What is Peace Education?

Peace Education in its modern forms emerged in the last century as an attempt to deal with humanity's most pressing problems. The following statement by Albert Einstein is insightful in explaining many peoples initial desire to teach peace: “The splitting of the atom has changed everything, save our way of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.” Sitting Bull a Native American chief was well know for his saying, "Now we put our minds together to see what kind of world we can create for the seventh generation yet unborn." This sentiment encapsulates well the foundations of meaning which underlies the ethics of peace education.

Peace education strives to empower future generations through “the capacity and inclination to make peace, to bring about a nonviolent and just social order on this planet” with the understanding that the manifestation of these changes “would be the primary indicator of a maturing of our species.”

There has been an upsurge of interest globally in peace education. For those who have recently become interested in this field you will find a vast array of resources to draw on-both in the forms of printed literature and on the web. The categories suggested below are a rough way of mapping this huge field, they act more like signposts that point us in the right direction, they can provide useful starting points from which to engage in your research.

Given the current possibilities for creating expanding communication networks, the pathways for pursuing dynamic points of engagement around the theme of peace education are promising. What could be produced from such encounters is far more than the sharing of information, knowledge and skills as the synergy generated from such encounters would almost certainly create new forms of collective knowledge.

Peace History:

Most of us remember learning history as if the human story were one long series of wars and conquests. Peace history on the other hand, tells the story of peacemakers and the movements of which they were a part. This is an inspiring history of courageous struggle, a history in which people are not powerless, and in which individuals and social movements contribute to change at local and international levels through non-violent processes. By learning about past successes in peace-making, we can build on lessons already learned.

Peace history is rooted firmly in the understanding that, “Our view of history shapes the way we view the present, and therefore it dictates what answers we offer for existing problems.” Therefore, “Schools that teach a history based upon military conquest are not providing students with sophisticated knowledge of peace keeping, peace making, and peace building strategies.” If “History is a story about the past that is significant and true" then “the lives of individuals who have contributed to world peace should find outlet through the various educational subjects.”

Peace history tells the story of peace makers and how their lives came to effect people so deeply. It traces the growth of awareness leading to the building of international infrastructures for peace. It also looks at the impressive growth of international grassroots peace networks developing novel forms of communication and innovative forms of action over the last one hundred years. Long gone are the days when Gandhi, Tolstoy and Montessori communicated by post and had to arrange meetings years in advance as now, conferences abound and cyber forums greatly expand the possibilities in this arena.

Peace history can offer a powerful voice for balancing national historical narratives with far more diverse and international perspectives. This in itself can have a potential peacebuilding function as nationalized historical accounts, especially of wars, often lead to ongoing animosity in the international arena. Attempts by historians to reach out across national divides and search for some shared history is a difficult and worthwhile task that may serve to be very helpful in building bridges of friendship between societies.