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Susan Fountain
(The Fourth R, Volume 93, November-December 2000, pp. 3-6
Published by CREnet, the Conflict Resolution Education Network, now a part of the Association for Conflict Resolution)
“The education of the child shall be directed to…the development of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms… the preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society, in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups…” (United Nations, 1989)
Those words are taken from article 29 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most widely ratified human rights treaty in the history of the world (only the United States and Somalia have yet to ratify it). It embodies the ideals of many of us who are involved in conflict resolution education. Significantly, it declares that this type of education is not a curricular add-on to be squeezed into an already over-crowded school day. Rather, it is a fundamental right for all children.
In the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), conflict resolution education is subsumed under the term “peace education”, a process of “promoting the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values needed to bring about behavior changes that will enable children, youth 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" (Fountain, 1999, p. 1). While this should be an essential component of quality education in all countries, there is a tendency in UNICEF for peace education projects to be initiated primarily in countries that are experiencing armed conflict.
What is the nature of peace education projects in these war-affected countries? What lessons can these projects teach other countries that are undergoing, recovering from, or attempting to prevent armed conflict? Three examples are presented below:
Croatia’s “Trauma Healing and Peaceful Problem Solving” project
In 1996, in co-operation with CARE, McMaster University, and the Croatian Ministry of Education, UNICEF developed a “Trauma Healing and Peaceful Problem Solving” project for primary schools in the heavily war-affected Western and Eastern Slavonia regions. The project’s aim is to facilitate multiethnic reconciliation through a series of interactive learning sessions on trauma healing, bias awareness, conflict resolution, and peaceful living. Since 1998, initiatives have been undertaken to ensure the program’s sustainability, including networking programme leaders, connecting schools through mutual supervision visits, and holding in-service workshops for teachers. The project’s manual for teachers, Za Damire I Nemire, has been periodically revised based on comments and suggestions from participating teachers.
The project is implemented in a 20-week series of extra-curricular sessions. Six sessions on affirmation, communication, and co-operation focus on building self-esteem, active listening, skills for collaborative group work, and understanding conflict resolution and human rights. Five sessions on trauma healing help children work through feelings of loss and grief, anger and rage about their war experiences. Three sessions on bias-awareness use group work and art exercises to enable children to explore ethnic similarities and differences, and build their understanding of the impact of prejudice. Four sessions on conflict resolution help children understand the nature of conflict, its roots, and alternative ways to respond to conflict. Two final sessions on peaceful living help children explore ways to make peace in their daily lives.
The impact of the project on children was evaluated after its first year using a pre- and post-test design with experimental and control groups (UNICEF Croatia, 1997). Evaluators found that the program significantly decreased post-traumatic stress among children who participated. Improved self-esteem in female students was also noted. Participants reported an improved psychosocial environment in the classrooms involved in the program. Participants also expressed reduced negative attitudes towards Serbs, a significant finding given the short duration of the program.
The Trauma Healing and Peaceful Problem Solving Project is only one of several projects relating to conflict resolution education in Croatia. Recognizing that healing for war-affected children takes place in many different contexts, UNICEF Croatia has also supported a school-based “Youth for Youth Peer Mediation” project. As public libraries have traditionally served as community centers and gathering places in Croatian society, a project was developed to train librarians on educating for a culture of peace and tolerance, and on how to work with parents on these issues. And the University of Zagreb has developed an “Education for Development” concentration for pre-service teachers, to help them integrate communication, cooperation, conflict resolution and children’s rights issues into the existing curriculum.
