Peace Education

A Transformative Response to Major Societal Challenges

PEACE EDUCATION:

Define the concept of peace in a holistic way;

Explain the contribution or importance of peace education in the quest for positive social changes or transformation;

Identify and explain the key themes of peace education;

Describe the attributes of a peaceful classroom and teacher; and

Discuss some of the most important peaceable teaching-learning approaches used in peace education

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

The greatest resource for building a culture of peace are the people themselves, for it is through them that peaceful relationships and structure are created.

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

Peace building refers generally to the long-term period of building peaceful communities, a desirable goal.

INTRODUCTION

The Philippines and the whole world as well have many problems that arise from many forms of violence. An education that responds to these challenges should be encouraged and supported.

Our young people in particular need new perspectives, skills and value orientations that will enable them to build relationships and structures that lead to positive change and human well-being.

INTRODUCTION

A culture of peace must replace the current culture of violence if we and our common home, planet Earth, are to survive.

INTRODUCTION

Our ideas shape our feelings and our actions, as well as how we live, and how we relate to each other.

A HOLISTIC UNDERSTANDING OF PEACE


He has argued for a change in thinking, about both concepts and values, as a necessary first step to solve our many problems today (Capra, 1982).

Fritjof Capra (1982)


Hugo Grotius (1695)

Early secular writings on the subject of peace indicate that peace was defined as merely the absence of war or direct violence. (Dobrosielski, 1987).


The simplest and most widespread understanding of peace was that of absence of death and destruction as a result of war and physical/direct violence.

Late 1960s

e.g. Ways in which people suffer from violence built into society via its social, political and economic systems (Hicks, 1987).


INDIRECTor

STRUCTURAL VIOLENCE

DIRECT

Structural violence also led to death and suffering because of the conditions that resulted from it: extreme poverty, starvation, avoidable diseases, discrimination against minority groups and denial of human rights.



Peace is the absence of violence, not only personal or direct, but also structural or indirect.

Peace is both the absence of personal/direct violence, and the presence of social justice.

Johan Galtung (1995)

DEFINING PEACE

PEACE

POSITIVE PEACE

SOCIO-CULTURAL VIOLENCE

STRUCTURAL

VIOLENCE

NEGATIVE PEACE

ECOLOGICAL VIOLENCE

VIOLENCE

DIRECT VIOLENCE

Absence of direct/ physical violence (both micro and macro)

e.g. war, torture child and woman abuse

Presence of conditions of well-being and just relationships: social, economic, political and ecological

e.g. poverty, hunger

e.g. racism, sexism, religious intolerance

e.g. pollution, overconsumption

LEVELS OF PEACE

Harmony w/ the self

Harmony w/ Others

Harmony w/ the Sacred Source

Harmony w/ Nature

A peace educator who has made significant contributions to the field, defines violence as “humanly inflicted harm”

TYPES OF VIOLENCE

Betty Reardon

A TYPOLOGY OF VIOLENCE(ADAPTED FROM THE CONCEPTUAL MAP FORMULATED

BYTOH SWEE-HIN AND VIRGINIA CAWAGAS)

Level/ Form of violence

Personal Interpersonal/ community

National Global

Direct/Physical Suicide, drug abuse

Domestic violence, violent crimes

Civil war, violent crimes, human rights abuses

Conventional war, nuclear war, human rights abuses

Structural Powerlessness, alienation, low self-esteem, anxiety

Local inequalities, poverty, hunger, prejudice, cultural domination, racism, sexism, religious intolerance

National inequalities, poverty, hunger, prejudice, cultural domination, racism, sexism, religious intolerance

Global inequalities, poverty, hunger, prejudice, cultural domination, racism, sexism, religious intolerance

Ecological Over-consumption

Over-consumption, pollution

Over-consumption, pollution, chemical and biological warfare

Over-consumption, pollution, chemical and biological warfare

Level/ Form of violence

Personal Interpersonal/ community

National Global

A TYPOLOGY OF VIOLENCE(ADAPTED FROM THE CONCEPTUAL MAP FORMULATED

BYTOH SWEE-HIN AND VIRGINIA CAWAGAS)