A Holistic View of Peace Education

Introduction -

   Views of peace have evolved since the end of World War n to include at least seven aspects, including six aspects of outer peace, as well as inner peace, which collectively lead towards a more holistic, integrative view of peace. Each aspect of peace will be summarised individually, then collectively, followed by implications of this more holistic view of peace for peace education.

The Earth Community School (ECS) Model of Secondary Education: Contributing to Sustainable Societies and Thriving Civilizations

Introduction -

       'Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.  Boldness has genius, power and magic in it' (Johann Goethe)

    Today, many in the education reform movement suggest that schools go 'Back to Basics' and that more emphasis be placed on the three R's: reading, writing, arithmetic. While fully supporting the idea of literacy programs, particularly those that are directed across the disciplines, I believe that the real basics or fundamentals in education deal with the goals of education which are the foundation of our curricula and school organisations.  In other words, ....

Theories of Learning and Development: Implications for Peace Education

Introduction -

    Without claiming completeness, the following developmental theories can be found in peace research: cognitive, developmental, social learning, and sociocultural developmental theories. Besides developmental theories, social psychological theories are also frequently used in peace research. An example of a frequently used theory from this field is the theory of human needs. In addition, moral development, which has roots in different theoretical perspectives, should be mentioned.  Theories which I left out, though can think of as interesting, are for example Erikson's psychosocial development theory, Taifel's social identity theory or attribution theories.

The Quest for International Understanding in United States Education, 1920-1930

Introduction -

    Educational reform usually occurs in contested terrain that is defined by cross-currents of social change. Early in the 20th century, the United States was emerging as a world power and its population was being enriched by waves of immigration. However, economic competition, ideological conflicts, intolerance, nationalism, racism and war continued to pose a threat to peaceful domestic and international relations. Most schools followed a traditional academic curriculum that focused on basic skills and knowledge about the past and neglected contemporary issues. Progressive educators, on the other hand, thought that schools
should do more to prepare students for life in the present and future. They maintained that the objective of education in a democracy was to produce citizens capable of critical thinking and problem resolution.  Such social reconstruction is a continuous process.  This paper ....

Challenges for Peace Educators at the Beginning of the 21st Century

Introduction -

   As the twenty-first century begins many people are looking to peace education to create a new more tolerant and less bloody world order based on mutual respect, nonviolence, justice, and environmental sustainability. Peace education informs about the dangers of violence and ways to achieve peace.  Peace educators provide information about peace strategies that address many different forms of violence.  Because there are so many different forms of violence, both international and domestic, peace education varies within differing cultures and contexts, e.g., personal, international, domestic, intercultural, civil, and environmental peace.

Good Training is Not Enough: Research on Peer Mediation Program Implementation

Introduction -

    What is peer mediation?

    Young students can learn to help each other resolve interpersonal conflicts in school. This paper reports research on one exemplary conflict resolution education program, the Elementary School Initiative of the Center for Conflict Resolution (CCR) in the Cleveland Municipal School District in Ohio, USA, 1997-99. The study examined peer mediation's role in (and effect on) the social environment in several inner-city elementary schools, and found that it had positive effects.

Studying Peace: Opportunities for Peace Studies at Two NSW Universities

Introduction -

    The Challenges of Peace Studies

    Many challenges exist for building more peaceful futures and for learning to transform conflicts non-violently. Many more opportunities deserve to exist for integrated, cross-disciplinary studies of violence and alternatives to violence at the tertiary and pre-tertiary levels. We have just emerged from a century in which an estimated 100 million people have died in wars and many others have suffered from the destructive effects of institutionalised forms of racist, gendered and ecological violence.  Thankfully the end of the Cold War has meant the lessening of some major risks but others remain and, in some cases, have intensified.  Over the past decade more than 2 million children have been killed and more than 6 million injured and disabled in armed conflicts.  With the proliferation of light, relatively inexpensive small arms, the number of child soldiers is on the rise to fight adult wars.  World-wide ....

The Teachers' Movement Struggle for a Peace Model of Reunification Education in South Korea

Introduction -

   After reunification, the present young generation will have responsibility for our country.  But the government never educates them about unification so we have to educate them about this and what they should do after unification (President of the Korean Teachers and Educational Workers Union 1989-91, Yun Young-Gyu 1990).

    Reunification as an educational issue

    The summit meeting in July 2000, between the leaders of South and North Korea, respectively Kim Dae-Jung and Kim Jong-Il, heightened the long-held expectations for reunification of the nations of Norht and South Korea, established through the division of the previously unified nation at the end of World War II.  Since the summit, ....

Conflict Resolution at School: Building Compassionate Communities

Introduction -

    Peace education has greater goals than transmission of mainstream culture and institution-preserving compliant behaviours (Harris, 1988; Johnson and Johnson, 1999).  Learning to accept and understand differences is the foundation that peace educators foster for building stronger communities. Consequently, measuring the success of conflict resolution needs to account for how disputants are learning to build and maintain their communities through understanding and accommodation of differences within and beyond conflict mediation.

They Work in Mysterious Ways

Introduction -

    There s a lot of chuff around at the moment.  It's hard to keep saying no. You know, blokes are offering it to me for nothing.  It' easier to get heroin in here than to get a doctor's prescription for valium on the outside.  Other blokes have dirty urine all the time and they still get their parole.  I've got a bird in my cell -I talk to it - keeps me sane. The officers were worried about me and thought it might help - he s a great bird /Is really helped me stop using drugs too.

    The above comments have been made by prisoners from the same prison system, talking about contemporary events. Prisons certainly do, as another prisoner said, work in mysterious ways. One of the reasons for this inconsistency in the everyday life of the prison is that there is no clear philosophy or purpose of the prison. Is it to punish, to deter, to rehabilitate, to make the community feel safe? It is not possible to achieve all of these objectives in one prison system, and there is no clear philosophy guiding our prison system, which causes contradictions and complexities that are not always resolved. One of the major problems facing our prison system is that of drugs and their effect on prisoners' health.

Character Above Colour: Fast Track to Assimilation?  Margaret Tucker M.B.E. and the Politics of Assimilation

Introduction -

        Over the past five years I have been researching the autobiographies written by Aboriginal women where the story of removal has been a constant theme. Children were taken from their families and the horrendous effects of those acts permeate the autobiographical writings. These autobiographies have been a rich source of personal, social and racial history and testify to an Aboriginal survival and renaissance towards self-determination and racial pride. In examining these autobiographies I traced a burgeoning aggression that reflected an emerging Aboriginal identity. This identity fractured the contradictory existence of recorded detail amassed by the State about the lives of Aboriginal people and allowed the authors to tell their own stories.