Burundi’s “Let’s Build Peace” project
In response to the social effects of the 1993 interethnic killings, UNICEF and the Burundi Ministry of Basic Education and Adult Literacy launched a peace education program in 1994. The project, called “Let’s Build Peace,” has incorporated peace education into the national curriculum (UNICEF Burundi, 1999). Initially, the project supplied teachers of grades 5 and 6 with a teacher’s manual, Gira Amahoro. The manual contains 35 activity sessions that explore themes such as solidarity, dialogue, mutual respect, commitment to justice, equity, cooperation, and rights and duties. Coverage has now been extended to grades 3 and 4 of primary school, student books have been developed, and existing primary school manuals have been revised to incorporate peace education concepts. Since 1999, a pilot project for 25 schools has placed an emphasis on the development of peace-building “school-to-school” projects. In this approach, children from two different schools are paired, and work together to decide on a project that will benefit their community, such as repairing a health center or creating a playground. They learn skills of consensus building, cooperation and problem-solving not through teacher-directed lessons, but through the practical experience of working together on a project that will benefit all.
Peace education in Burundi has faced formidable challenges. Due to the on-going civil conflict, the provision of the most basic educational services has been jeopardized. Since 1993, 20% of all primary schools have been destroyed, and many more have been damaged and looted. The provision of basic educational facilities and supplies is crucial to providing psychosocial support to children during times of crisis, as well as creating a context in which peace education can take place.
Armed conflict has affected the teaching staff as well. Since 1993, 25% of all primary school teachers in Burundi have either been killed or gone into exile. Regions seriously affected by violence do not attract qualified teachers; in these regions, teachers without qualifications have been recruited and are being trained in basic teaching skills. However, for untrained or under-trained teachers, learning the skills to facilitate the kinds of experiential learning commonly used in peace education may not be a priority during times of civil conflict.
A further challenge for peace education in Burundi is the fact that not all children attend primary school. During periods of widespread conflict in the 1990’s, only 43% of school-age children were attending school. While attendance rates are now rising, peace education efforts must reach those unreached by schools. Informal literacy centers, located in many communities, offer learning opportunities to children who cannot attend school on a regular basis. Teachers in these centers are being trained in integrating peace education into informal literacy classes.
To reach the many children and adults who cannot attend either schools or literacy centers, UNICEF engaged a local puppet theater group to develop a play entitled Alone, We’re Nothing. It presents the relationship of a cat and a dog who are initially good friends. But while dancing and playing together, the dog slips on some beans and accuses the cat of pushing him. When the two are called upon to protect a bag of beans, they realize that they need to help each other to succeed and the two reconcile. The play has been presented all over the country, in community centers, camps for the internally displaced, and on the streets. Performances are followed by facilitated discussions on the themes of peace and reconciliation.
Evaluation of the impact of these projects on children’s attitudes, skills and behaviors has been hampered by civil unrest and frequent displacement of populations, and the resultant erratic school attendance of children. However, UNICEF Burundi continues to believe that popular means of communication such as street theater, combined with school- and center-based peace education projects, can over time build a broad social consensus around the need for non-violent conflict resolution.
Colombia’s “Children’s Movement for Peace”
The Children’s Movement for Peace in Colombia is stretching the definition of what it means to “educate” for peace. It is not a school-based project, but a social mobilization effort that is bringing together activist youth and youth organizations to address the needs of children affected by civil conflict, raising awareness throughout society in the process.
The Children’s Movement for Peace was founded in 1996 with support from UNICEF Colombia and a national network for peace known as Redepaz. Its first act was to mobilize millions of children to vote in a national children’s election -- known as the Children’s Mandate for Peace and Rights. Children aged 7 to 18 voted on which of their human rights were most important. The children overwhelmingly voted for the rights to life and to peace. The vote galvanized the adult Colombian public, helping to transform a previously fragmented peace movement into a political force, and inspiring new ways of responding to the needs of children living in situations of violence (Cameron, 1998).
The projects sponsored by the Children’s Movement for Peace are as varied as the children who participate in them. In one town, children organized “peace carnivals” for poor and displaced children, because they thought that finding ways for children to have fun was a way of promoting peace. In two towns that had a long history of feuding with each other, young people organized play sessions in which children from both towns could come together and interact in new ways. Hundreds of teenagers received training as counselors for children displaced by violence, in what they call the “Return to Happiness” project. The youth work with younger children on trauma healing in a region where adult counselors are reluctant to go, because of the danger of violence.
