Education for Peace The Pedagogy of Civilization

Prof. Dr. H.B. Danesh Director and Founder International Education for Peace Institute Switzerland www.efpinternational.org

Toward a New Philosophy of Peace Education

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Peace Education Curriculum Must Be Comprehensive

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Peace Education Requires Sustained, Restorative Approach

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Peace Education Must Be Transformative

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Peace Educations Requires a New Approach to Curriculum

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Peace Education Curriculum Must Be Integrative

Conceptual Foundations of the Education for Peace Program

The Integrative Theory of Peace

The Integrative Theory of Peace states that peace is a holistic and all-encompassing condition occurring within and between individuals, group and societies that is brought about through an educative, developmental shift in worldview consciousness, characterized by cognitive, emotive, and behavioral change, capable of meeting the fundamental tripartite human needs of survival, association, and transcendence.

Subtheories of the Integrative Theory of Peace

 Subtheory 1: Peace is a psychosocial and political as well as moral and spiritual condition requiring a conscious approach, a universal outlook, and an integrated, unifying strategy;

Subtheories of the Integrative Theory of Peace

 Subtheory 2: A comprehensive, integrated, and lifelong education is the most effective approach for a transformation from the metacategories of survival-based and identity-based worldviews to the metacategory of a unity-based worldview;

Subtheories of the Integrative Theory of Peace

 Subtheory 3: Development of such a comprehensive condition of peace requires a cognitive, emotive, and behavioral change within the parameters of a unity-based worldview; and

Subtheories of the Integrative Theory of Peace

 Subtheory 4: Only a dynamic, progressive, conscious, and all inclusive state of peace resulting from a unity based worldview is capable of meeting the fundamental and hierarchical tripartite human needs—survival, association, transcendence— which shape all human endeavors and life processes at both individual and collective levels.

Education for Peace Curriculum

 Comprehensive

biological, psychological, social, historical, ethical, and spiritual

 Integrative

biological, psychological, social, historical, ethical, and spiritual

 All-inclusive

students, teachers, administrators, the support staff, and parents The culture of peace allows no exclusion.

 Universal

Oneness of Humanity, Unity in Diversity, Conflict-Free Conflict Resolution

 Specific

Safeguarding and celebrating the rich diversity of the worldwide human community

The Concept of Worldview

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our view of reality,

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our understanding of human nature,

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our perspective on the purpose of life,

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our approach to all human relationships.

Types of Worldview

 Survival-Based Worldview  Identity-Based Worldview  Unity-Based Worldview

Survival-Based Worldview

 normal during childhood,  corresponds to the agrarian and pre-industrial periods of societal development  develops under conditions of poverty, injustice, anarchy, physical threat, and war  proclivity to use force and/or conformity  authoritarian modes of governance

Identity-Based Worldview

 corresponds to the gradual coming of age of both the individual and the society  intensity of thoughts, passions, attitudes, actions  extremes of competition and rivalry  adversarial democracy modes of governance  competitive power structure  survival of the fittest

Unity-Based Worldview

 phase of maturity based on the consciousness of the oneness of humanity  ultimate objective to creation a civilization of peace: equal, just, liberal, moral, diverse, united  equal participation of women with men in the administration of human society  rejects all forms of prejudice and segregation  unity-based democracy

Abuse of Worldview

positive aspects of human culture such as religion, science, modes of government, technology, family structure, and business practices are all subject to abuse and misuse within both the survival-based and identity-based worldviews.

process of unity is accelerating:

 world-wide economic and financial integration  nations uniting: UN, EU, AU  environmental issues  health crises HIV/AIDS,SARS, etc.

 information technology has obliterated national boundaries  transportation systems have reduced distances and brought people together

In Brief

Everything points to the fact that humanity is one and that all countries are inseparable parts of one planet

Education for Peace Experiment in Bosnia and Herzegovina

 September 1999: CFCR workshop invitation  May 2002: Grant by Government of Luxembourg  May 2002: 2-year pilot project starts: - Six schools, 3 primary, 3 secondary - 6000 students, 400 teachers, 10,000 parents - Banja Luka, Sarajevo, Travnik (2 each) - Serb, Bosniak, and Croat populations

Faculty for BiH-EFP Project

 Senior Faculty comprised of experts in: education, psychiatry, psychology, law, political science, conflict resolution, sociology, peace, development  On-site Faculty comprised of: 18 teachers from the six participation schools & 6 individuals with specialization training in EFP

Yugoslavia 1980–1991

 After the death of Tito, doctrine of Serb nationalism promoted by Slobodan Milosevic became the dominant force in the former Yugoslavia and ultimately resulted in the eruption of a long and barbaric war.  In BiH, the barbaric war involved 12,000 war casualties in Sarajevo alone, the massacre of 6,000 men and boys of Srebrenica, The rape of thousands of Bosniak women, and the destruction of a significant portion of homes and public buildings including schools, hospitals, roads and bridges, etc.

Yugoslavia 1980–1991

 In a country of 4.4 million inhabitants, it is estimated 250,000 (mostly Bosniaks) were killed and more than 240,000 injured, including 50,000 children. More than 800,000 were externally displaced and are now living abroad as refugees, and more than one million people were internally displaced and are now living in BiH in places other than their home communities. Between 10,000 and 60,000 women, primarily Bosniaks, were subjected to rape and other atrocities difficult to understand and to recount.

