Peace Education

What is Peace Education?

Promotion of peace and human rights education has been defined differently around the world. In many Western countries, it is about the challenge of ethnocentrism and the promotion of cultural diversity. In Northern Ireland, it is about education for mutual understanding between Catholics and Protestants. In African and Middle Eastern countries, it is about disarmament, anti-militarism, and the promotion of human rights and conflict resolution programs (Salomon, 2002).

Although peace education has been interpreted differently around the world and use a variety of activities to achieve its goal of dealing with relations between groups or individuals, almost all of these programs in polarized societies focus mainly on the interpersonal aspect of conflicts that aim to change behaviours, perceptions attitudes and feelings, while dealing with fostering certain social skills that include listening, mediation, and negotiation techniques (Salomon, 2002). An important aspect of peace and human rights education in societies affected by conflicts is in the context of promoting dialogue between ethno-national groups and individuals. In this regard, peace and human rights educators play significant roles in the creation and implementation of dialogue between people, particularly young people.

References

Salomon, G. (2002). The nature of peace education: Not all programs are created equal. In G. Salomon & B. Nevo (Eds.), Peace Education, The concept, Principles, and Practices Around the World. (pp. 2-14). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.