Youth members of the project also researched Colombia’s constitution and found that they had a constitutional right to form a local “government of children”. Such governments have sprung up in towns and villages around the country, with children electing their own mayors and running their own town meetings. Together they are pushing forward an agenda on children’s rights to health, education, justice, freedom from discrimination, equality, participation, freedom of expression and peace. The children’s governments and town meetings have drawn national attention to the fact that making peace in Colombia must be tied to the fulfillment of children’s rights.
Project reports point to the development of self-esteem and assertiveness, heightened awareness of rights issues, increased abilities to plan projects, and improved decision-making skills among participating children. The experience of the Children’s Movement for Peace indicates that such changes are not dependent on the introduction of a conflict resolution curriculum in school, but can be brought about through active participation in local issues.
Implications for CRE in war-affected countries
What generalizations about conflict resolution education in war-affected countries can be drawn from these very different experiences? The three projects mentioned above, as well as UNICEF experiences with peace education in other countries, suggest a number of factors that could be taken into consideration in designing effective CRE programs in situations of armed conflict.
A broad view “education”: Conflict resolution education in countries at war should not be confined to school-based activities. It is necessary to understand the role of a range of civil society institutions -- such as non-governmental organizations, the media, youth groups and centers, and religious institutions – as potential “educators” for peace, and to enlist their support in advocating for non-violent approaches to conflict resolution.
Reaching the unreached: As in the case of Burundi, many children in war-affected countries are not in school, yet another reason to think beyond the schoolyard and involve the media, popular theater, NGO’s and others in designing conflict resolution education programs.
Linking conflict resolution and psychosocial healing: War-affected children may have experienced injury, displacement, torture and rape; they may have witnessed the torture, rape and killing of their family members or been forced to participate in such atrocities. Until these children have had the opportunity to process their emotions and experiences in culturally appropriate ways, conflict resolution education is unlikely to have much impact. Where psychosocial intervention and conflict resolution are combined, as they have been in Croatia, the opportunities for both healing and learning new forms of social interaction appear to expand.
Linking conflict resolution and social justice: Coupled with a focus on the inner emotional realities of children, conflict resolution education needs to look outward at the wider social context in which conflict is taking place. Many “imported” conflict resolution education programs are seen as irrelevant in war-affected countries because of their primary focus on social skills. Children in war-affected countries rarely experience armed conflict as resulting from a lack of interpersonal skills. Rather, conflict results from institutionalized racism or ethnocentrism, political disenfranchisement, poverty and economic injustice, or lack of sustainable development, to name a few causes. Conflict resolution programs must address these issues, as they are doing in Colombia and Burundi.
Opportunities to participate: The experience of youth in Colombia indicates that participation in concrete action is not only an effective way of learning skills relating to conflict resolution. It is also an antidote to the despair, frustration and anger that young people may feel as a result of the violence in their lives over which they have no control. Building opportunities for action into conflict resolution programs can increase their impact, and the commitment of youth.
Security issues: Around the world, young people in war-affected countries who speak out on behalf of peace, or take action in their communities, have been harassed, threatened with violence, and forced to flee their homes. They and their family members have been attacked and even killed. It is essential that local and national governments, and the international community, take immediate action to protect the safety and security of young people who choose to exercise their right to take part in peace-building processes.
Educating adults: Young people in war-affected countries, when asked about peace education, often respond that “peace should be taught to those who wage the wars, not to the innocent who suffer its consequences” (Sholkamy, 1992, p. 1). Young people are more likely to “buy in” to conflict resolution education if they see a commitment on the part of the adults in their lives – parents, teachers, religious and civic leaders, the police, the military, politicians – to put peaceful problem-solving into practice themselves.
Improving teacher education: Teachers in war-affected countries often have minimal educational backgrounds. Their training is unlikely to have included the teaching of social skills, the use of interactive learning methods, or how to debrief an experiential activity. Further, they may have never had the opportunity to reflect critically on their own values and practices relating to conflict resolution. Yet “teachers operating from stances that include prejudice and stereotyping cannot help children learn respect, social justice, and conflict resolution skills” (Pigozzi, 1999, p. 5). Effective teacher education must address both learning processes, and the values and practices of teachers themselves. As demonstrated in Croatia and Burundi, this must be an on-going and long-term process.