EFP Program Description

 Integrative and Inclusive Approach  Universal and Specific Aspects  Peace as the Framework  Culture of Peace and Culture of Healing  Training of Teachers and Staff

Process and Results of the Pilot Phase

 Initial Training of the On-site Faculty  Initial Skepticism  Unconditional and Universal Acceptance  Worldview and Attitude Change  Pedagogical and Curriculum Reform  Interethnic reconciliation

Initial Training of the On-site Faculty

 24 individuals, 18 from BiH, 6 International  9 days, in Switzerland  Focus on Concepts of Worldview, Unity, and the Dynamics of Collective Maturation of Humanity

Initial Skepticism

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How can we talk about peace among ourselves when we lost so much?

How can we make peace when some people don’t want a united country?

How can we live peacefully with people who have been so brutal?

Since the Marxist concept of dialectical materialism rests on unity, why did Marxism fail?

We did not do anything wrong. We were defending our rights and protecting our people.

During the war we were told that the other groups were subhuman and, therefore, any act against them was justified.

Our children need a new type of education, and what we have received so far have been either ineffective or short-lived and limited in their positive impact. How is EFP different?

Unconditional and Universal Acceptance

 “The results of this program have been very positive…The children all over the world are in need of peace and security. On the occasion of the Summit devoted to the children, we recommend this program [EFP] to all the nations for consideration, as a model of society oriented towards peace, cooperation, and development.

From Open letter of the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Mission to the United Nations in New York to the Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Children (8–10 May 2002)

Unconditional and Universal Acceptance

This is a unique project. It will teach how to create a violence-free environment, in homes and schools and in the country as a whole.

Ambassador Dr. Matei Hoffmann, The Senior Deputy High Representative, 28 June 2000 This invaluable project was conceived in such a way that the soul-searching process of reflection which the participants undergo as the project unfolds…triggers the desire amongst them to become authentic peace makers, and precisely provides them with the necessary tools to achieve this goal… Claude Kieffer, Senior Education Advisor, Office of the High Representative

Worldview and Attitude Change

As a result of participating in the EFP project, my way of teaching has changed, my relationships with students has changed, and my relationship with my family has changed…all for the better.

—Teacher, Mixed Secondary School, Travnik This project has changed our vision and worldview. I feel that the vision of every teacher and students in this school has been in some way changed through this project.

—Bosnian Literature Teacher, 2 nd Gymnasium, Sarajevo

Worldview and Attitude Change

It is a hard project and it is something new in our school and our whole country. We have to do better things in order to build peace. It is the most important thing in our lives. It is a good idea to bring concepts of peace into our lives and express it through our presentations. It should be a tradition in our school.

— 2 nd Year Banja Luka Gymnasium student Once, someone asked me how could you go to Banja Luka for this National Peace Event? Don’t you know what happened here and what they have done to our mothers and our children? I said…I think that these presentations that we created and shared with each other are one of the best ways to go about starting to make a change.

—3 rd year student, 2 nd Gymnasium, Sarajevo

Pedagogical and Curriculum Reform

Before this project, things were imposed in our classes, but with EFP we do it because we love it.

— Student, Nova Bila Primary School The EFP project has helped us look at our syllabus in a different way, from a different perspective, giving us a chance to enrich it with issues not dealt with so thoroughly before. Although it hasn’t always been easy, especially at the beginning, I think that we have become more confident in applying the principles of peace.

— English Teacher, Mixed Secondary School, Travnik

Pedagogical and Curriculum Reform

Through the subject of biology, the pupils have realized that unity in diversity is the product of various things coming together and that one thing can’t function without another one. In fact, nature can’t function without the unity of all the elements that creates the natural life.

—Biology Teacher, 3 rd Primary School, Ilidza With this project the difference is that we try to show what we learn through our actions, not just through books. It is very good.

— Student, Nova Bila Primary School

Pedagogical and Curriculum Reform

This is a good project because it gives students an opportunity to express themselves in a different way from what we have done and through creativity and the arts. They try to show us how a peaceful society can be.

Through the presentations, they raised an understanding between students, teachers and parents.

—2 nd Gymnasium Math Teacher, Sarajevo Through EFP our school has become a new one. Before, everyday we just had “school,” but through this project we have been given a new way of learning through creative presentations.

—Student, Mixed Secondary School, Travnik

Interethnic reconciliation

If we were to summarize the most important achievement of the project during its first two years, it is that this ethnically diverse group of students and teachers began a process of meaningful and sustained reconciliation and friendship. During this period the level of interethnic comfort increased dramatically. For the first time since the recent war, both adults and children traveled to the cities of their former combatants. Many started a process of regular contact and communication through email, telephone, and personal visits; and a new sense of mutual trust and acceptance pervaded the whole EFP community.

Varieties of EFP Programs and Their Relevance to Other Communities

 EFP-Intensive: Creating Cultures of Healing and Peace  EFP-World: Web-based Education for Peace Program  Violence-Free Schools  EFP-Leadership  Youth Peace-Builders Network