Peace and Culture of Healing Training of Teachers and Staff

Process and Results of the Pilot Phase Initial Training of the On-site Faculty Initial Skepticism Unconditional and Universal Acceptance Worldview and Attitude Change Pedagogical and Curriculum Reform Interethnic reconciliation

Initial Training of the On-site Faculty 24 individuals, 18 from BiH, 6 International

9 days, in Switzerland

Focus on Concepts of Worldview, Unity, and the Dynamics of Collective Maturation of Humanity

Initial Skepticism

How can we talk about peace among ourselves when we lost so much? How can we make peace when some people don’t want a united

country? How can we live peacefully with people who have been so brutal? Since the Marxist concept of dialectical materialism rests on unity, why

did Marxism fail? We did not do anything wrong. We were defending our rights and

protecting our people. During the war we were told that the other groups were subhuman and,

therefore, any act against them was justified. Our children need a new type of education, and what we have received

so far have been either ineffective or short-lived and limited in their positive impact. How is EFP different?

Unconditional and Universal Acceptance “The results of this program have been very

positive…The children all over the world are in need of peace and security. On the occasion of the Summit devoted to the children, we recommend this program [EFP] to all the nations for consideration, as a model of society oriented towards peace, cooperation, and development.

From Open letter of the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Mission to the United Nations in New York to the Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Children (8–10 May 2002)

Unconditional and Universal Acceptance

This is a unique project. It will teach how to create a violence-free environment, in homes and schools and in the country as a whole.

Ambassador Dr. Matei Hoffmann, The Senior Deputy High Representative, 28 June 2000

This invaluable project was conceived in such a way that the soul-searching process of reflection which the

participants undergo as the project unfolds…triggers the desire amongst them to become authentic peace-

makers, and precisely provides them with the necessary tools to achieve this goal…

Claude Kieffer, Senior Education Advisor, Office of the High Representative

Worldview and Attitude Change As a result of participating in the EFP project, my way of

teaching has changed, my relationships with students has changed, and my relationship with my family has changed…all for the better.

—Teacher, Mixed Secondary School, Travnik

This project has changed our vision and worldview. I feel that the vision of every teacher and students in this school has been in some way changed through this project.

—Bosnian Literature Teacher, 2nd Gymnasium, Sarajevo

Worldview and Attitude Change It is a hard project and it is something new in our school and our

whole country. We have to do better things in order to build peace. It is the most important thing in our lives. It is a good idea to bring concepts of peace into our lives and express it through our presentations. It should be a tradition in our school.

— 2nd Year Banja Luka Gymnasium student

Once, someone asked me how could you go to Banja Luka for this National Peace Event? Don’t you know what happened here and what they have done to our mothers and our children? I said…I think that these presentations that we created and shared with each other are one of the best ways to go about starting to make a change.

—3rd year student, 2nd Gymnasium, Sarajevo

Pedagogical and Curriculum Reform Before this project, things were imposed in our classes,

but with EFP we do it because we love it.— Student, Nova Bila Primary School

The EFP project has helped us look at our syllabus in a different way, from a different perspective, giving us a chance to enrich it with issues not dealt with so thoroughly before. Although it hasn’t always been easy, especially at the beginning, I think that we have become more confident in applying the principles of peace.

— English Teacher, Mixed Secondary School, Travnik

Pedagogical and Curriculum Reform Through the subject of biology, the pupils have realized

that unity in diversity is the product of various things coming together and that one thing can’t function without another one. In fact, nature can’t function without the unity of all the elements that creates the natural life.

—Biology Teacher, 3rd Primary School, Ilidza

With this project the difference is that we try to show what we learn through our actions, not just through books. It is very good.

— Student, Nova Bila Primary School

Pedagogical and Curriculum Reform This is a good project because it gives students an

opportunity to express themselves in a different way from what we have done and through creativity and the arts. They try to show us how a peaceful society can be. Through the presentations, they raised an understanding between students, teachers and parents.

—2nd Gymnasium Math Teacher, Sarajevo

Through EFP our school has become a new one. Before, everyday we just had “school,” but through this project we have been given a new way of learning through creative presentations.

—Student, Mixed Secondary School, Travnik

Interethnic reconciliation

If we were to summarize the most important achievement of the project during its first two years, it is that this ethnically diverse group of students and teachers began a process of meaningful and sustained reconciliation and friendship. During this period the level of interethnic comfort increased dramatically. For the first time since the recent war, both adults and children traveled to the cities of their former combatants. Many started a process of regular contact and communication through email, telephone, and personal visits; and a new sense of mutual trust and acceptance pervaded the whole EFP community.

Varieties of EFP Programs and Their Relevance to Other Communities

EFP-Intensive: Creating Cultures of Healing and Peace

EFP-World: Web-based Education for Peace Program

Violence-Free Schools EFP-Leadership Youth Peace-Builders Network