Schooling for violence and peace: How does peace education differ from ‘normal ’schooling?
Harber, C., & Sakade, N. (2009). Journal of Peace Education, 6(2), 171-187.
In this article, the authors engage with the concept of peace education. To introduce the importance of encouraging peace education in schools, the authors highlight the roles that schools can play in sustaining overt forms of violence, manifesting itself in a number of ways such as sexual violence, bullying and racial/ ethnical prejudice. In this context, the authors call for more peace education in schools all over the world because it can enable children, youths and adults to prevent conflict and violence, both overt and structural; to resolve conflict peacefully; and to create the conditions conducive to peace, whether at an intra-personal, interpersonal, inter-group, national or international level. In the context of the classroom, the authors also give precise advice on dealing with the conflicts of pupils. They suggest that teaching staff should ask pupils for their observations on any conflict that arises, enabling them to think critically about conflicts and reflecting on them instead of punishing them directly.
This library entry challenges expands ideas of peace education. It not only advocates for educational methods that teach pupils peace stories and narrative, but also aims to create a peaceful teaching environment in school. On the one hand, this type of peace education can be viewed as an attempt to help pupils to achieve inner peace. On the other hand, it can offer us a reflection on the weakness and problem of traditional education. Other library entries such as ‘A Gender Perspective on Peace Education the Work for Peace’ can provide more reflection from the gender perspective on peace education. Entries such as ‘Reclaiming Peace in International Relations’ shows how other formats of peace education are used in educational institutions.