Increasingly, education in armed conflict is being seen by UNICEF and other humanitarian agencies as an opportunity for transforming educational systems (Pigozzi, 1999). Rather than simply re-instituting curricula and practices that fueled social and economic division prior to the outbreak of armed conflict, educational systems can be re-built in ways that promote increased economic and social justice, and skills for peaceful conflict resolution. This view was echoed at the September 2000 International Conference on War-Affected Children, where the international community declared that “Good quality education which enables children to think critically, solve problems, collaborate with others and respect diversity is the key to a future free of armed conflict.” (International Conference on War-Affected Children, 2000). Quality education that incorporates peace and conflict resolution education may be only one part of a more complex solution, but it nonetheless has a key role to play in alleviating the unacceptable suffering that war has inflicted on children.
References:
Cameron, S., 1998. Making peace with children: The power of child rights and participation against war in Colombia (unpublished article). Bogota: UNICEF Colombia.
Fountain, S., 1999. Peace Education in UNICEF (Working paper series: UNICEF/PD/ED/99-003). New York: UNICEF.
International Conference on War-Affected Children, 2000. Caught in the crossfire no more: A framework for commitment to war-affected children. Summary by the Chairs of the Experts’ Meeting, 13-15 September, 2000. Winnipeg, Canada: International Conference on War-Affected Children.
Pigozzi, M., 1999. Education in emergencies and for reconstruction: A developmental approach (Working paper series: UNICEF/PD/ED/99-1). New York: UNICEF.
Sholkamy, H., 1992. The prospects and problems for peace education in the MENA region (unpublished paper). Amman: UNICEF Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa.
UNICEF Burundi, 1999. Basic education for peace. Bujumbura: UNICEF Burundi.
UNICEF Croatia, 1997. School based health and peace initiative: Trauma healing and peaceful problem solving program for primary schools in Western and Eastern Slavonia: Evaluation report. Zagreb: Croatian Ministry of Education and Sports/UNICEF Croatia/CARE/ McMaster University.
United Nations, 1989. The Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Resources on conflict resolution education in international settings and war-affected countries:
Lederach, J. P., 1995. Preparing for Peace. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.
The author presents an elicitive model for conflict transformation in international settings, based on the values of using indigenous knowledge and the participation of local people as resources, rather than recipients.
Rothman, J., 1997. Resolving Identity-Based Conflict. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Based on Rothman’s work with groups in the Middle East, this book examines an alternative model for addressing identity-based conflicts that occur within and between groups.
Ting-Toomey, S., 1999. Communicating Across Cultures. Guilford Press.
The author describes selected dimensions of cultural variability, and effective conflict management skills for handling intercultural conflicts that arise from these differences.
International Conference on War-Affected Children
http://www.waraffectedchildren.gc.ca/
The official conference site contains background information and video clips on the issues affecting children in war zones.
Children’s Movement for Peace, Colombia
http://www.unicef.org/initiative/p-colombia.htm
http://www.latinolink.com/article.php3/000414pazc
These two links provide additional information on the Children’s Movement for Peace.
International Broadcasting Trust
http://www.oneworld.org/ibt/ibt_war_classroom.html
This site contains practical activities and classroom resources for teaching about children and war.
Voices of Youth
http://www.unicef.org/voy/
http://www.unicef.org/voy/meeting/war/warhome.html
This UNICEF site for young people contains a section with information on Children and War, as well as a discussion forum where young people from around the world can communicate their views on the issues.
Global Information Networks in Education (University of Pittsburgh)
http://www.ginie.org/
http://ginie.sched.pitt.edu/pr/index.html
The GINIE site focuses on projects that improve the quality of education worldwide. The Section on “Education for Peace and Reconciliation” includes project descriptions and materials from conflict resolution