Professor Sarah Anderson and Dr Yulia Nesterova have published an article in Prospects titled, "Visions of peace: Exploring how Scottish youth understand and define peace." Prospects is a leading journal providing comparative and international perspectives on current issues in curriculum, learning, and assessment edited by the International Bureau of Education, a UNESCO Institute and global centre of excellence in curriculum and related matters. The article reported a study which explored how young people in Scotland understand and define peace. The study drew on Critical Peace Education as an overarching framework to approach data collection and on the Peace Education Curricular Analysis framework to examine the presence of positive peace elements in youth drawings/paintings. Previous research in different contexts suggests that youth find it difficult to conceptualize peace, whereas it appears to be easy to explain war and negative peace (i.e., absence of war). Previous research conducted in Scotland showed that the curriculum focused on the element of wellbeing, with many other positive peace elements being either absent or not well represented. By contrast, youth in the current study showed a strong understanding of positive peace, with a particular emphasis on the following facets: peace zone, eco mind, wellbeing, peace bond, and social justice.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11125-024-09700-0

First published: 25 September 2024

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