By Dilara Özel Sen and Ayşegül Yurtsever.

Teachers may be suspicious about peace education, and parents may ask many questions about its objectives. In essence, peace education involves obtaining skills, attitudes, and behaviours in accordance with the values of trust, non-violence, respect, and impartiality, not just towards human beings but also every living creature in the world. We would like to provide an overview of this concept and its importance in education.

What is Peace Education?

The word peace has various definitions. Some believe that peace is the absence of war. Some believe that peace came from the Latin word pax means the notion of order. Some assert that the word peace is embodied with the Sanskrit word shanti meaning tranquillity (Richards, Hodgkinson & Jackson, 1987). Some believe that it derived from the French word pais meaning reconciliation and silence (Ojha, 2018). Under these disagreements over the definition of peace as a basic value and assumption, peace education gives birth to even more questions and controversies (Harris & Morrison, 2003; Reardon, 2001).

Peace education has never been a greater necessity than today. Peace education, which includes empathy, conflict resolution, and communication skills, became a necessary toolbox for the 21st century. The terms peace education, peace research, and peace studies are used interchangeably. Since the countries started to have more diverse populations, peace education gained a key position in education settings.

The importance of peace education

As of 2024, approximately 122.6 million people are forcibly displaced worldwide, with children under 18 making up around 40% of this population, equating to roughly 49 million displaced children (UNHCR, 2024). Currently, estimates suggest there are between 70 and 110 active armed conflicts globally (International Crisis Group, 2024). The increasing number of people immigrating and starting lives in other countries brings the adaptation process of refugee students into new countries.

Schools are the places where children learn the culture, values, and customs of the society besides reading and writing. Thus, students might become the key figure in the family who can teach the societal rules and language to their families. Students should be integrated with the school and society as a result of the effective adaptation process. They can create solidarity, responsibility, and equality inside the school for each student.

Peace education has an important role in increasing awareness and creating a democratic learning environment for students, paving the way for more democratic societies. International NGOs, such as UNESCO and UNICEF, use peace education programs in different countries. UNESCO started five Culture of Peace projects in various countries, including Russia, Cambodia, and the Dominican Republic. UNICEF also developed country-based peace education programs and provided applications to schools with teachers, school administrators, and students (Sommers, 2001). These programs were effective to build peace-building skills inside the communities through schools.

Adapting peace education to schools and communities

Core values, such as social justice and human rights, are the heart of peace education. Materials, curriculum, and teacher training should be developed and implemented by educational institutions to help students develop peace-building and conflict resolution skills. The students should form and maintain peace in school settings to create a more harmonious and inclusive school environment. Every school component, including teachers, students, parents, and school administrators, should reflect upon their own acts, values, and judgments to develop critical thinking skills (York, Barr & Duke, 2004). Since the culture and environment of a school are unique, peace education components should be adapted and used, considering the school's values, culture, and environment (Kelder et al., 1996). Such peace education components are also dynamic and active, so through critical analysis, teachers and students should evaluate whether the change in peace education encounters difficulties or interference in the process. They should be conscious of the pertinence of the education plans to the culture through cultural awareness. (Zembylas & Bekerman, 2013).

Peace education values should be a part of every curriculum and become the immediate goal of education. One meaningful way is for school counsellors to create framework programs for their schools, including empathy, conflict resolution, critical thinking, and communication skills. They can teach these skills to teachers to help to enlarge the basic skills of peace education to society via students. Furthermore, studies show that peace education effectively reduces aggression and prevents violence in a classroom (Akgun & Araz, 2014; Diken, Cavkaytar, Batu, Bozkurt, & Kurtilmaz, 2011; Sagkal, Turnuklu & Totan, 2016). If these issues are not the focus of education through the implementation of peace, a sense of isolation and anxiety may emerge among the students about local and global issues (Hicks, 2004). Practices and development help to lead to peaceful schools in a peaceful community. There is no doubt that teachers are the milestones of society. Thus, they should learn more about managing the classrooms in a more peaceful way with basic peace education skills to be a role model for their students.

There are many ways to develop and maintain peace at school. We hope we have awakened your interest and would like to leave you with these resources in the hope that they will help further your understanding of this topic.

REFERENCES

Books

Hantzopoulos, M., & Bajaj, M. (2021). Educating for Peace and Human Rights: An Introduction (Annotated ed.). Bloomsbury Academic.

Harris, I. M., & Morrison, M. L. (2012). Peace Education, 3d. ed. (3 Revised ed.). McFarland & Company.

Salomon, G., & Nevo, B. (2005). Peace Education: The Concept, Principles, and Practices Around the World (1st ed.). Psychology Press

Podcast

Pedagogies for Peace: https://kroc.nd.edu/research/intersectionality/pedagogies-for-peace-podcast/ 

Articles

Akgun, S. & Araz, A. (2014). The effects of conflict resolution education on conflict resolution skills, social competence, and aggression in Turkish elementary school students. Journal of Peace Education, 11(1), 30-45. doi: 10.1080/17400201.2013.777898

Diken, I. H., Cavkaytar, A., Batu, E. S., Bozkurt, F., & Kurtilmaz, Y. (2011). Effectiveness of the Turkish version of “First Step to Success Program” in preventing antisocial behaviors. Education and Science, 36(161), 145-158.

Harris, I. M. & Morrison, M. L. (2003). Peace education. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Company, Inc., Publishers.

Hicks, D. (2004). Teaching for tomorrow: How can futures studies contribute to peace education? Journal of Peace Education, 1(2), 165-178. doi:10.1080/1740020042000253721

Kelder, S.H., P. Orpinas, A. McAlister, R. Frankowski, G.S. Parcel, & J. Friday. (1996). The students for peace project: A comprehensive violence-prevention program for middle school students. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 12(5), 22–30. doi:10.1016/S0749- 3797(18)30233-2.

Ojha, E. (2018). The necessities of peace education in the era of 21st century: A descriptive study. International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology, 3(8), 376-379. Retrieved from: https://ijisrt.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/The-Necessities-of-Peace-Education-in-the-Era-of-21st-Century-A-Descriptive-Study.pdf

Reardon, B. (2001). Education for a culture of peace in gender perspective. Paris, France: United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization

Richards, E., Hodgkinson, C. & Jackson, J. J. (1987). Peace education in the schools. McGill Journal of Education, 22(3).

Sagkal, A. S., Turnuklu, A., & Totan, T. (2016). Peace education’s effects on aggression: A mixed method study. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, 64, 45-68, http://dx.doi.org/10.14689/ejer.2016.64.3

Sommers, M. (2001). Peace Education and Refugee Youth. Geneva: UNHCR. Retrieved from: https://www.unhcr.org/3b8a1bd84.pdf

York-Barr, J., & Duke, K. (2004). What do we know about teacher leadership? Findings from two decades of scholarship. Review of Educational Research, 74(3), 255–316, doi:10.3102/ 00346543074003255.

Zembylas, M. & Bekerman, Z. (2013). Peace education in the present: dismantling and reconstructing some fundamental theoretical premises. Journal of Peace Education, 10(2), 197-214, doi: 10.1080/17400201.2013.790253

First published: 7 January 2025

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