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Contributions from
the Column
InWEnt News
HIV/AIDS – more than a health problem
Appropriate means and long-term
programmes required
4/2003 |
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[ Peace education ]
Appropriate means and long-term
programmes required
Wars, armed conflicts, violence – in many countries they are as much a part of daily life as are discrimination and persecution. In this context, what prospects of success does peace education have? Sixty experts from 17 countries discussed this question at the InWEnt Education Centre Feldafing at the invitation of InWEnt’s Social Development Department and the Institute for Peace Education in Tübingen. They represented universities, research institutions, international organisations (such as UNHCR, UNICEF and UNESCO), government, non-governmental and church implementing organisations of development cooperation projects.
During the conference ‘Promote peace education around the world’ theoretical addresses and reports from the projects demonstrated the successes of peace education measures in the prevention of and follow-up to conflicts. Peace education, however, can also have a stabilising effect during violent conflicts, as pointed out by empirical research of the Center for Peace Education of Israel’s University of Haifa. It tested peace education encounter programmes as the starting point for future joint developments by Israelis and Palestinians.
Where peace education projects were implemented successfully, they were diverse, appropriate for the respective country and the types of conflict, and designed for the long term. That means among others including the promotion of community capacities in resolving conflicts by theatre work (Southern Africa), story-telling as a method of coming to terms with the collective past (Chile), and sensitising people to the dangers of small arms and mines
(Cambodia).
Peace education approaches come up against their limits where they meet with a lack of understanding or the resistance of the parties to conflicts. Also, the question of whether the approaches should highlight differences or common interests must be resolved according to each situation.
A participant from Chile presented a project for the South American country's primary school teachers titled ‘Break the culture of silence’. She herself had in the past taken part in a course which InWEnt has implemented since 1997 on behalf of the Chilean Education Ministry. The course introduces teachers to ‘Techniques of active education focused on conflict mediation’. The German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) presented a project aimed at improving the quality of primary school teacher training in Sri Lanka. By developing peace education concepts and integrating them in the curriculum, the GTZ – in cooperation with the country’s Ministry for Staff Development, Education and Cultural Affairs – aims to make an input to securing lasting peace in Sri Lanka.
The participants split into working groups to deal with central concepts of peace education: sport and prevention of violence, coming to terms with the past, teaching tolerance and conflict mediation at school. A paper developed at the conference on the fundamental principles of peace education is to be the basis for the development of a common understanding of it in the context of German development cooperation.
The workshop’s weblink is:
www.peace-education.net
Nicola Pape
is project leader in the InWEnt Education Division
and responsible for Teaching Quality and Peace Education.
nicola.pape@inwent.org
Uli Jäger
is General Manager of the Institute for Peace Education in Tübingen.
u.jaeger@global-lernen.de
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